Reviews - Intel Core i7-3770K (22nm Ivy Bridge)

[watercooled]

8/4/4 PCIe 3.0 does not mean you can use 2.0 cards as 16/8/8 BTW; you will still have the same number of lanes, just they will run at PCIe 2.0 spec instead. So, assuming the same 2.0 cards, it will be no different than running them on a SNB CPU. Yeah the 'main' PCIe controller is on the CPU, hence why the older boards often support 3.0, electrically the board doesn't have much to do with it.

[Tattysnuc]

Is this a retail chip or a review sample that you've been sent? There's been a lot of talk about intel using Thermal past rather than fluxless solder to attach the IHS, accounting for the "huge" temperature differentials when overclocking vs Sandybridge

[watercooled]

Wrong thread?

[ShavedApe]

I can see me moving to one of these, but im coming from amd so it will be a step up for me.

[Butuz]

It will be a step up for your electricity bill at the least

Butuz

[Jaylesh]

Hmm these temps put me off a bit. Im on the brink of creating a new machine and ivy bridge was in my mind, now Im debating whether jumping onto 2011 is the way to go?

[watercooled]

Yeah it is a retarded move by Intel; did they think no-one would notice or something? It's not initial temps that concerns me, it's what they're going to be like a few years down the line when the paste starts to degrade. After all, lots of us clean+reapply TIM because of degradation. In extreme cases, a friend's P4 system for example, the stock TIM had degraded so far the fan was constantly at (very loud) max speed trying to do something, but according to BIOS the CPU was even idling way above the max recommended temp. Clean+new paste sorted that, but it's not as simple if you have to remove the heatspreader to do it too!

I couldn't really recommend 2011 for most people, unless you have special requirements of some sort. Unless you're planning on heavy overclocking, IVB should be fine, if not I'd go SNB.

[matt6457]

I'll be putting one of these in my first build. Will be a noticeable improvement over my quad core Q6600

[joshy989]

Defiantly going in my next build...love Intel