I bought two of these processors, as i build gaming rigs as a hobby, i had built my self one with really great results! My son who is beastly gamer had a i7 920 in his rig a wartime x58, well i ended up gutting that box and duplacateing the same build, and bought another i7 960! the build is as follows i7960 3.2ghz, asus p6x58d premium mb, 12 gig corsair dominater ram 1600mhz, dual invida 480 graphics cards, clocked up to 3.33ghz lightin fast!I would recmend this to anyone that wants performance on a buget.
Crush your enemies, climb the tower of paperwork -- or do both at the same time. Intel's Core i7 processor not only makes it possible, it makes it easy. The Core i7 960 has four cores that run at 3.2GHz and shares 8MB of L3 cache. Quad cores means true multi-tasking and multi-threading. One core handles the usual action on your operating system, while the second can play a DVD on the TV, the third download a file from internet, and the fourth one sends audio to the kids in another room without lags or stutters. All this is made easier with Intel’s advanced Digital Media Boost. With Intel Turbo Boost technology and Intel Hyper-Threading technology, the Core i7 enables highly threaded applications or demanding applications to work in maximum speed without any extra effort. The 45nm Intel Core i7 processor is armed with Intel HD Boost, which implementing new Intel Streaming SIMD Extension 4.2 (Intel SSE4.2) instructions for fast high definition video editing and encoding, enhance the multimedia performance.Read full review
I do believe this could possiblly be the best bang for the buck in i7 processors. With the right motherboard bios, over-clocking is a breeze. Be carefull of ram speed though. When you start to get over 3.3 Ghz, the ram speed may double causing instability. Many re-starts later, you have to move to the highest Mhz ram you can afford it will run appropriatlly untill the CPU over heats, or becomes unstable itself. Make sure you have a temp sensor on your OS. My 960 has been over 140 degrees on more than one occasion with no signs of problems, or weakness. I recommend this processor in an over-clocked state, because that's when this CPU SHINES!
Well, I sold my i7 920 cpu and upgrade to this. Honestly, there isn't much of a difference between this and my 920 cpu besides the stock multiplier going to 24x and being stock clocked at 3.2ghz vs 2.66ghz of the 920. But stock vs stock, this is a better buy than the 920/930 seeing as how its only about $30-$50 more, and is clocked at 3.2ghz with 24x. Now for overclocking, not so much. On my 920 D0, I could hit 4.0ghz easy. The 960 D0, I can also hit 4.0ghz easy with the same temps. So didn't really see a benefit. But yeah, its not bad. But an i7 2600K will out perform this easy.
I purchase a slightly used intel core i7 960 processor, and when I received it I promptly installed it into my new Republic of gamers Rampage III motherboard. Added a liquid cooling system and 6 GB of memory. Fired it up. Everything ran. Tweek'ed it up. Now runs like a champ. Haven't tried OC'ing it, buy for now, I'm quite satisfied.
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