Quote Originally Posted by Jacky View Post
There is no overclocking protection! There were lots of overclocks leaked prior to launch btw. You simply did not pay attention and based your conclusion on what.. tom's review?
I skimmed like 10 reviews and there is not a single word of any "overclocking protection". There was something mentioned about downclocking depending on temperature, which is fine, Intel does not want you to fry your CPU.
The 940 and 920 i7 does not overclock a lot because of the multi, if you want to call that overclocking protection...
Maybe I missed it, but the i7 940 can be overclocked to 4ghz ?!


Most reviews conclude that tri-channel provides close to zero benefits, is there a reason why people still think they need tri-channel?
Overclocking is very different on the Core i7. Unlike the Core 2 or Pentium D processors, the Core i7 CPU can monitor the current it draws as well as its power consumption—if it exceeds a certain level, the processor automatically reduces its clock speed. Intel calls this feature "Overspeed Protection." The limits hard-wired into the core are 100 A and 130 watts. Only the Extreme Edition allows the user to increase these values as they like, effectively circumventing the protection mechanism altogether.

Thermal power loss rises especially quickly when the core voltage is increased. Thus, it is entirely possible that a lower model Core i7 may offer excellent overclocking potential, but it will be constrained by the Overspeed Protection feature when its power dissipation triggers it. Obviously, Intel wants to prevent customers from buying an inexpensive processor and then overclocking it to very high or even extreme levels. Apparently, Intel has realized that the good overclocking potential of its processors has led ambitious users to choose less expensive models, relegating the faster (and more expensive) CPUs to the sidelines.
toms link.

It is not temp downclocking. You can see these options in the bios screenshots as well, on the EE edition you can override them.
What is hardwired into the chip, is it is limited to powerdraw as well, not only temp. So if you buy a i920, and you luck out, like i did with my q6600 and your tdp is way down lets say 72 watts for arguements sake, you ve got massive headroom and the volts would probably get to high before you reach that wall. However, there is a spread , like in all processors, so if you get an i920 that has 110W tdp at default volts you wont get very far before that wall comes into play. Since the i920 i would assume is the lower bins, the luck of getting a low TDP chip is not on your side, and this will otherwise limit oc'ing for a chip, that might have to be pushed harder than another.
The benefit or protection element doesnt make sense to me. If you have temp based down clocking.. i dont see the necessity for this, as you void your rma abilities if you go beyond spec anyways... so either they found a high inciedence in fried chips.. meaning this can't handle volts well (which i doubt) or they wanted to stop budget chips from getting up to 4 - 4.5 on air... it makes perfect business sense, just hoops us budget oc'rs who cant drop 1k on an EE chip.