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(More customer reviews)Contrary to popular belief, CPU chip fabrication is really an imprecise art, and manufacturing perfection cannot be found in this industry. The same series of chips, in this case the i7 900 series, are all manufactured from the same wafer. Whether or not they get the extreme designation and specified number is based on testing done on each chip after the fabrication process is complete. However not every chip is tested for a specific range in the series (e.g. 975).
Like any company, Intel has manufacturing quotas, so a certain number of 975s have to be produced each month, but beyond that, they don't run the harder tests involved with the 975s. So in reality, you could technically get a 965 or a 975 in the 950 mix, assuming all quotas were met for any chips above 950 in that particular month of fabrication. The main reason for this is due to the limited demand on the 965s and 975s. In the end, it's more-or-less the luck of the draw.
Technically, this means you could by chance end up with a 920 that matches the quality of a 950 or higher. However, the chances are more likely that you could get a 975-quality from a 950 batch, since both would come from the same vicinity on the wafer (that vicinity being the area that consistently yields the best chips) whereas the 920s are coming from a known lesser-quality area of the wafer. The 920s typically are the bottom of the barrel in the series.
So if you're absolutely picky and you must have top-of-the-line equipment, definitely go with the 975 or one of the other extreme edition CPUs, because you're guaranteed to receive a chip of the highest quality (assuming you can afford it).
However, if price is any concern at all, but absolute top performance is certainly not an issue, go with a 950 (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002A6G3V2?tag=a52-20&ie=UTF8) and take your chances on getting something better, especially if you're considering overclocking. It really all depends on your cooling solution, settings and the chances of drawing something better than the label suggests, but from what I've seen the chances are actually pretty decent.
I've benchmarked the 975, 965 and 950, all overclocked. The 975 ran only 1.8% faster than the 950, but the 950 ran even better than the "extreme" 965. In the end, I was certainly satisfied with the results of the 950 for the price. For anyone on the fence with price vs performance, you certainly won't be dissatisfied with the 950. Even if you have the extra cash to plop down on the 975, save your money and get an SSD with the extra cash flow. That's where the real bottleneck is in computing these days, and you shouldn't ever run such a top-of-the-line system without having a high-speed hard drive!
For those who are curious, here is what I chose for my machine's final configuration:
Mobo: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001KA9PZK?tag=a52-20&ie=UTF8
CPU: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002A6G3V2?tag=a52-20&ie=UTF8
Cooler: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001KUV2KQ?tag=a52-20&ie=UTF8
Memory: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001VNLDN8?tag=a52-20&ie=UTF8
Hard Drive (SSD): http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002IGT7IU?tag=a52-20&ie=UTF8
PSU: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001M3G42W?tag=a52-20&ie=UTF8
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Intel Core i7 950 3.06GHz 8M L3 Cache LGA1366 Desktop ProcessorIntel Core i7 950 Processor BX80601950 Check out the most significant architectural change in the x86 architecture in 13 years, the Intel Core i7. Intel has completely reinvented their CPU design, removing the antiquated Front Side Bus and replacing it with the new Intel QuickPath Interconnect, delivering up to 6.4 GT/s. Also new to the Core i7 line is the integrated memory controller, supporting Triple Channel DDR3 Memory allowing for more maximum memory, up to 24GB on some boards, and faster access times. Located directly on the CPU die is 256KB per core of L2 cache and 8MB L3 cache shared across all four cores means the CPU can do more without having to access the main memory, further increasing performance.
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