Lucky suckers at Bit-Tech.net got themselves a brand new Core i7 (Nahelm) processors and pretty boards to go with. The successor of Intel’s Core 2 CPU’s truly brings innovation and speed we all hoped for.

Just a year ago I built myself a ridiculously fast machine. To day I have never had a slowdown or something the machine could not do in a snap - but I admit, when it comes to editing movies - while 3 hours for an H.264-BluRay encoding of a home video is not too long, I’d definitely like it a bit faster.

From what I could see on Bit-Tech - H.264 encoding speed is cut in HALF compared to my overclocked Core 2 Duo E8400 running water cooled at 4GHz. Now that’s something I really like and something I could benefit from.

The Core i7 965 @ 3.2GHz is $999, Core i7 940 @ 2.93GHz is $562, and the little brother (which most people will buy) Core i7 920 @ 2.66 is at respectable $284 USD.

Some people may complain about this, but I think I can live with this pricing structure. Main reason: all these CPU’s carry 8MB L3 Cache (1MB L2) and support the new Tripple DDR3 setups. The best part: they are MADE for overclocking.

I think about June, July next year I may be jumping on this bandwagon. My Core 2 still has much to offer until prices settle a bit and more choices on motherboards and cheaper DDR3 RAM prices arrive.

More at: Bit-Tech.net

Read - PC Perspective. “Nehalem Revolution: Intel’s Core i7 Processor Complete Review”
Read - Techgage, “Intel Core i7 Performance Preview”
Read - Maximum PC, “Core i7 Dissected and Benchmarked”
Read - Computer Shopper, “Intel’s Core i7 Debuts: Systems, CPUs, and Motherboards Reviewed”
Read - HotHardware, “Getting To Know Intel’s New Core i7, Video Spotlight”
Read - TechSpot, “Intel Core i7 920, 940 and 965 Extreme Edition review”
Read - Custom PC, “Intel Core i7 - all you need to know”
Read - SlashGear, “Gateway FX6800-01e Review”