Intel Core i7-980X Gulftown Hexa-core
Full review can be read here http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=883
Amazingly enough, this new processor will be priced the same as the current generation 975 extreme edition, so its kind of a no brainer as to which one to choose
Thanks to Intel's policy of sharing their road maps years in advance, we have known about the upcoming 6-core (or hexa-core) Gulftown processor for quite a while though exact release dates are always held closer to the vest by the chip giant. Initial reports from back in 2008 and early 2009 were ambiguous as to whether or not we would see this computing powerhouse on Intel's 45nm or its 32nm technology, but a speed-up in the process transition (and likely some technical and development considerations) has now made that distinction for us.
Gulftown, now known as the Intel Core i7-980X Extreme Edition processor, will be available immediately for power users that want the top level performance available in a consumer product. Let's dive into the details.
Making the case for 6-core processors
When it comes processors, the more cores the better, all else being equal. HOW MUCH better is a matter of application usage, personally preference and in many case, personal opinions, but I think we can all agree that having more computing power is a good thing. For power users that currently are using quad-core processors with HyperThreading (from either Intel's Bloomfield or Lynnfield lineup) you are already a witness to this. While not all applications can take advantage of multiple threads for computing, all modern operating systems today can at least apply multi-threading to entire system. So how does a 50% increase in core count and thread count sound?
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