The Intel Core i7 860 Review

Power Consumption

The Core i7 860's power consumption at idle is nice and low, as expected thanks to power gating and low TDP of Lynnfield.

Overclocking

Gary actually handled the overclocking of the 860 before it got into my hands, thankfully this sample seemed to fare better than our first i7 860.

First, our stock voltage overclock with the retail cooler, 3.33GHz:

Four cores under load, turbo enabled, stock voltage, retail cooler

Next, max overclock with turbo enabled again using the retail cooler, 3.53GHz (four cores active):

Max overclock, four cores under load, turbo enabled, retail cooler

And finally the max overclock with no turbo. Once more, using the retail cooler:

Max overclock, single core load, no turbo

The rule of thumb with Lynnfield appears to be 3 - 3.3GHz overclocks at stock voltage, 3.8GHz+ is possible with additional voltage.