Intel Core i7 930 review

Like your CPUs over engineered? Try this quad-core masterpiece

Intel Core i7 930
At less than £200, the Intel Core i7 930 is a bargain chip for all but the most extreme tweakers

TechRadar Verdict

A superbly engineered CPU. But Intel's LGA1,156 CPUs make more sense for most.

Pros

  • +

    Fantastic feature set

  • +

    Great performance for a quad-core CPU

Cons

  • -

    LGA1,366 socket is not long for this world

  • -

    Intel's six-core chips are much faster

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A high end chip for mainstream money? That'll be the Intel Core i7 930. Based on the mighty Bloomfield core, it's identical in most respects to processors costing up to £800. But it's yours for £200 and change.

Compared to those top chips, the Core i7 930 only gives up a little clockspeed. Still, at 2.8GHz - plus a little extra when Intel's Turbo feature kicks in - it's hardly a slouch on the frequency front. More importantly, you get all the high end Bloomfield features, including four cores, eight threads, a triple-channel memory controller and the uber-bandwidth QPI interface.

Like other Intel processors for the LGA 1,366 socket, the Core i7 930 is arguably over-engineered for the desktop. But like a 1980s Mercedes, there's satisfaction to be had from knowing you own something so impeccably constructed, even if some of the details are overkill.

Of course, like an old Merc, running a 930 doesn't come without cost. Motherboards and memory are expensive. In that context, Intel's own Core i7 870 processor gives a better return on your investment. What's more, the recent arrival of six-core processors from Intel has made Bloomfield a little less desirable.

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