A Summer Road Trip With the Intel Core i7 975 EE

You don't go on summer vacation with just a single outfit. Packing just a pair of shorts and a polo isn't going to get you very far, especially in the pool. So like any road trip, we are going to be taking multiple outfits to coincide with the multiple tasks we have at hand. The primary reason for the plethora of hardware is the locations we are going to be visiting. Air Cooling Canyon certainly requires different hardware than Liquid Nitrogen National Park and vice-versa. Let's start with a look at our main players for this fun filled summer road trip.

Obviously the first piece of hardware going on the trip is the Intel Core i7 975 EE processor that we are examining today. In order to run that processor we will also need a motherboard, or in our case, two motherboards. Both from the EVGA family of mainboards, the EVGA X58 3X SLI and EVGA X58 3X SLI Classified will be joining us on our trip. The reason for both is that one will take us to Air Cooling Canyon with the other finishing the trip going to Phase Change City and Liquid Nitrogen National Park. We also have a pair of power supplies in use because, well, one just isn't enough for what we have in store. This will become more evident shortly.

Like everything else, two kits of memory will be in use at various times but not for any particular reason. This is mostly just because of what memory we had in each setup at the time of the trip and let's not forget two video cards will also be utilized including a single GTX 295 for all three stops. We wanted to use the GTX 295 for all of the locations as it will provide an idea of what a typical setup will perform like for perspective owners of the Core i7 975 EE. The results found at Air Cooling Canyon are about as close to a typical review as we will get.

After that stop, it will be all benchmarking all the time. This is where the last image above comes into play. What summer road trip would be complete without some outright shenanigans? When in Liquid Nitrogen National Park, we will be breaking out the four XFX HD4890's for what can only be described as frivolous summer fun...and we hope the cooling solution on one of the cards gives away the fact that all four will be in action at the same time.

Now, in order to get to the various locations that we plan on attending, we will need the appropriate hardware. For each location we have marked on our map, various hardware will be our ticket to finding those marked spots. To get to Air Cooling Canyon we will need the services of the Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme CU Edition. In order to gain access to Phase Change City, a Chilly1 single stage phase change unit will be required. Our last stop on the trip is of course, Liquid Nitrogen National Park, and in order to find that location, we need to enlist the services of our MMouse Rev3 CU dry ice/liquid nitrogen pot. At various locations along the way our GPS will not be a typical GPS, but rather a pair of Extech TM200 digital thermometers. The items we have shown above are just the main articles we are going to have to pack, for a complete breakdown of what is getting stuffed into our suitcases, please consult the list below.

We definitely have all the hardware we need, and can handle. The list of participants is long and star studded with some very powerful key components which will compliment the most powerful Intel processor to date. We obviously have a lot of ground to cover with this road trip so now that we are all packed up, let's get this overclocking show on the road.