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A Summer Road Trip With the Intel Core i7 975 EE

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3oh6

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<center><img src="http://images.hardwarecanucks.com/image/3oh6/intel/i7_975ee/index-1.jpg" alt=""></center><p style="text-align: justify;">The sun is hot, the birds are chirping, the kids are out of school driving parents crazy, and the family mini-van has the roof-top storage attachment installed and ready to be used as a time-out prison for the mouthy little brat of the family. That can mean one thing and one thing only; it is summer vacation road trip time. Fortunately we here at Hardware Canucks have a road trip planned too. It won't involve the cramped back seat of a 1974 Volkswagen Beetle with you stuck between your mother and sister during frighteningly fast single lane highway passing action in the midst of a thunderstorm because your father doesn't think sheeting rain in the middle of the night with only one headlight is a reason to waste $40 on a stop at the nearest roach motel. On this road trip, there will be no blown tires with your mother and aunt in the middle of nowhere - also known as Ituna Saskatchewan - while your father and uncle speed off ahead in the lead vehicle thinking you just stopped for snacks.

No, this road trip isn't anything like those nightmare family vacations you remember as a youth that makes the Griswold's adventures look like a children's bedtime story. You know, the road trip out to Banff Alberta, the beautiful Canadian Rockies. You thinking that chocolate milk and a big bag of corn chips was a fantastic idea for breakfast. Later, your mother saying "I told you so" as you hang your head out the window of a 1989 Aries K-Car littering the highway with a chunky brown blanket at a 100KMh with your father yelling not to get any on the car and that pulling over wouldn't teach you a lesson. This road trip will include none of those fond childhood memories we all cherish so much.

Instead, this Hardware Canucks Summer of 2009 Road Trip involves nothing more than a single Intel Core i7 975 Extreme Edition processor with stops at Air Cooling Canyon, Phase Change City, and Liquid Nitrogen National Park. This overclocking road map of cool, cold, and colder will explore all that is available on the great landscape of this wonderful land, known as Overclocking Inlet. We won't bother ourselves with the boring road side attractions such as comparisons to the previous generation of processors, or getting too deep into the infrastructure of the new Core i7 D0 stepping processors. Instead, we will maintain a cannonball run pace on this cross country trip focusing solely on the overclocking ability of the Core i7 975 processor. So buckle your seatbelts, throw the GPS out the window, and get your walkman with big orange fuzzy headphones ready because we are ready to roll...and there will be no bathroom breaks along the way so don't throw out your empty pop bottles.</p><center><img src="http://images.hardwarecanucks.com/image/3oh6/intel/i7_975ee/index-2.jpg" alt=""></center>
 
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3oh6

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Edmonton, AB
No Volkswagen Beetle Here

<center><img src="http://images.hardwarecanucks.com/image/3oh6/intel/i7_975ee/specs-1.jpg" alt=""></center><p style="text-align: justify;">As mentioned, this road trip won't involve any Volkswagen Beetles, no Jeep Wagoneers, and certainly no mid 70's Buick Estate Wagons draped in beautiful wood paneling. Our sole mode of transportation for this road trip is going to be on the back of the latest and fastest retail processor from Intel.

The new Core i7 975 EE is not simply a clock increase from the previous top dog holder Core i7 965 EE. The 975 sports the new die spin known as stepping D0, while the 965 is based on the core stepping C0. There are no reported performance differences between the two steppings but some refinements to the process have resulted in a marginally better overclocking strain of silicon...or at least the early reports tend to suggest. Core i7 920 D0's have been out on the market for a while now and the best batches of the 920 D0's seem to definitely offer higher overclocks than the previous C0 stepping 920's so the potential for higher overclocks is there, but certainly not guaranteed. Let's have a quick look at the specification sheet of our ride today, the Core i7 975 EE.</p><center><img src="http://images.hardwarecanucks.com/image/3oh6/intel/i7_975ee/specs-2.png" alt=""></center><p style="text-align: justify;">The only differences in specifications between the Core i7 975 EE and 965 EE are the default multiplier resulting in a 133MHz bump in frequency at stock, and a small change to the VID Voltage Range. The i7 965 EE is listed as having a VID Voltage Range of 0.80v~1.375v. Above, we can see the i7 975 EE listed up to only 1.225v as a maximum. This means that the default voltage range will average rather significantly lower on the new D0 process indicating either better yields or a slightly more efficient resulting silicon. Other than that though, the specs are the same with simple changes to sSpec and CPUID String. A physical look at the two processors indicates no changes either as the photos below illustrate.</p><center>
specs-3.jpg
specs-4.jpg
</center><p style="text-align: justify;">From above there are no physical changes to the IHS or the substrate. Underneath the story is the same. On the left is the Core i7 975 EE and on the right is the Core i7 965 EE. They are identical in every way, aside from the slight color difference of the contact pads. Over time and use, the pads on the processor start to orange up a little bit, hence the difference in color between the two.

Obviously we are dealing with just a revision of the original Core i7 processors as is the case with the D0 stepping i7 920 and the new i7 950 that has been launched at the same time as the i7 975. From an end user point of view, the i7 975 really shouldn't provide any benefit over the i7 965 and if you are already running the first i7 EE chip, there really is no reason to upgrade. For benchmarkers and overclockers, however, this isn't quite the case. With overclocking, results will always vary, but the D0 stepping has proven to be a much stronger clocker and continually outpaces limits of the average C0 counterpart. There are still isolated cases of C0 i7 965's clocking higher than many i7 975's but that is the nature of overclocking; there are no blanket statements or black & white rules, only averages and plenty of grey area. So even though our focus in this article is going to be the overclocking, our results are simply a single sample out of the thousands of Core i7 975 EE processors out there. Our results shouldn't be considered the best, worst, or possibly not even the average...they are simply going to be a single set of overclocking results on different cooling mediums from a single engineering sample. Let's now find out who else will be joining us on this road trip. This portion of our trip will be very similar to the summer road trips of our youth as we are going to be jamming everything that will possibly fit into this journey.</p>
 
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3oh6

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Loading up the Car

<center><img src="http://images.hardwarecanucks.com/image/3oh6/intel/i7_975ee/hardware-1.jpg" alt=""></center><p style="text-align: justify;">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.</p><center><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="735px"><tr><td align="left" colspan="2">
hardware-2.jpg
hardware-3.jpg
</td><td align="right" colspan="2">
hardware-4.jpg
hardware-5.jpg
</td></tr></table></center><p style="text-align: justify;">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.</p><center><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="735px"><tr><td align="left" colspan="2">
hardware-6.jpg
hardware-7.jpg
</td><td align="right" colspan="2">
hardware-8.jpg
hardware-9.jpg
</td></tr></table></center><p style="text-align: justify;">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.</p><center><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="735px"><tr><td align="left" colspan="2">
hardware-10.jpg
hardware-11.jpg
</td><td align="right" colspan="2">
hardware-12.jpg
hardware-13.jpg
</td></tr></table></center><p style="text-align: justify;">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.</p><center><table border="0" bgcolor="#666666" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="1" width="735px"><tr><td colspan="4"><b><font color="#ffffff">Test Platform:</font></b></td></tr><tr><td align="center" bgcolor="#cc9999" width="25%"><b>Processor:</b></td><td align="left" bgcolor="#ececec" width="75%"><b>Intel Core i7 975 Extreme Edition ES (3843A687)</b></td></tr><tr><td align="center" bgcolor="#cc9999" width="25%"><b>Motherboards:</b></td><td align="left" bgcolor="#ececec" width="75%">EVGA X58 3X SLI<br>EVGA X58 3X SLI Classified</td></tr><tr><td align="center" bgcolor="#cc9999" width="25%"><b>Memory:</b></td><td align="left" bgcolor="#ececec" width="75%">Corsair Dominator-GT 3x2GB PC3-15000 7-8-7-20<br>OCZ Blade 3x2GB PC3-16000 7-8-7-20</td></tr><tr><td align="center" bgcolor="#cc9999" width="25%"><b>Processor Cooling:</b></td><td align="left" bgcolor="#ececec" width="75%">Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme CU w/ 2 x Scythe Ultra Kaze 120MM 2000RPM<br>Chilly1 single stage phase change<br>MMouse Rev3 CU dry ice/LN2 pot w/LN2</td></tr><tr><td align="center" bgcolor="#cc9999" width="25%"><b>Thermal Paste:</b></td><td align="left" bgcolor="#ececec" width="75%">Arctic Cooling MX-2 (air cooling)<br>Arctic Silver Ceramique (sub-zero cooling)</td></tr><tr><td align="center" bgcolor="#cc9999" width="25%"><b>North Bridge Cooling:</b></td><td align="left" bgcolor="#ececec" width="75%">Stock</td></tr><tr><td align="center" bgcolor="#cc9999" width="25%"><b>South Bridge Cooling:</b></td><td align="left" bgcolor="#ececec" width="75%">Stock</td></tr><tr><td align="center" bgcolor="#cc9999" width="25%"><b>PWM Cooling:</b></td><td align="left" bgcolor="#ececec" width="75%">Stock</td></tr><tr><td align="center" bgcolor="#cc9999" width="25%"><b>Power Supplies:</b></td><td align="left" bgcolor="#ececec" width="75%">Corsair HX1000W<br>Ultra X-Pro 750W</td></tr><tr><td align="center" bgcolor="#cc9999" width="25%"><b>Video Card:</b></td><td align="left" bgcolor="#ececec" width="75%">EVGA GTX 295 (NVIDIA GeForce 185.85 WHQL)<br>XFX HD4890 1GB x 4 (ATI Catalyst 8.4/8.5)</td></tr><tr><td align="center" bgcolor="#cc9999" width="25%"><b>Additional Fans:</b></td><td align="left" bgcolor="#ececec" width="75%">Scythe Ultra Kaze 120MM 3000RPM 133.6CFM (DFS123812H-3000)</td></tr><tr><td align="center" bgcolor="#cc9999" width="25%"><b>Hard Drive:</b></td><td align="left" bgcolor="#ececec" width="75%">Seagate 7200.9 80GB SATAII 8MB cache</td></tr><tr><td align="center" bgcolor="#cc9999" width="25%"><b>OS:</b></td><td align="left" bgcolor="#ececec" width="75%">Windows XP SP2<br>Windows Vista SP1 (with all updates)<br>Windows 7 Build 7100</td></tr><tr><td align="center" bgcolor="#cc9999" width="25%"><b>Ambient Temperature:</b></td><td align="left" bgcolor="#ececec" width="75%">23C ~ 25C</td></tr></table></center><p style="text-align: justify;">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.</p>
 
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3oh6

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Messages
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Last Minute Bathroom Break

<center><img src="http://images.hardwarecanucks.com/image/3oh6/intel/i7_975ee/methodology-1.jpg" alt=""></center><p style="text-align: justify;">Before we head out to our first stop on the long road trip ahead we better take a last minute bathroom break as we don't have any empty bottles in the car yet, and like we said earlier, there will be no stops on this drive. Unlike other reviews you find here at Hardware Canucks, this review isn't the least bit concerned with benchmarks in the traditional sense. Comparing one setup to another or one video card performance to another isn't what this article is about. Instead, this article is simply a look at how well the new Core i7 975 EE overclocks using various cooling mediums. Our focus won't be primarily on 24/7 cooling either, although we will take a brief look at the fully stable overclocking ability of this processor at Air Cooling Canyon. Instead, our primary focus is outright bench frequencies with the goal being how fast we can run each benchmark at our three stops.</p><center><img src="http://images.hardwarecanucks.com/image/3oh6/intel/i7_975ee/methodology-2.jpg" alt=""></center><p style="text-align: justify;">For our brief look at fully stable 24/7 overclocking, we use our standard stability testing methodology with one addition. We have also included a twenty pass run of Linpack using the LinX interface and will continue to add this stability test to our future stability methodology since it is quickly becoming the most popular stability test in enthusiast forums. For those un-familiar, here is a breakdown of the complete stability testing we will run through in the first portion of our stop in Air Cooling Canyon.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">There will be a onetime occurrence of this stability testing at Air Cooling Canyon and won't be repeated at any other stops. Obviously not everyone is going to be interested in just the benchmarking stability so this will give a brief indication of the stable overclocks this processor is potentially capable of. Keep in mind that this is just like the rest of the overclocks we will see today, they are from a single processor in a single setup and may or may not be a proper representative of what the average retail processor is going to be capable of. Let's now go over the list of benchmarks we will be putting this processor through at each stop in our journey.</p><center><img src="http://images.hardwarecanucks.com/image/3oh6/amd/phenomII/b_cpu-z-1.jpg" alt=""></center><p style="text-align: justify;">The ultimate in bleeding edge overclocking, CPU-Z stability is nothing more than that, the ability to get a CPU-Z validation before the system freezes or locks up. CPU-Z is the standard in validating overclocks in the benchmarking community and is required to help validate pretty much every screen shot taken.</p><center><img src="http://images.hardwarecanucks.com/image/3oh6/amd/phenomII/b_pifast-1.jpg" alt=""></center><p style="text-align: justify;">An oldie but a goodie, Hexus PiFast is a single threaded calculation of Pi run in a DOS window. At one time the Hexus version of PiFast was the preferred way of comparing an overclock. The benchmark is still used on HWBot.org for global and hardware points.</p><center><img src="http://images.hardwarecanucks.com/image/3oh6/amd/phenomII/b_spi-1.jpg" alt=""></center><p style="text-align: justify;">The personal favorite benchmark of this reviewer, SPi is another single threaded benchmark that is well on its way to being an obsolete form of benchmark in gauging performance. That said, it is still THE standard amongst overclockers and we have chosen the two standard 1M and 32M calculations for the benchmarks today.</p><center><img src="http://images.hardwarecanucks.com/image/3oh6/amd/phenomII/b_wprime-1.jpg" alt=""></center><p style="text-align: justify;">wPrime is a relative new comer to the benchmarking scene but has already become one of the favorites amongst benchmarkers making its way onto the pages of HWBot.org as a recognized benchmark. wPrime is a multi-threaded application that obviously caters to more cores. Comparing a dual core to a quad core is not a fair comparison at all. Some consider wPrime to be a very valid form of measuring CPU power as it utilizes the entire capabilities of a processor and does not rely on the memory subsystem at all.</p><center><img src="http://images.hardwarecanucks.com/image/3oh6/amd/phenomII/b_am3-1.jpg" alt=""></center><p style="text-align: justify;">Ahh the days of Aquamark 3 as a recognized 3D benchmark. Those days are long gone and AM3 is nothing more than a system benchmark that benefits more from CPU power and the memory sub-system than it does GPU at times. The key to a good AM3 score with a modern video card is with plenty of system horsepower.</p><center><img src="http://images.hardwarecanucks.com/image/3oh6/amd/phenomII/b_01-1.jpg" alt=""></center><p style="text-align: justify;">Not the start of the 3DMark series, but the start of the Futuremark 3DMark series, 3DMark 01 is the sentimental favorite amongst 3D benchers and the first screenshot to hit the forums after a new GPU is released. The one time inconceivable 100K mark in 01 is easily obtained these days but still a goal worth noting when obtained, especially with a single GPU.</p><center><img src="http://images.hardwarecanucks.com/image/3oh6/amd/phenomII/b_03-1.jpg" alt=""></center><p style="text-align: justify;">The first 3DMark to rely almost entirely on the graphics card, 3DMark 03 really lets quad video card setups really shine but still requires solid CPU power to really stretch a video cards legs. The 4 x HD4890 setup should really excel in 3DMark 03 and it will be interesting to see what we can come up with today.</p><center><img src="http://images.hardwarecanucks.com/image/3oh6/amd/phenomII/b_05-1.jpg" alt=""></center><p style="text-align: justify;">Again, the Futuremark series turned back into a benchmark heavily influenced by the system, but still influenced substantially by the GPU. Recent 05 scores have been going through the roof with the introduction of higher end video cards and high clocks on the Intel i7 processors. C2D has owned this benchmark for the last couple years but the i7 processors are reaching clocks now that surpass even what a C2D can achieve in 05.</p><center><img src="http://images.hardwarecanucks.com/image/3oh6/amd/phenomII/b_06-1.jpg" alt=""></center><p style="text-align: justify;">Up until this point, the entire 3DMark series has been single threaded but in 06, Futuremark has changed the entire game. Now, in order to compete in 06 a quad core processor is a must have as 06s multi-threaded processor testing eats dual core processors for lunch. With that said, the i7 processor with Hyper-Threading and a theoretical 8 cores is a lethal weapon in 06.</p><center><img src="http://images.hardwarecanucks.com/image/3oh6/amd/phenomII/b_vantage-1.jpg" alt=""></center><p style="text-align: justify;">Continuing in forward progress, 3DMark Vantage is also multi-threaded and also supports PhysX. For our benchmark we will have PhysX disabled as that has been the decided standard amongst benchmarkers due to the in-equality between ATI and NVIDIA cards with it enabled. The CPU power does effect Vantage scores a good bit but not near as much as the GPU.

Okay okay, we'll get to some results next with our first stop at Air Cooling Canyon...but you don't want to make me stop this car until we get there mister.</p>
 
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3oh6

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First Stop: Air Cooling Canyon

<center><img src="http://images.hardwarecanucks.com/image/3oh6/intel/i7_975ee/acc-1.jpg" alt=""></center><p style="text-align: justify;">We have arrived at our first destination, Air Cooling Canyon. Get out, stretch your legs, and no fighting for the bathroom! Here we will explore the maximum frequencies for our benchmark suite as well as the maximum stable 24/7 overclock we can achieve with our Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme CU cooler. We have already seen the hardware lineup so here are a couple quick photos of the setup during this stop of our road trip.</p><center>
acc-2.jpg
acc-3.jpg
</center><p style="text-align: justify;">We ran the system with the fans in push/pull with another fan blowing down on the memory and helping move air across the ground level of the motherboard. This is our typical air cooling setup when testing anything. We've said it before and we'll say it again; friends don't let friends run memory without a fan. So when you are out drinking with your friends this summer, enjoying a few too many fine import beers on a patio, don't forget that piece of advice and keep those fans on high. Seriously though, do everyone a favor in that situation and just crawl home. Your knees won't love you the next day but it is the right thing to do.

We can also see that the temperature just above the setup was around 25C +/- a degree or two for irregularities in the digital thermometer. Here is what we managed to squeeze out of this setup for our 24/7 stable overclock:</p><center>
acc-4.png
</center><p style="text-align: justify;">Overclocking the i7 975 is not unlike any other i7 processor. With an unlocked multiplier you can simply increase the CPU multi until you hit your limit, or you can play with base clock and the CPU multiplier to find that absolute maximum the processor can handle. We managed a lofty <b>4364MHz</b> overclock using a rather high base clock. There is no performance gain to the high base clock, we just wanted to show that the processor had no problem running up that high. We also found that the 23X CPU multiplier really didn't mind being overclocked at all. A general rule of thumb with i7 processors has been to stick to odd CPU multipliers as they tend to require less vCORE to stabilize than even multipliers do. This continues to hold true with the new D0 stepping processors as we witnessed with this chip, and other retail 920's.

To say all Core i7 975's will reach this kind of a stable overclock is ridiculous, some will, some won't. There have been a number of examples in forums around the internet where users have already clocked retail 920's and 975's alike to these levels and more. We were using our air cooling setup - obviously - and temperatures really were not a big issue despite the high vCORE. We only crossed 90C for a short period of time during our LinX run. During Prime Blend and OCCT, the core temperatures - as read by Realtemp - would never cross north of 85C and often hung out around 80C. In the screen shot above, we can see that the voltage displayed in CPU-Z is 1.458v but this is with vDROOP enabled and under load, we would only see 1.406v for vCORE when measured by a digital multi-meter. Here is a chart of the temperature reading from Realtemp for the individual cores during our LinX run for the stable screen shot above.</p><center>
acc-5.png
</center><p style="text-align: justify;">You can sort of see the heat cycle of the A/C unit in the testing room. About 10 minutes into the test the A/C cycled on for a few minutes then off, and back on again close to the half way mark where the temperatures leveled right out. This is a great indication of how much ambient temperatures effect the core temperature of your processor when using air cooling.

The ambient temperature reading never dropped below 23C during this testing period and didn't go above 25.3C at any time. Like overclocking results, temperatures should be considered on a case by case basis. Just because this processor runs cool at 4.36GHz and 1.406v under load for vCORE, doesn't mean all i7 975 D0's will. We have an i7 920 D0 sitting here that would melt the TRUE CU at 1.40v...and we are not kidding in any way about that. Temperature characteristics can vary greatly from silicon batch to silicon batch. This is simply a graph of what our particular Core i7 975 did during our testing as far as temperatures are concerned.

One thing that does seem to be consistent about the D0 stepping processors, is the fact that our 4th core reads temperatures noticeably lower than the 1st core. On average, there is a 10C discrepancy across the cores from 1st to 4th. This is consistent with other i7 D0 processors we have tested so far and a lot of reports coming from end users in forums. So if you see this type of temperature difference across your cores, don't be alarmed, it seems to be the norm. Now, let's have a look at the real reason we stopped here, the all out top frequencies we could achieve on air cooling with our suite of benchmarks.</p><center><table align="center" bgcolor="#666666" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="1" width="734"><tr><td align="center" valign="top" bgcolor="#ececec" width="33%">CPU-Z Validation
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accoc-1.png

CPU-Z Validation</td><td align="center" valign="top" bgcolor="#ececec" width="33%">SuperPi 1M
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accoc-2.png
</td><td align="center" valign="top" bgcolor="#ececec" width="33%">SuperPi 32M
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accoc-3.png
</td></tr><tr><td align="center" valign="top" bgcolor="#ececec" width="33%">Hexus PiFast
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</td><td align="center" valign="top" bgcolor="#ececec" width="33%">Aquamark 3
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accoc-5.png
</td><td align="center" valign="top" bgcolor="#ececec" width="33%">Futuremark: 3DMark 01
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</td></tr><tr><td align="center" valign="top" bgcolor="#ececec" width="33%">Futuremark: 3DMark 03
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</td><td align="center" valign="top" bgcolor="#ececec" width="33%">Futuremark: 3DMark 05
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</td><td align="center" valign="top" bgcolor="#ececec" width="33%">Futuremark: 3DMark 06
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</td></tr><tr><td align="center" valign="top" bgcolor="#ececec" width="33%">Futuremark: 3DMark Vantage
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</td><td align="center" valign="top" bgcolor="#ececec" width="33%">wPrime 32M
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</td><td align="center" valign="top" bgcolor="#ececec" width="33%">wPrime 1024M
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accoc-12.png
</td></tr></table></center><p style="text-align: justify;">There is a lot of data up there so let's sum it up in one sentence. The Core i7 975 EE is fast, real fast. Even with just air cooling, this chip excelled, staying cool enough to push over 4.8GHz for SPi 1M and CPU-Z validation. We put a cap on voltage of 1.500v as anything over that would be getting higher than we are even comfortable with. Keep in mind the vCORE droop this board suffers from is still in effect, especially with multi-core benchmarks. The scores put up for a single GTX 295 in Aquamark and 3DMark 05 are especially impressive for having the CPU simply on air cooling. To put things into perspective, our first Core i7 965 we bought here at Hardware Canucks is only capable of 3DMark 06 at 4.8GHz...under LN2 cooling. Running 4.5GHz kind of surprised us at this point in our road trip. We knew we would get there, just not on our first stop. Here is a chart outlining the clocks we reached through our entire suite of benchmarks.</p><center>
acc-6.png
</center><p style="text-align: justify;">There you have it: one spot on the map checked off and we are already impressed. Unfortunately the old overclocking adage goes: if the chip is good on air, it often struggles under sub-zero conditions. This of course isn't always the case, but is something a lot of elite benchmarkers go by when estimating the abilities of a processor. We are about to find out either way so everyone back in the bus and get your mitts and toques out for the next stop on our journey, Phase Change City.</p>
 
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3oh6

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Location
Edmonton, AB
Round 2: Phase Change City

<center><img src="http://images.hardwarecanucks.com/image/3oh6/intel/i7_975ee/pcc-1.jpg" alt=""><p style="text-align: justify;">Did we ever book it out of Air Cooling Canyon quickly and for good reason; when the next stop on the map is -35C, how can an overclocker resist? The answer, he/she can't...yeah, there are some female geeks out there clocking too guys, you just scare them all away in the forums the second you find out they are female. Learn to play it cool and more ladies might show their face in our sausage party of a community.

Now, Phase Change City, where idle temps are as cold as a northern Manitoba winter...in May maybe. When going below ambient temperature, like humans, computers need insulation. For that, we turn to the latest craze to hit the sub-zero scene, kneaded rubber eraser. The only problem is that the art store introverts look at you weird when you walk in and ask for a couple boxes of the stuff, trust me, I know.</p><center>
pcc-2.jpg
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</center><p style="text-align: justify;">Just like 1/2" neoprene did before it, kneaded rubber eraser insulates the surface of the motherboard around the CPU to prevent from condensation forming on the surface. In case you didn't know, puddles of water and motherboards don't mix while water in the socket is another sure fire way to kill something. The kneaded rubber eraser prevents any air from touching the surface of the motherboard around the socket which will get cold when we put sub-zero cooling on the processor. By preventing air from touching the cold surface of the motherboard, water won't condense and we prevent puddles. With the Classified's winter coat on and ready for the colder temps here in Phase Change City, it is time to mount the evaporator...that's the cold part of a phase change cooler.</p><center>
pcc-4.jpg
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</center><p style="text-align: justify;">A couple layers of armacell sheets go between the hold down and the kneaded rubber eraser and we are officially insulated, ready for sub-ambient cooling. You will notice the switch to the EVGA X58 3X SLI Classified motherboard as we want only the best hardware involved when really pushing this processor. Nothing right now can touch the Classified when it comes to CPU clocks.

In the second photo above we are showing the massive power of an ATI Rage64 PCI video card in use. This is my typical SPi setup so we figured it deserved a little air time. Also note the temperature on the probe. This is about as good as it gets with this phase change as it desperately needs to be tuned for the higher load of a quad core i7 with hyper threading. With that said, this old girl still did plenty fine in the first cold stop on our road trip...let's take a look.</p><center><table align="center" bgcolor="#666666" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="1" width="734"><tr><td align="center" valign="top" bgcolor="#ececec" width="33%">CPU-Z Validation
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CPU-Z Validation</td><td align="center" valign="top" bgcolor="#ececec" width="33%">SuperPi 1M
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</td><td align="center" valign="top" bgcolor="#ececec" width="33%">SuperPi 32M
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</td></tr><tr><td align="center" valign="top" bgcolor="#ececec" width="33%">Hexus PiFast
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</td><td align="center" valign="top" bgcolor="#ececec" width="33%">Aquamark 3
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</td><td align="center" valign="top" bgcolor="#ececec" width="33%">Futuremark: 3DMark 01
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</td></tr><tr><td align="center" valign="top" bgcolor="#ececec" width="33%">Futuremark: 3DMark 03
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</td><td align="center" valign="top" bgcolor="#ececec" width="33%">Futuremark: 3DMark 05
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</td><td align="center" valign="top" bgcolor="#ececec" width="33%">Futuremark: 3DMark 06
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</td></tr><tr><td align="center" valign="top" bgcolor="#ececec" width="50%">Futuremark: 3DMark Vantage
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</td><td align="center" valign="top" bgcolor="#ececec" colspan="2" width="50%">wPrime 32M
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</td></tr></table></center><p style="text-align: justify;">In addition to some impressive numbers, we have a glaring omission for one of the results. wPrime 1024M seems to be absent in this city and the reason for that absence is simple...wPrime 1024M is too bloody hot. Even at the same clocks that we achieved on air in wPrime 1024M, the old phase couldn't handle the heat that a Core i7 puts out with all 8 threads including hyper-threading cranking. Like we said, the phase change unit needs to be re-tuned. The single thread benchmarks don't put out enough heat to cripple the cold of this stop in our tour so they all scale nicely with the cooler temps. 40K is a walk in the park for 05 and 06 cracked 30K without much effort. We also managed to crack sub 7 minutes in 32M SuperPi at a very respectable 5120MHz. Here is the chart of our clocks with phase change cooling.</p><center><img src="http://images.hardwarecanucks.com/image/3oh6/intel/i7_975ee/pcc-6.png" alt=""></center><p style="text-align: justify;">The temps we see in Phase Change City are nowhere near what can be achieved with even dry ice, let alone liquid nitrogen. Fortunately we don't have to stop here as there is one more spot marked on the map and guess what lies in wait for us there? That's right, Liquid Nitrogen National Park is our next and final stop on this summer's road trip with the Core i7 975 EE processor. So bundle up and get ready for what should be the best location we have seen thus far. These first two stops have been nothing more than road-side attractions compared to what lays ahead.</p>
 
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3oh6

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Location
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Last Stop: Liquid Nitrogren National Park

<center><img src="http://images.hardwarecanucks.com/image/3oh6/intel/i7_975ee/lnnf-1.jpg" alt=""></center><p style="text-align: justify;">The best part of any summer vacation road trip is the last stop of the journey. Partially because a part of you just wants to get home and you are only one step away from that, the other part is because it should be the best stop of the trip. For us on this road trip, getting home has nothing to do with it. Liquid Nitrogen National Park is the ultimate stop for any overclocker and once you go, you never want to leave. With temperatures as cold as -196C, Liquid Nitrogen National Park can get frighteningly cold, but usually something stands in the way.

With all Intel processors there exists a phenomenon known as a "cold bug". This is the point in which the processor simply stops working. This can happen anywhere from -60C to -130C, but happens at some point in every Core i7's lifetime. The term "cold bug" is simply a term the community has used to describe this phenomenon of the processor reaching its temperature threshold...it really isn't a bug. The other thing to note with Core i7 processors is that colder is not always better, so like benching on any platform with LN2, the Core i7 platform requires time and energy in learning what your particular chip likes and doesn't like.</p><center>
lnnf-2.jpg
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</center><p style="text-align: justify;">As was the case in previous locations, we have a couple different setups that we will use for the overclocking. Our SPi setup makes an appearance again, as does the single GTX 295. The only difference from previous locations is the processor cooling. Strapped to the Core i7 975 EE's back is a MMouse Rev3 all copper liquid nitrogen cooling pot while insulation remains the same as it did for Phase Change City on the motherboard. That is the beauty of kneaded rubber eraser, it is great for -40C and just as good for -90C. One major addition to our stop in Liquid Nitrogen National Park is the addition of four lovely red cards...seen below.</p><center>
lnnf-4.jpg
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</center><p style="text-align: justify;">It is no secret, the EVGA X58 Classified has four PCI-E 16X slots, so we figured that we should fill them. Swapping out the stock cooler on one of the cards allowed all four to fit with ease and after wrangling with ATI's lovely (can you hear the sarcasm folks? -Ed.) driver package for a while, we figured out how to get these four cards working in CrossFireX. This is obviously where the second PSU we listed earlier comes into play as the single Corsair HX1000W simply can't handle this many video cards. Needless to say, we have probably the most powerful benching platform available right now...for most benchmarks anyway. Just remember that 3DMark Vantage still falls horribly behind NIVIDA video cards, even with a fourth HD4890. Let's first take a look at the results we were able to pull off with our standard GTX 295 setup with a full 30L dewar of LN2.</p><center><table align="center" bgcolor="#666666" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="1" width="734"><tr><td align="center" valign="top" bgcolor="#ececec" width="33%">CPU-Z Validation
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CPU-Z Validation</td><td align="center" valign="top" bgcolor="#ececec" width="33%">SuperPi 1M
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</td><td align="center" valign="top" bgcolor="#ececec" width="33%">SuperPi 32M
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</td></tr><tr><td align="center" valign="top" bgcolor="#ececec" width="50%">Hexus PiFast
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</td><td align="center" valign="top" bgcolor="#ececec" colspan="2" width="50%">Aquamark 3
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</td></tr><tr><td align="center" valign="top" bgcolor="#ececec" width="33%">Futuremark: 3DMark 03
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</td><td align="center" valign="top" bgcolor="#ececec" width="33%">Futuremark: 3DMark 05
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</td><td align="center" valign="top" bgcolor="#ececec" width="33%">Futuremark: 3DMark 06
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</td></tr><tr><td align="center" valign="top" bgcolor="#ececec" width="33%">Futuremark: 3DMark Vantage
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</td><td align="center" valign="top" bgcolor="#ececec" width="33%">wPrime 32M
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</td><td align="center" valign="top" bgcolor="#ececec" width="33%">wPrime 1024M
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</td></tr></table></center><p style="text-align: justify;">Getting the full suite of benchmarks done with a single 30L dewar of liquid nitrogen really was a challenge. Because of this, we weren't able to full maximize each and every benchmark. If we were able to spend a full day and full dewar on each benchmark, we could definitely squeeze a few more clocks out of most of them, but the results we achieved are nothing short of excellent. We found the optimal operating temperature with this chip to be around -75C for 3D and multi-core benchmarks. SuperPi liked to run a little warmer around -60C which isn't un-common. Again, every chip is going to be different and you have to really learn what your particular CPU likes when cooling with LN2.</p><center><img src="http://images.hardwarecanucks.com/image/3oh6/intel/i7_975ee/lnnf-6.png" alt=""></center><p style="text-align: justify;">One interesting roadblock we ran into with this processor during our LN2 benching was the fact that we were getting a "cold boot" issue which is similar to the "cold bug" we explained earlier. Only in this case the issue only affects the ability to boot after a restart or shut down. We found that between about -40C and -70C, our processor wanted nothing to do with booting, especially after a power off. Going colder than -70C seemed to completely cure the issue. I have personally never experienced a processor that acted like this and no other Core i7 or C2D chips I have benched have presented a "cold boot" hole. Needless to say, it took a bit of time to figure this out but once we did, it was business as usual. This is just part of the fun benching at sub-zero temperatures considering we are operating the processor well out of its specified environment both in temperature and voltages.

It is always fun hearing guys in forums say they would be able to reach astounding benchmark results if they had access to LN2 and all this hardware...things like this are just a small part of why it is much easier said than done.</p><center><table align="center" bgcolor="#666666" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="1" width="734"><tr><td align="center" valign="top" bgcolor="#ececec" width="33%">4 x HD4890: 03
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</td><td align="center" valign="top" bgcolor="#ececec" width="33%">4 x HD4890: 05
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</td><td align="center" valign="top" bgcolor="#ececec" width="33%">4 x HD4890: 06
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</td></tr></table></center><p style="text-align: justify;">Speaking of struggling to overcome hurdles, if you want to drive yourself nuts, just put four HD4890's together in an EVGA Classified and try to bench with even just the CPU under LN2...all we can say is good luck. ATI drivers really made this a challenging experience but again, time and persistence allowed us to really hit some great results in 3Dmark 05 and 3DMark 06. The 3DMark 03 result is not even close to what it should be but in order to maximize 3DMark 03 in Windows 7, it takes a rather delicate process of driver installation and OS setup. We already started running out of LN2 in this massive 14 hour session and couldn't get a 3DMark 01 result completed, okay okay, so I forgot about 01...wanna fight about it? So getting a solid 03 result just wasn't in the cards. Even still, cracking 46K in 05 and 34K in 06 is no small feat and something we were quite pleased to manage.

With these results, our stay in the Liquid Nitrogen National Park was over and we were kindly asked to leave. Something about scaring other campers with our impressive Core i7 975 setup was given as the excuse. We personally think the staff just couldn't handle our good looks anymore and where threatened by our benching skills. Either way, it is time to head home and wrap this road trip up with a small summary of our experience.</p>
 
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3oh6

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A Summer Road Trip With the Intel Core i7 975 EE: Debrief

<center><img src="http://images.hardwarecanucks.com/image/3oh6/intel/i7_975ee/conclusion-2.jpg" alt=""></center><p style="text-align: justify;">Like all road trips, it does feel good to be home. As much fun as benching all day on various cooling mediums with different hardware setups is, sitting down and doing nothing sure feels nice right now. With that said, the results we have provided are most definitely worth the effort involved. Let's do a brief recap of what we accomplished on this road trip. First up was basic air cooling that everyone has access to and a Thermalright Ultra-120 variant matched with a couple fans was able to achieve rather impressive overclocks. The fully stable overclock of 4.36GHz is at the upper end of the spectrum we believe for air cooling. We won't speculate on what could be an average overclock on air with Core i7 975 EE processors because that would simply be wreckless on our behalf. Overclocking is a matter of luck, skill, and effort with a great number of variables. Good batches of chips will clock higher than ours, bad batches will clock lower. Just remember, our results are from a single engineering sample and shouldn't be the expectation of all i7 975 EE retail purchases.

As for the benchmarking clocks we managed with air cooling, we were quite surprised by what was possible. The low temperatures of our particular processor allowed for much higher voltages to be used than we initially anticipated. Some of the D0 stepping processors available right now do not run this cool, as demonstrated by our Core i7 920 retail processor with a date code of 3845B026. Our 920, and a number of other users with the same or similar date codes have reported high temperatures that would never allow 1.5v vCORE to be used with air cooling like we could with the i7 975 EE processor. Again, processors can vary greatly from one chip to the next and expectations should always be kept in check when making a purchase.</p><center><img src="http://images.hardwarecanucks.com/image/3oh6/intel/i7_975ee/conclusion-1.jpg" alt=""></center><p style="text-align: justify;">As we moved on to colder temperatures in the way of our single stage phase change unit, we witnessed a coming alive of this processor at operating temperatures of -20C to -35C. Single threaded applications didn't tax the phase change unit and it was able to hold the temperature load well enough to allow for some really solid overclocks with our processor. As we increased the processor load with multiple cores in use, we saw the phase change fall to its knees. There are a number of phase change units available on the market and we would liken our unit to that of a commercial Asetek or Mach II unit. As always though, results vary greatly depending on variables like the motherboard in use, and the user’s ability to find correct voltage combinations to maximize a CPU. This effort is no more evident than during our liquid nitrogen benchmarking.

With the ability to cool the processor to its useful limits, liquid nitrogen cooling is the ultimate benchmarking medium for the Core i7 family of processors. Our results were continually in the top 20 globally on HWBot.org due to a lot of work and effort on our part. Careful hardware matching such as our choice in motherboard and memory played a large role in these results, not to mention the rather gaudy performance seen from mating four HD4890's together in CrossFireX. We simply wanted to showcase the Core i7 975 EE processor here today and not provide a platform for people to make purchasing decisions from. This means that we don't want you to go out and spend a thousand dollars on an i7 975 EE processor based on our results expecting to achieve the same numbers we have. Overclocking doesn't work like that, especially at the level we benched at during this road trip.

After all of that has been said, if you are contemplating the purchase of a Core i7 975 processor at this time there are simply a couple things we can guarantee. You will be buying the best performing retail processor available on the market today. You will have the pleasure of an unlocked CPU multiplier that can only be found on Extreme Edition processors from Intel. And you will be in a great position to really push things with sub ambient cooling...but the price tag comes with no guarantees.

Now that our "summer vacation" is over, time to get back to work I guess. Look for a review of the OCZ Blade memory we used today to hit the pages of HardwareCanucks.com shortly. We would like to thank Intel for making this road trip possible and really appreciate the ability to take this Core i7 975 to the limits and beyond.</p><center>
conclusion-3.jpg



 
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