OC3D Sandy Bridge-E 3960X Video Review

Review

Motherboard

DX79SI Skulltrail

Inside BIOS (Skulltrail)

Benchmarking

3DMark 11 P5942, X1857

Cinebench 10.39

WPrime 32M - 5.568, 1024M - 160.696

Heaven Avg - 46.0, Max - 106.2, Min - 26.1

Folding (Not familiar with folding, not sure what to post as score)

PCMark 7 3338

PCMark Vantage 10114

Conculsion.

Seems like it runs a bit hotter than SB , While it's an amazing cpu the price to perfromance cpu ratio is just not woth it , especially for a gamer .Seems like the 2500/2600k are still the best cpus to get . I shall keep my 2600k for a while :)

Seems like it runs a bit hotter than SB , While it's an amazing cpu the price to perfromance cpu ratio is just not woth it , especially for a gamer .Seems like the 2500/2600k are still the best cpus to get . I shall keep my 2600k for a while :)

ultrapc

These processors are not meant for normal consumer use. It's aimed at professionals who have the money for them.

ie. It's not designed to replace socket 1155 and standard Sandybridge. It's a supplement to it. Intel still expect most people to continue buying 2500k's and anyone complaining about the price:performance ratio simply doesn't understand this.

These processors are not meant for normal consumer use. It's aimed at professionals who have the money for them.

ie. It's not designed to replace socket 1155 and standard Sandybridge. It's a supplement to it. Intel still expect most people to continue buying 2500k's and anyone complaining about the price:performance ratio simply doesn't understand this.

xxLordDavidxx

wow

Sounds like an amazing CPU for rendering.... Plus I've been looking for an x79 motherboard upgrade for quite some time now. It is going to cost me though, but I think its worth it for those who need all that power.

between 0% and 100% improvement for 4 times the cost!

Pass

Aside from the price this is some impressive hardware. I have no use for it, but dang... The stupid part is they don't even include a CPU cooler so if you are making the investment plan to toss in an extra $30 + bucks to account for that. Then again, if you are dropping $1k on a cpu that shouldnt be an issue.

Aside from the price this is some impressive hardware. I have no use for it, but dang... The stupid part is they don't even include a CPU cooler so if you are making the investment plan to toss in an extra $30 + bucks to account for that. Then again, if you are dropping $1k on a cpu that shouldnt be an issue.

Smoke89

But yeah it kind of makes sense no cooler, because on the qx6700 and pentium 4 3.6 ghz prescott I have, the fan just whines ever few seconds you put load on it.

Another good review here. I will say this you shouldn't buy this CPU if all your interested is gaming.

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/48210-intel-sandy-bridge-e-core-i7-3960x-cpu-review-23.html

Good for profesionals. Not so great for gamers/consumers. gmaster456

Aside from the price this is some impressive hardware. I have no use for it, but dang... The stupid part is they don't even include a CPU cooler so if you are making the investment plan to toss in an extra $30 + bucks to account for that. Then again, if you are dropping $1k on a cpu that shouldnt be an issue.

Smoke89

They don't include a cooler because anyone who buys one is going to go with an aftermarket cooler anyway (although Intel apparently offers a watercooler separately). SNB-E is really just a die harvested Xeon (AKA SNB-EP -- get it?); you're not going to slap the standard Intel heatsink on one of those and call it a day.

Which also answers the question of "no s***, it's not good value for gaming". One would generally not recommend a borderline server processor for your leet gaming rig.

And here i thought competition was supposed to produce higher results, but oh well i guess AMD falling behind has not decreased Intel's momentum. :P

[QUOTE="Smoke89"]

Aside from the price this is some impressive hardware. I have no use for it, but dang... The stupid part is they don't even include a CPU cooler so if you are making the investment plan to toss in an extra $30 + bucks to account for that. Then again, if you are dropping $1k on a cpu that shouldnt be an issue.

PBSnipes

They don't include a cooler because anyone who buys one is going to go with an aftermarket cooler anyway (although Intel apparently offers a watercooler separately). SNB-E is really just a die harvested Xeon (AKA SNB-EP -- get it?); you're not going to slap the standard Intel heatsink on one of those and call it a day.

Which also answers the question of "no s***, it's not good value for gaming". One would generally not recommend a borderline server processor for your leet gaming rig.

Picked up my 3960X and Asus P9X79 Deluxe on Monday.

Picked up my 3960X and Asus P9X79 Deluxe on Monday.

AdamK47

An impressive piece of hardware,but not worth the money,at least not for a gamer.It still makes me wonder what kind of game advancements we could see if someone fully utilized its potential,though...

[QUOTE="AdamK47"]

Picked up my 3960X and Asus P9X79 Deluxe on Monday.

C_Rule

Do I know you? Who are you?

Fast, expensive, and impractical as hell for most of us. A typical high-end Intel product.

E is for Expensive. -CheeseEater-

Fast, expensive, and impractical as hell for most of us. A typical high-end Intel product.

hartsickdiscipl

Seriously. I was looking to set-up an 8-CPU Itanium rig for BF3 and it was going to run me like, $200,000. What a rip-off!

I want one! :(

[QUOTE="-CheeseEater-"]E is for Expensive. mitu123