Final thoughts, rating, awards, HEXUS.right2reply
Intel's decision to release new processors based on the potent Nehalem architecture has been long overdue. There's been little change in the previous 10 months, really, as the chip giant's harvested the range-topping LGA1366 architecture for all it's worth, knowing that rival manufacturer AMD hasn’t been able to muster a credible threat against either Core 2 Quad or Core i7 until very recently. Now, though, with AMD biting at the heels with a succession of higher-clocked Phenom II X4 parts, the introduction of the Lynnfield range of CPUs will see Intel transition much of its mid-to-high-end stock to LGA1156-based Core i5/i7 CPUsThe new CPUs take most of the goodness present in LGA1366 chips and offer a couple of neat tricks in addition: enhanced Turbo Boost support and native plumbing for PCIe lanes. The latter is an important 'upgrade' because it helps to reduce the associated chipset complexity by eliminating the need for a traditional northbridge altogether. Basic boards based on the P55 core-logic should retail at below £100, making them at least £30 cheaper than the X58s used by current Core i7 models.
Intel, too, is taking the opportunity of a new release to rebrand processors. The 700-series range will encompass the budget parts, 800-series make up the mainstream, and 900-series - current Core i7 - remain the flagship.
Evaluating each of the three new processors in turn, the 2.66GHz-clocked Core i5 750 is a quad-core chip that does without hyperthreading support. Tentatively priced at £139, performance in our range of benchmarks is, somewhat surprisingly, on terms with the Intel Core 2 Q9650 (£240) and AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE (£160+). That's fundamentally impressive given how Intel has castrated the part, and it serves to show the innate power of the underlying microarchitecture.
Intel Core i5 750's decent performance, aggressive pricing and availability of sub-£100 P55 chipset-based boards will mean that present Core 2 Quad will be rendered impotent. AMD, too, will need to take a hacksaw to the pricing of its best part if it's going to continue to offer real value.
The pick of the Lynnfield trio is the £190 Intel Core i7 860. Coming in at 2.80GHz it is more than a match for the full-fat Core i7 920 (2.66GHz) and wins out on the energy front, if that matters to you. A lower TDP means that it's better-suited to smaller chassis, too.
Intel Core i7 870, clocked in at just 133MHz higher than 860, is something of an ugly duckling. Impressively fast performance is heavily compromised by a £385 etail price that doesn't make much sense (when did 975 EE's £799 ever make sense? - ed).
Want some pragmatic advice? Core i5 750 is, we believe, a chip that's on a performance par with either Core 2 Q9650 or AMD's 965 BE. What's more, it'll be priced at 'just' £139, effectively forcing the demise of Core 2 Quad and further twisting AMD's arm into reducing the price of its flagship chip. We have little hesitation in recommending it to folk looking to build, say, a £400-£500 base unit.
Up the budget by around £50 and the Core i7 860 is another very good buy. Matching the Core i7 920's visceral speed but doing so in a more efficient manner, it's hard to look past it for a £500-£750 build, especially with cheaper P55 boards on the horizon. We'd take it over our favourite chip at the moment, the Core i7 920.
The Intel Core i7 870 rounds off the Lynnfield clan and is the fastest LGA1156 chip around. However, a high etail price makes it suitable only for system builders that get a better price - Dell, for example. We'd save the money and buy an 860 instead. What remains to be seen is how Intel's own chips cannibalise each other: LGA1366 and LGA775 better watch out.
HEXUS Ratings
We consider any product score above '50%' as a safe buy. The higher the score, the higher the recommendation from HEXUS to buy. Simple, straightforward buying advice.
The rating is given in relation to the category the component competes in, therefore the CPUs are evaluated with respect to our 'mid-range and high-end components' criteria.
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Intel
Core i5 750
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Intel
Core i7 860
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Intel
Core i7 870
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HEXUS Where2Buy
Intel Core i5 750 and Intel Core i7 860
HEXUS Where2Buy
TBC.
HEXUS Right2Reply
At HEXUS, we invite the companies whose products we test to comment on our articles. If any company representatives for the products reviewed choose to respond, we'll publish their commentary here verbatim.
