Details of Intel’s new line of Sandy Bridge-E models have surfaced, with the Core I7 processors being packaged in the LGA2011 Models.
Some details we’re known about these new lines of processor back in April 2011, but things such as (clock speeds, cache, and cores) we’re unknown. The information back in April provided by Intel stated that there would be two lines of LGA2011 processors. One being considered for the enthusiast type, being geared towards those people who enjoy pushing things to the limit. While the other would be a more for the mainstream audience, lacking most of the overclocking features thus being considered a lock down processor.
Intel’s new line of processors all feature a number over 3000, which means these are 3rd generation processor even though they use the Sandy Bridge architecture.
Something to take note of is the difference between the models processors, each one comes with a distinct lettering signifying the “who’s who” among the crowd. If you come across a processor with the letter “X” that means the processor is an extreme series processor, while if you come across the letter “K” that means it’s an unlocked version of the processor and quite possibly the best one, If we take into consideration the previous generations of “K” Vs. “X”.
Now to get down to the knitty gritty, starting from the highest on the totem pole on down.
First up we have the I7-3990X Extreme Edition. This processor will have 6 cores with 12 threads using HTT (Hyper Threading Technology), the chip however has a basic clock speed of 3.30GHz, with a turbo boost that will push it towards the 3.90 GHz range. It features a full 15MB L3 Cache present on Sandy Bridge-E silicon, making it the least affordable chip unless you own a small oil reserve.
It will be the most expensive of the Sandy Bridge-E models.
In the middle of the totem pole we have the I7-3930K. It has 6 cores with 12 threads and a base clock speed of 3.2 GHz, with a turbo boost that will push it up to 3.80GHz. It has a 12MB L3 Cache (vs that of the 3990X with its 15MB cache) but because it is a K series, it comes with an unlocked BClk multiplier which means you can over-clock it.
Now with the top, and middle of the totem pole covered we move on down to the bottom. Here we have the most affordable of the new LGA2011 processors, the I7-3820. It features 4 cores with 8 threads and a base clock speed of 3.60 GHz, with an astounding turbo boost that will push it to 3.90GHz with just 10MB of L3 Cache.
Unlike the other two processors this one is completely locked down, so there is no chance of overclocking this thing.
