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(More customer reviews)The purpose of this review is to evaluate if the i7 940 is a worthwhile purchase vs the less expensive i7 920. I cannot see any reason to spend the additional money for the i7 940. While overclockers or benchmarkers will gravitate to the i7 965 for obvious reasons, for more mainstream users, the i7 940 seems to be in a no-man's-land of a very moderate performance increase for a hefty price difference.
Comparing the i7 920, I7 940 and i7 965 is fairly straight forward. They all have the same architecture and features. The main differences are their operating thresholds. The i7 920 clocks in at 2.66ghz, the i7 940 at 2.93ghz, and the i7 965 at 3.2ghz. The i7 965 also has a faster throughput (quick path) of 6.2GT/sec vs. 4.8GT/sec for the 920 and 940. Each has 4 cores, and 8 logical cores available to the system. While few programs take advantage of that many cores currently, with the release of Windows 7 and CPU/GPU load sharing, that will change and allow multi-core hyperthreading processors like the i7 series really come into their own.
This 940 seems to be the worst of the i7 options. Only 10% faster than the i7 920, it costs almost 50% more. The i7 965 has the added advantage of a faster through put (quick path) that for an enthusiast would justify the hefty price tag. For the average user, I can see no reason to purchase an i7 940 over an i7 920, considering a simple overclock will have the 920 operating at over 3ghz. a 10% performance increase for a 50% price difference is not justifiable.
I would recommend purchasing the i7 920 instead. It's cheaper, and only 10% slower. You can overclock it to get equal or better performance with ease. If you have to have top end speed and have the money, I suppose you could consider the i7 965 which is easier to overclock than the i7 920 and 940 respectively. Of the three cards, the i7 920 easily has the best price point/performance ratio and is the best value.
Overclockers and benchmarkers looking for top performance regardless of price should get the i7 965 if they can afford it.
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Intel Core i7-940 Processor, 2.9 GHz, 4.8 QPI, 45nm, SSE4, 3 Channel Memory, 8 MB L3 Cache, Turbo Boost Technology, EIST in a LGA-1366 package
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