Intel Core i7-930 CPU Review

Intel Core i7-930

Manufacturer: Intel
UK Price (as reviewed): £206 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed): $298.99 (excl. Tax)

While Intel has recently been busy launching Core i3 and i5 CPUs, it hasn't done anything new with its range of LGA1366 Core i7 processors for several months.

However, Intel seems to have finally found time to tweak its flagship CPU series by introducing one new model - the superb Core i7-930.

Both CPUs have the same 133MHz QPI bus, the i7-930 runs at a marginally upgraded 2.8GHz compared to the 2.66GHz for the now-classic i7-920. Just like the entire i7 desktop range, the i7-930 is made from the same 45nm transistors and it also shares the same enthusiast loving D0-stepping design as its i7-920 brother.


Despite the fact the i7-930 is just intended as a direct replacement for the existing i7-920, which is soon to be discontinued, we thought it was worth reviewing as the i7-920 was an immensely popular chip. It just so happened too that during testing the i7-930 turned out to be a little more special as well.

In principle, this also means Intel is offering a 2.8GHz Core i7-930 for the same price as a 2.66GHz Core i7-920, which goes some way to compensating for Intel's horribly confusing nomenclature.

Core i7-930 details

• Frequency: 2.8GHz
  
• Number of cores: 4 x physical, 4 x logical
  
• Core: Bloomfield
  
• Packaging: LGA1366
  
• L1 cache: 32KB L1 data, 32KB L1 instruction per core
  
• L2 cache: 256KB per core, inclusive
  
• L3 cache: 8MB accessible by all cores, inclusive
  
• QPI: 4.8GT/sec
  
• Memory: Triple-channel DDR3-1,333MHz
  
• TDP: 130W