• Welcome to Overclockers Forums! Join us to reply in threads, receive reduced ads, and to customize your site experience!

FRONTPAGE Intel Sandy Bridge Extreme i7-3960X Processor Review

Overclockers is supported by our readers. When you click a link to make a purchase, we may earn a commission. Learn More.
I'd like to see a picture of the SB-E and your hand to see the size of this thing... Working on the boss to get some of them
 
i didn't think bclk went above 100mhz all FSB strap did was add a multi so it was like 125mhz, 150mhz, 200mhz and 250mhz. but blck stayed at 100mhz. thats how I understood it working. Clarification?
Yes, that's correct. We're looking at the same +/- ~10MHz bclk there was on SNB. The difference is those straps, which give much more flexibility with memory frequencies.


I'd like to see a picture of the SB-E and your hand to see the size of this thing... Working on the boss to get some of them

I'll try to remember to do that when I prep this board to go cold. It's huge, comparatively speaking.
 
That was a great review, thanks!

The power this thing has, wow.. I think its awsome that such a huge package can be wound up so high, very impressive. I probably wouldnt be able to get one until next year, with the baby on the way. It pains me to see a new socket come, and I cant play :cry:
 
Yet another quality review Hokie... excellent job!!!!

But what is SNB-E? Isnt it SB-E? As SB was Sandybridge? :chair:
 
I was tempted to edit out SNB-E for SB-E late last night, but I thought maybe he knows something I don't...lol. I say SB-E as well.
 
It's SNB-E according to Intel, so that's what I went with. SB was technically SNB too, FWIW.
 
NOW we go with the right name... :p

Again, awesome review... and awesome chip. Oh and awesome board!!!!
 
Huh, interesting. You did know something I didn't :D

What's the "N" for? Any clue? Just curious...
 
Thanks!


Haha...what's more amusing is that I've heard the chipset is what's driving up the price of these boards. It's not much better than P67. I can't imagine precisely why it costs so much more to produce. If it had at least six SATA 6Gb/s ports along with USB 3.0 native support, maybe...but it doesn't. No idea what they were thinking with this one. The CPUs are insanely powerful, but the chipset? Not so much.



Exactly. I'm so dissapointed because the proc itself is awesome. It's truly a monster! Doesn't it deserve to be released with a platform worthy of it's performance?

And we're not just talking about the loss of USB 3.0 people. I think a lot of people here forget what X79 was suppose to be.

2+4 sata has got to stop.
 
I had always guessed SaNdy Bridge, but honestly that's just a guess. I don't really know. Their emails never explain it.
 
That is an interesting point that this chipset was so neutered from what it orginally started out as...Im wndering how it can be so much more towards the cost?!
 
I was looking at Micro Center today and their starting prices are ~650+ tax and ~1150+ tax for the 3930K/3960X! I sure hope they will follow their past Intel pricing practices and cut the price for the 3930K for in-store pickup. ~$950 to ~$1000+ just to get going with these "enthusiast" parts!
 
That is an interesting point that this chipset was so neutered from what it orginally started out as...Im wndering how it can be so much more towards the cost?!

Re-couping failed R&D costs?

Who knows? Its faily insulting to charge these premiums for what is essentially an LGA 2011 socketed P67 board. There is nothing "enthusiast" about it.
 
Still has quad channel RAM and 40 PCIe lanes so no need for the NF200 for up to 4-way SLI/CFX. Those are "enthusiast" features in my opinion.
 
+1... the differences just are not on the board for the most part (outside of the obvious need for more traces b/c of ram, and PCIe lanes as mentioned above).

Gotta pay to play as they say :(. If AMD could put out something remotely as fast, maybe these prices wouldnt be so exorbitant.
 
It was my understanding that Quad channel was just as gimmicky as Triple channel in real world use.

PCIe lanes? I've already got a NF200 chipped X58, so who cares? Besides that, I am positive the 4 way SLI / CF crowd are the Nth percentile of an already slim percentile benchmarker segment of the market.
 
From Intel's point of view, why does there need to be a crap ton of SATA ports on a desktop platform? Two SATAIII ports means you would need at least three current gen SSDs and need them in RAID before a complaint was warranted on the amount of SATAIII ports on X79. Now, it also has 4 SATAII ports, plenty of speed for HDDs.

Now you have to think about how many people in the desktop market actually need more than 2 SATAIII ports and 4 SATAII ports. I would think 1% or less need either 3 SATAIII SSDs in RAID or more than 6 total internal storage devices.
 
Back