Intel Core i7 Extreme Overclocking with LN2 Conclusion

Intel Core i7 Extreme Overclocking with LN2 Conclusion

For enthusiasts, too much is never enough. Higher frequencies, more voltage, and colder temps can become addictive. Our initial experience with Liquid Nitrogen cooling has been both exciting and eye opening. We assaulted the processor with hours of LN2 benching and after every freeze or blue screen caused by instability, the system rebooted, posted to desktop, and begged for more punishment.

We crossed into the world of extreme overclocking with a product made specifically for the enthusiast or power user and came away very impressed. The Core i7 975 Extreme Edition lived up to its name and provided extreme frequencies that matched the intense cooling capability of liquid nitrogen. As more over clockers are finding out, the more affordable Core i7 920 D0 revision will overclock to similar frequencies as the Core i7 975 CPU when using air or watercooling. But the limits of Core i7 can only be reached with Extreme Edition processors with their added flexibility of the CPU multiplier and sub-zero cooling. The price premium is a major hurdle for those who want the best, but that seems to be the case with most high end products.

Since we employed a rock solid motherboard like the EVGA X58 Classified and smoldering fast DDR3-2000MHz memory as the foundation of our test bench, we were able to concentrate our efforts on the processor without worrying about these components holding us back. The processor held up nicely but we're sure there's more headroom available as Core i7 processors have been known to reach up to 6GHz under LN2. No, we didn't break any records, but the frequencies and scores achieved represent the highest we've been able to accomplish with any X58 system to date. You can be sure we'll continue to push the limits of Intel's Core i7 platform - so stay tuned for follow-up fun.

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