Final thoughts and rating

Intel's latest and greatest desktop processor technology now resides in two Sandy Bridge-E chips launched just the other day. The Core i7 3930K CPU sits below the Core i7 3960X in the pecking order, but don't let that fool you into thinking it's a manifestly poorer cousin.

Sharing many of the performance qualities of the $999 range-topper and performing very closely in our benchmarks - through which is ploughs through with gay abandon - the $564 (£450-plus) 3930K chip is particularly suited to workloads that stress the CPU's sheer grunt, which is considerable as it uses six cores and 12 threads when the situation demands.

Excitement at the arrival of this benchmark-pulverising slab of silicon is tempered the knowledge that, while undeniably quick, Intel is yet to introduce the full-chip architecture - eight cores and 16 threads - and any sensible purchasing decision must consider mainstream Sandy Bridge processors such as Core i5 2500K and 2600K, which are fundamentally cheaper, power-frugal and perform at acceptable levels for all but the most strenuous of tasks.

There exist many parallels between this Sandy Bridge-E launch - LGA2011 chip and X79 chipset - and the introduction of the Intel Nehalem-based LGA1366/X58 platform three years ago. Both offer top-dog performance, at a high cost, and are reserved for users who genuinely demand and need ultimate CPU performance. The only viable option for such folk is to invest in Sandy Bridge-E. Extending this line of logic further, the only chip you should consider is the Core i7 3930K - it performs almost as well as the 3960X processor that costs £300 more. Now, how's that for a moneysaving tip?

Bottom line: the Core i7 3930K is very much a niche product whose appeal is limited to the true power user. For everyone else, consider a mainstream Sandy Bridge chip instead.

The Good

Almost as good as Core i7 3960X, for a much lower cost
Sandy Bridge architecture on steroids

The Bad

£450-plus is still a lot of money for a CPU-only chip
Needs additional outlay for X79 motherboard

HEXUS Rating

Intel Core i7 3930K Sandy Bridge

HEXUS Awards

Intel Core i7 3930K Sandy Bridge

HEXUS Where2Buy

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I'm surprised by the price differential in these times, especially seeing that the performance differential is so marginal. Excellent review Hexus.

I've given up on holding out for folding stats now…. Bit-tech seems to be the only place that (eventually) caters to that…

The under-load power-draw figure seems counter-intuitive at first glance. A slower chip with less cache shouldn't pull more juice than the Core i7 3960X. This graph summarises the inherent danger in testing engineering-sample chips provided by Intel, meaning CPUs have a range of operating voltages that differ from processor to processor.

Looking into it further, the 3930K ES chip's default operating voltage is a smidge higher than the also-ES 3960X on the ASUS Sabertooth X79 board, helping explain the above graph. Whatever the case, both Intel and AMD specify a range of voltages for retail parts, and a same-stepping Core i7 3930X is likely to draw similar power to the other SNB-E chip..

The X chips are going to be the very best of the bins, with the least leakage etc so even with a step in speed might require less voltage. But as you note, voltages vary between chips as well.(And you mean 3930K, not X, in the last sentence quoted, from page 6 :p).

In the end, that's a lot of chip for the money, comparable to previous mid-range 1366 chips. Certainly makes the old 980X out-dated.

I would have preferred a slightly tweaked 1155 SB chip with SMP support and a new chipset instead.

Looks like it would have been considerably cheaper and better performance/watt too.

shaithis
I would have preferred a slightly tweaked 1155 SB chip with SMP support and a new chipset instead.

That's kind of what this is. SMP support requires additional pins, so if you're changing socket you can fit in a few more server oriented features at the same time.

any chance of showin the final test were you have tweaked it to 4.6 of adding in the performane in those same tests of a 2500/2600k at 4.5ghz as thats the sort of norm speed for us SB users Please