Intel Core i7-970 Processor 3.20 GHz 12 MB Cache Socket LGA1366

The Intel Core i7 970... with Socket 1366 phasing out, lacking an unlocked multiplier, AMD's Bulldozer now here and Ivy Bridge around the corner, one wonders the logic behind buying this processor at this stage of the CPU game?There are several factors where this processor makes A LOT of sense for me. It may make a lot of sense for you too:- I have a high end Socket 1366 motherboard and didn't want to invest in a new socket.- I didn't want to downgrade to dual channel memory when I have a great set of triple channel DDR3 (I do understand that the real world performance difference between dual and triple channel is minimal)- I can still get a good amount of money for my old i7 920 cpu, which is still relevant, 2.5 years later. Reselling my old CPU drives down the overall cost of this upgrade.- AMD's new Bulldozer CPUs aren't all that; for single threaded programs, old i7 920s still perform better than it, according to several benchmarks ran by reputable review sites.- I run a lot of multithreaded applications, including video editing. Delicious hexacore + hyperthreading.- I do a bit of gaming, but cool, reliable and stable high speed processing is more appealing than maximum CPU overclocking.- Even with a locked multiplier, individuals are getting amazing overclocks on this, even with the stock cooler.- There aren't really many games, if any at all, where an i7 970 is a bottleneck that a faster GPU can't resolve. To that note, there aren't many where even an i7 920 is a huge bottleneck.- The returns on processing power vs price are rapidly diminishing after i7 970. i7 980x and i7 990x are significantly more expensive, while not providing returns that justify the 2x higher price, stock vs stock and even overclock vs overclock.- Money saved with i7 970 instead of 980x or 990x is better invested in GPU- Same power usage as i7 920, while being 2x as fast- This will hold me over for another 2 years and will not hold back my high end gaming experienceI've had this CPU for a few months now and I am very impressed with it. Despite a lot of new processors out now and even newer processors on the horizon, I still feel this is a great buy for existing Socket 1366 owners. It is fast, reliable, and will serve me well for years. It also has one of the best stock coolers I have ever seen! The stock cooler, while slightly loud, cooled just as well as my giant Zalmann. It is the first stock cooler I felt I had no need to upgrade, aside from paste.The only people I couldn't recommend this processor to are those who DON'T already have a Socket 1366 system AND are just interested in gaming only. For those people, i7 2600k based systems are a better bet.Overall, a great product and a great buy.

In short, the i7 970 is the 980x's little brother...and it tries hard to emulate the 980x's traits.Where it does well is performance per watt; if your workload involves heavy usage of multi-threaded application, this processor is a god send.Compared to my i7 920 @ 4GHz, this processor was at minimum 40% faster in rendering, encoding, and compression tasks.In games I did not notice an appreciable gain.I was able to overclock this CPU to 4GHz and my temps peak around 78-84 degrees C using a Prolimatech Megahalems.The one flaw in the 970's emulation of the 980 is with regards to pricing; the 980x is $100 more, and having the unlocked multiplier makes that a better value.All in all, this is a great product...six blazing fast cores!

I've been building computers (as a hobby) for the last 15 years and must say I was amazed how much faster my i7 950 was over my AMD 1090T.However, I'm really amazed by the overall performance boost when I purchased the i7 970 6-core (12 if you include the logical cores) processor. Even in non-multi-threaded applications, there seems to be an overall boost to system performance and also stability.I do a lot of compressing and encryption. Watching a 2GB file become encrypted and compressed in WinZip in mere seconds is pretty impressive.It does come with a fairly good heatsink and I'm not rushing to buy another one. I'm not a hardcore overclocked and so far, this processor has all the speed I need. Using Arctic Silver 5 and the stock heatsink, the temperature never goes above ~45-47C when using something that maxes the CPU out for an extended period (i.e. Handbrake. With SpeedStep turned on in "balanced" mode it idles in the upper 20'sC (~27-29C)Unlike what other people and benchmarks say, even gaming (i.e. Crysis) seems to have a noticeable improvement in both game stability and startup time. Using Arctic Silver 5 and the stock heatsink, the temperature never goes above ~45-47C when using something that maxes the CPU out for an extended period (i.e. Handbrake).Now, on the other hand, is it worth $500? Well, it all depends on how much you use your computer. Plus, I sold my i7 950 on a major auction site for ~$230 and my Corsair A70 for ~$30. So for me, the extra $300 is worth it. The performance is that impressive; however, it is still in the "luxury" category for me.If you're an engineer or graphic artist and need the performance for your work, I would say it's well worth it (if you have a multi-threaded app.).

It was disappointing. I was all so excited to get through the mail and this package since it advertises to be a 6-core processor. However, when I installed it, my desktop would not even start. I ended up returning.

I'd you're on the LGA 1366 platform and disappointed by its short production lifespan, this CPU makes sense. I previously had the i7-950, a four core which I was able to OC to 4.0 24/7 stable with H/T on. With this CPU, I was again able to get to 4.0 clock speed, 24/7 stable with HT on except now 2 more physical cores.When I coupled this CPU with an SSD, everything became noticeably faster.The price may scare some but figure it this way: if you're on the LGA 1366 platform and want more raw power you have two options: throw your machine away and start from scratch on one of the newer platforms, or upgrade to a hex core, faster ram, SSD, and a better cooler to over clock the whole thing.