Final thoughts and rating
We'readvocates of a balanced PC such that no individual component is vastly more expensive than another. The good news on the CPU front is that a capable dual-core chip can be purchased for £80 and a quad-core model for £150, whose performance will sate all but the true power user.Spend more money and you will receive more performance, for sure, but the returns begin diminishing very rapidly at the >£250 mark. This is why the £765 Core i7 975 Extreme Edition makes very little sense for most folk.
But now there's a new CPU sheriff in town and it goes by the name of Intel Core i7 980X Extreme Edition. Ostensibly designed for the server environment and hewn from the very latest 32nm process architecture known as Westmere, it packs in six execution cores that can handle a total of 12 threads - making it the most parallel 'desktop' chip ever. Augmented by 12MB of L3 cache, it also provides a drop-in upgrade for X58 chipset-based motherboards and thermal solutions.
Intel's delivered a knockout blow with the peerless Core i7 980X Extreme Edition. Performance is predictably staggering, ravaging the erstwhile champion's metrics by up to 50 per cent. The fact that it also overclocks like a champ helps whet the enthusiast's appetite further, and we're adamant that a faster desktop chip won't be released for the remainder of 2010.
Such dominance comes at an inevitable cost as the chip is set to retail for $999 (£800-plus). Whilst undeniably expensive and wish-list material for Joe Average, it can be thought of as a 'cheap' Xeon X5680 or, more precisely, a Xeon W3680 - CPUs with which it shares significant commonality.
Bottom line: the 3.33GHz-clocked Intel Core i7 980X Extreme Edition is, by a long, long way, the fastest desktop CPU ever released. It has wish-list status stamped all over it. The only choice for the ultra-high-end PC, we'll have to wait for AMD's Thuban for a mid-priced six-core chip.
The good
Monstrous performance from the six-core, 12-thread goliath
3.33GHz native clock-speed is welcomed
Significant overclocking headroom
Drop-in upgrade for X58 motherboards and associated thermal solutions
Represents a 'cheap' Xeon X5680
The not so good
Anyone got a spare £800-plus, please?
Doesn't provide a meaningful boost in gaming performance...for now, at least.
HEXUS Rating
Intel
Core i7 980X Extreme Edition retail
CPU
HEXUS Awards
Intel
Core i7 980X Extreme Edition retail
CPU
HEXUS Where2Buy
The Intel Core i7 980X Extreme Edition CPU can be ordered from the following retailers:
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