Intel recently launched the Nehalem based Core i7 as in their 7th architectural generation this year. A name that will catch on quickly and you’ll get used to it just as quickly as well. These Core i7’s work great, but the question on everyone’s minds is: are they any better than the Quad’s and are they furthermore worth it? The answer to come. For now let’s outline the general assumptions and expectations for the purpose of something that Intel always heralds as new: high quality parts, great efficiency, and dependable inextricable power.

As anyone who would read our reviews knows, we love plain and simple for the simple fact that beautiful things at most times come in very simple ways. “Experience the power of V8” is a daring phrase that Coolermaster takes to use in their new cooler, but it’s one that pays off. With a great cooling capacity for the CPU and reliability with support strength, the Coolermaster V8 is a cooler to be reckoned with in a sea where CPU heatsinks are far from few. While support is a great factor of reliability, the mount solutions prove troublesome at times where it requires the end-user to practically remove the entire motherboard for maintenance purposes. Thankfully with efficiency, maintenance is not needed in such a top-tier level.

Packaging & Accessories

The packaging does not clutter and simply focuses on the actual functions of the unit: to cool. “Experience the power of V8” reminds anyone of a revved up engine that is there to do a powerful job. Above the slogan, you are also going to see that the cooler is rated to cool 180W, more than enough for your overclocked CPU! When you take a look at the back of the cooler you’ll find all of the specifications for the Cooler Master V8 CPU Cooler, along with the main features Cooler Master wants you to know about. Not much more can be said of the package other than there is no marketing gimmick here.

What’s that? Wait..it’s…it’s a QX9770. Yorkfield didn’t see this coming. Full of life and energy, it’s time for the QX9770 Core 2 Extreme to take the spotlight in the public’s gleaning and teary eyes. Get ready to make this baby your pride as it can handle all your gaming and application needs to the fullest. People go from processor to processor, question to question, only to end up on the same conclusion from their demands: What’s the CPU that can deliver the best possible experience for someone with my needs? Something that works for me? The Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9770 speeds in at 3.2 GHz with a 1600MHz FSB to the rescue! Whether you’re the most demanding of users, or one that just wants every bang for his/her buck, the QX9770 delivers without a problem.

Placing the CPU in to the LGA775 socket, you can feel the connection you just made with your computer to give it the best in its digital lifespan. The 45nm manufacturing technology allows for a vibrant burst of life from the processing unit, and then comes the Windows screen. Where’d it go? What the heck? Exactly. It’s just that fast. We could barely catch the loading screen as the energy elixir was being effused into our motherboard from this processor. The CPU-Z shows a beautiful speed of 3.2GHz at a rated FSB of 1600FSB. A hidden feature of these processors, for those of you who don’t know, is that the multiplier is unlocked up until 31. Actually getting there is a whole another matter. With the processor from the Core 2 Extreme series, this shouldn’t get you sweating.

The Yorkfield processor is efficient and doesn’t give headaches when it comes time to boot up. We can see our the processor is identified at 2.50 GHz along with a 1333MHz FSB and 6MB L2 cache (12MB shared). At first look, the Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 is a decent overclocker, with a 7.5 multiplier (333MHz FSB x 7.5 multiplier = 2.5GHz). Even if it’s low, the FSB will have to be increased beyond 450MHz to break the 3.5GHz mark. Prep the liquid cooling. Now there are 2 ways of looking at this. If you have a dilapidated motherboard combined with a great processor such as this one, it needs FSB speeds above 450MHz that can give the system a good huff of smoke. If you increase the FSB to 400MHz that will make the CPU 3.0GHz, which is more than enough for common applications. But that’s yet to be seen.

All testing was done on Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit. All benchmarks were completed on the desktop with no other software programs running. All of the modules were run in dual channel mode with a 120mm fan placed on top of them to keep them cool. The XFX GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB used NVIDIA ForceWare 169.28 video card drivers and the ASUS P5E3 motherboard using BIOS version 1009, which was the most recent available when testing was done. The AMD Phenom test system was done on the MSI K9A2 Platinum motherboard with BIOS v1.4 installed along with ATI system driver version 8.452.

Sandra XII SP1 showed that the Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 has decent memory bandwidth, but with just a 1066MHz FSB the DDR3 memory is operating at 1066MHz with CL7 timings. This isn’t enough to compete with the other platforms at higher memory frequencies.

With stock BIOS settings, the Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 runs with a 266MHz bus speed and has a 9.5 multiplier that are used to reach the final core clock of 2.53GHz. As you can see above, the ASUS P5E3 Deluxe motherboard FSB runs at 267.3MHz, so right out of the box we were running slighty higher than this at 2.54GHz. Overall, something truly remarkable.