Core i7, interesting feature set

mexell · Post by **mexell** » Tue Nov 25, 2008 7:10 am

German magazine c't has pretty extensive coverage in their recent issue on the upcoming Core i7.

One of the key things they are covering is the possibility to dynamically overclock within a user-set power envelope. They also measured the power draw of a Core i7 EE (!) in idle being slightly lower than a Core2Duo's (they say "recent dual core", so you can assume it's E8xxx Wolfdale).

With the EE versions, you can also have dynamic overclocking depending on a user-set wattage for the processor. On the boards they used they could have even set 300W as power envelope - totally crazy of course. Normal Core i7 processors have a fixed power envelope of 130W as a limit for dynamic overclocking.

Just imagine having something like the HTPC setup Mike describes in the Antec FRM review - a computer with a very low idle draw and killer peak performance when needed. Hmm, maybe I should start saving...

lm · Post by lm » Tue Nov 25, 2008 9:33 am

The hypothetical low idle draw is more than offset by the fact that those things are expensive. You need a much more expensive motherboard and much more expensive memory than with current penryns.

Pay back time for your perhaps marginally lower power bill will be for ever.

QuietOC · Post by **QuietOC** » Tue Nov 25, 2008 10:01 am

The Core i7 has an excellent idle power draw, but--like the Atom--it is only paired with horribly power inefficient chipsets/motherboards. The current Core i7 is a nice replacement for Mac Pros and Skulltrail users (i.e., video rendering boxes) but is a poor choice for the average user.

Hopefully Intel has a much better platform designed for the real desktop version (the dual channel socket.)