Intel Core i7-990X Extreme Edition Review

Testing

Our LGA1366 test board is the awesome Asus P6TD Deluxe, while we tested the Sandy Bridge LGA1155 chips using an Asus P8P67 motherboard. Meanwhile, we used the Asus Crosshair IV Formula motherboard to test AMD chips, which is based on the AMD 890FX chipset. This is a more expensive motherboard than the Gigabyte GA-H55M-UD2H that we use for testing the Intel LGA1156 chips, but both boards are excellent overclockers that allowed us to get the maximum performance from the CPUs on test.

Test Setup

Software

Below is a list of the applications we've used for our testing - most of them are available free for public consumption, although some are popular professional software applications.

• Crysis v1.21
  
• X3: Terran Conflict rolling demo v1.2.0.0
  
• WPrime v2.00
  
• Media Benchmarks v2007.235
  
• Maxon Cinebench 11.5 64-bit

We've used Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, as this is the most flexible and reliable 64-bit OS for testing the applications above.

Test Hardware

• ATI Radeon HD 5870 graphics card (Catalyst 10.11 WHQL)
  
• 2TB Western Digital Caviar Black hard disk
  
• PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750W PSU
  
• Asus P6TD Deluxe motherboard
  
• Asus Crosshair IV Formula motherboard
  
• Gigabyte GA-H55M-UD2H motherboard
  
• Asus P8P67 motherboard
  
• 4/6GB (3 x 2GB) Corsair 1,600MHz DDR3 memory (CL9)
  
• Titan Fenrir TTC-NK85TZ CPU cooler, except for LGA1155 systems where we use a Corsair H50