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*OVERCLOCKED* Intel Core i7 920 D0 Stepping (SLBEJ) 2.66Ghz @ 4.00GHz + Free Game

Well I think I am going to order the 4.20 bundle tomorrow although will have to wait till the end of the month till the DX11 cards come out before I use it -.-

Insane

You're going to spend - £742.47 inc VAT for the 4.2ghz bundle

Same spec + a better cooler (Noctua NH-U12P)

Total : £497.89

You're going to spend an additional £245 on something that you can achieve for free, with a resource as rich as these forums you'll be sat happily at 4.2ghz in no time and will have the satisfaction of having become much more involved in the process.
 
Insane

You're going to spend - £742.47 inc VAT for the 4.2ghz bundle

Same spec + a better cooler (Noctua NH-U12P)

Total : £497.89

You're going to spend an additional £245 on something that you can achieve for free, with a resource as rich as these forums you'll be sat happily at 4.2ghz in no time and will have the satisfaction of having become much more involved in the process.

You could put a 940 in and still save a good lump, I carn't belive that price is correct.
 
You're going to spend an additional £245 on something that you can achieve for free, with a resource as rich as these forums you'll be sat happily at 4.2ghz in no time and will have the satisfaction of having become much more involved in the process.
There are a few factors involved. Firstly, you don't have to worry about getting a "bad" processor. Secondly, you don't have to worry about which BIOS settings to use. Thirdly, it's faster than any CPU officially on the market and it's also cheaper than the top of the range Core i7 Extreme Edition on its own. And finally, a lot of people simply aren't confident with overclocking. Some people are willing to pay for that, whereas others are not. Personally I was happy paying for the 4GHz overclock before the price hike, though I'd have skipped at the higher price. Then again I wasn't even looking at an upgrade until I saw the offer.

Sure I think the markup for the 4.2GHz bundle is definitely on the steep side but it's one hell of a system.
 
Yea what TAC4U said, I have no idea how to overclock and would be scared on destroying it, at least this way I also get a years guarantee as well. Obviously I would prefer it if it was cheaper and still tossing up between the 4 and the 4.2 but am seriously leaning towards the 4.2
 
go for the 4 and play with getting it up to 4.2ghz as long as you save the bios to pen drive save yourself a few quid,but unless your like me just want it straight outta the box then go for it,after all its your money and what you feel comfy with.
 
go for the 4 and play with getting it up to 4.2ghz as long as you save the bios to pen drive save yourself a few quid,but unless your like me just want it straight outta the box then go for it,after all its your money and what you feel comfy with.

Good idea, but I have never been a good one with hardware, I OCed my AMD 3000 + just because the Asus mother board had a option to make it 10% better/faster lol. I must admit I am like you and want it straight out the box and I guess I think I am willing to pay for it, going to have a think over today after all they do not have my monitor in stock, then again I waited yesterday and the 4 gig price jumped up -.- I am literally at my max budget now, but trying to think what I could use that £125 extra for. I have everything bar a graphics card and I am waiting on the DX11 ones.
 
honestly are you really going to notice any difference 4.0 to 4.2 or even 3.8 to 4.2.

Just step back a second and think about it. I mean unless you encode videos or perform heavy cpu tasks all day, its really not worth it.
 
honestly are you really going to notice any difference 4.0 to 4.2 or even 3.8 to 4.2.

Just step back a second and think about it. I mean unless you encode videos or perform heavy cpu tasks all day, its really not worth it.

Yea I must admit this has been playing on my mind a little, I encode a lot of fraps, I got a 1tb external HD and I do a lot of converting and turning in to movie files (if thats what you mean) I really want to make it as future proof as possible as once I built this I am going to have to start saving for other things which is one of my reasons for wanting to go higher.
 
mine does all that what you said even rip and burn a movie in 10minutes or less,i do a lot of 3d modeling and this is a breeze to work with redender really heavy modles faster than i ever seen,i think you will be ok with 4ghz mate when time comes you can up it a bit so save your 125 and put it to something else
 
mine does all that what you said even rip and burn a movie in 10minutes or less,i do a lot of 3d modeling and this is a breeze to work with redender really heavy modles faster than i ever seen,i think you will be ok with 4ghz mate when time comes you can up it a bit so save your 125 and put it to something else

Ok mate thanks a lot for your input it is appreciated.
~
I swear there was a post saying the fan had changed with the 4.2, I can't find it
 
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There are a few factors involved. Firstly, you don't have to worry about getting a "bad" processor. Secondly, you don't have to worry about which BIOS settings to use. Thirdly, it's faster than any CPU officially on the market and it's also cheaper than the top of the range Core i7 Extreme Edition on its own. And finally, a lot of people simply aren't confident with overclocking. Some people are willing to pay for that, whereas others are not. Personally I was happy paying for the 4GHz overclock before the price hike, though I'd have skipped at the higher price. Then again I wasn't even looking at an upgrade until I saw the offer.

Sure I think the markup for the 4.2GHz bundle is definitely on the steep side but it's one hell of a system.

There's no such thing as a "bad" cpu, they are all the same. you are no more or less likely to get better results. I would lay money on the fact that if I bought 100 i7 920's with say 20 each from each major etailer every single one would hit 3.8ghz. I'd be confident that with a quality psu / mobo / ram / cooler they'd all do 4.0 +

Bios settings ? a quick search on these very forums and you can find the exact settings required, with motherboards these days anything thats too unstable and a quick power down will return you to the bios screen with the option of restoring the defaults settings, the only real possibility of damage would result from too high a voltage being applied, or attempting to flash the bios. again read up on the correct way to do this. print off the info required and walk through it step by step. nothing to get wrong.

Confidence ? well without putting in a little time and effort that confidence level will never grow, if we all sat within comfort zones and didn't tweak push and nudge now and then nobody would ever learn.

Yea what TAC4U said, I have no idea how to overclock and would be scared on destroying it, at least this way I also get a years guarantee as well. Obviously I would prefer it if it was cheaper and still tossing up between the 4 and the 4.2 but am seriously leaning towards the 4.2

If you overclock yourself you get the same warranty, it would take at most 30 mins to read through the information on how to acheive a solid and stable overclock, and once you have done it not only have you got a very nice system but you're also on the road to gaining a new skill
 
There's no such thing as a "bad" cpu, they are all the same. you are no more or less likely to get better results. I would lay money on the fact that if I bought 100 i7 920's with say 20 each from each major etailer every single one would hit 3.8ghz. I'd be confident that with a quality psu / mobo / ram / cooler they'd all do 4.0 +

They are not all the same and some do overclock better than others. This has been the case with every CPU over the years, not just i7s. A friend of mine got an i7 920 recently which needs 1.275v to do 4GHz whereas mine will do it on 1.225v. I can't be bothered to try for more but the fact mine does it on a lower voltage means it will overclock higher.

Some chips do go higher than others, but pretty much every 920 D0 should do 3.8GHz quite easily. They won't all do 4.2GHz so easily though. Paying a premium for 400MHz or even 200MHz is insanity in my eyes, but it is justified to a point by the fact that not every chip is the same.


What sort of life expectancy would you expect on a 4.2 OCed chip?

Hard to say but it's pretty safe to assume that, as long as the voltage is kept sensible, it'll still be working even when it's obselete.
 
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given that it's set up correctly, there's no reason to suggest that it's life expectancy would be any lower than as to prove moot, by that I mean to say that if a stock 920 has an expectancy of 25 years one at 4.2 might have one of 15 years, but obviously by that point it is redundant tech anyway
 
They are not all the same and some do overclock better than others.<snip>

Some chips do go higher than others, but pretty much every 920 D0 should do 3.8GHz quite easily. They won't all do 4.2GHz so easily though.

If my post cam across as too broad a generalisation then I'm sorry, but the tone of the post is correct what would you bet on buying two cpu's from ocuk, ( same model etc ) then finding that one won't go above 3.2 whilst the other will hit 4.4, I'd suggest they'll both be equally capable but with minor differences ( volts / heat etc ) which would still be the case with a pre built bundle.

Customer A buys a bundle and it comes with his clock at 4.2 and his v's at 1.2 whereas customer B buys the same bundle on the same day for the same price and finds his clock at 4.2 but with 1.3v's
 
Well they should, theoretically, all do 3.8 maybe even 4GHz at sensible voltages. They might not all do 4.2GHz though. I certainly wouldn't want to buy an i7 920 with the aim of getting 4.2GHz out of it - some chips might not do it regardless of voltage.
 
Ok then for arguments sake let's say you bought the parts separately with the improved noctua cooler for £497 would it then be a worthy contender to paying £569 for a 3.8 bundle with an inferior cooler ? bare in mind 3.8 would be considered very very achievable but you have the option of then going for 4.2 yourself increasing the saving further ?

let's face it the additional £245 saved could effectively buy an Ati 4870X2 to go alongside the i7 kit
 
There's no such thing as a "bad" cpu, they are all the same. you are no more or less likely to get better results. I would lay money on the fact that if I bought 100 i7 920's with say 20 each from each major etailer every single one would hit 3.8ghz. I'd be confident that with a quality psu / mobo / ram / cooler they'd all do 4.0 +
But the person in question was looking at the 4.2GHz overclock bundle, which is certainly at the upper limits of the overclocking spectrum. It's entirely possible to get a chip that won't reach that, especially as it was commented that the recent batch of processors was not as good as earlier ones. And even then you've got to compare the price to a retail clocked higher model, which sell for more.

Personally I'm happy to crawl Google looking for overclocking guides and post to forums for advice but not everybody else is. But even then I only managed a 3.4GHz from a 2.66GHz C2D, whereas this is 4.2GHz from a 2.66GHz quadcore. I just think it's wrong to bash someone for considering the offer when it does actually provide good value. Sure it's more expensive than the individual components but so is a gourmet meal at a restaurant - you could trying making the meal yourself with the individual ingredients, even buying many better ones, but the likelihood is that your meal isn't going to taste as good and you won't get the customer service. Obviously if you're a professional chef - or are willing to learn and use trial and error - you may end up with a better meal but most people aren't.
 
Bashing was never the intent, I was merely providing a different perspective to a potential purchase.

to further this I then posted on the prospect of a chip at 3.8 which in real world sense will be undistinguishable from a 4.2. it's only on synthetics that you 'll see any difference recorded
 
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