This cpu is competitive with cpu's from 2 generations later. That makes it one of the best buys of 2009. Today it is a great cpu to take a ageing X58 platform to its maximum potential. The bigger brothers of this cpu the 980, 980x, 990x are all well overpriced next to the 970 as of this writeup date. The 970 gives you the performance and value of a brand new system with a smaller budget. The 6 cores help to future proof it for a few more years. There is a caveat however, the X58 will not receive another upgrade as it is retired and boards compatible with the 970 will start to get scarce. Make sure you have a good warranty on the motherboard that you purchase with this CPU. Update: It's now 2019 and the best buy would be a W3690 CPU for this socket in a single CPU system if you actually still needed one. For a dual CPU system the X5690 would be what you are looking for. Note I have placed two of those in my 2008 Mac Pro with some other modifications and bios updates to allow it to think its a 2009 Mac Pro and I now have it running Catalina. So if you are looking for a processor for the aging Mac Pro the 970 is no longer what your looking for.Read full review
Verified purchase: No
Bought the Intel i7 970 CPU on eBay because the prices were more in line with what they should be. If buying retail, purchase the 980X as they are about the same price. So far the processor has worked great. Over clocked it some, have more to go. If using the stock cooler / heatsink, be aware that the fan guard, while it does not appear so, has an 'up' and 'down'. But it on the wrong way and the fan won't turn. (Discovered that myself. Intel was not aware of it.) Be aware that no matter what the auction says, Intel will NOT honor the warranty if the item is purchased from an individual. It must be purchased from an approved retailer. (Found that out when contacting them about the fan not working.)
Processor worked quite easily. No bios update was necessary for my Intel X58 express. Chip overclocks to 4.2G quite readily.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
I purchased this as an upgrade from an i7 920 processor. The 970 is quick and has immense capacity (given its six-cores), but installation was more difficult than expected. Even with the X58 level motherboard, this was no simple move from one compatible CPU to another. So, if you're going down the same path that I did, be especially careful about BIOS updates, the type of thermal gel you use, whether Intel's large, included cooler will fit in your box, and power supplies.
Seeing as this CPU is a few cycles old I was aiming to use it as a Plex media server. And it performs exceptionally well. The cores/threads combination is a perfect fit. And not to mention the price. All of that made this fit perfectly.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
This is a wonderful processor with tons of multi-threaded headroom for video editing, gaming, and ridiculous benchmarks. What strikes me most about it is the low voltages required for great clocks as well as the thermal characteristics. This thing will run @ 4GHz w/ a 1.2 Vcore with no higher than a 53C core temp in Prime95. Granted, I am cooling it with a Megahalems in Push/Pull mounted with Indigo Xtreme TIM. With Intel's recent price drop and a nice eBay find, I was finally able to get the Gulftown I have wanted for quite some time. I simply cannot say enough about the power of this CPU and it's capabilities. The 32nm fab. process really shines in this processors cool and fast operation.
6 cores (12 threads) of crunching power (World Community Grid). Have been using the i7 920 (had 5 of them at one point crunching), but wanted to upgrade to the 6 core. They are a bit expensive but you do get a great cpu! So far I have reached 4.7GHz on water and the temps stay amazingly low. I leave it at 4.0GHz @ 1.26 VCore while crunching and the temps stay in the 40's C. I have a second one on its way to replace one of my i7 920's. Intel i7 970 (w/ EK Supreme HF Nickel water block), ASUS Rampage Extreme III (w/ Koolance water block), Patriot Vipor Extreme 6 GB @ 2000MHz, 2 GTX 470 (w/ Koolance water blocks), Corsair AX1200 psu, 2 Swiftech MCP655 pumps, 2 IandH reservoirs, Swiftech 2x120 and Monsta Lite 3x140 rads.
I usually build a new PC every year or two when new technology comes out. This time, all I did was buy this chip and install it in my two year-old home built system and I'm done. My "new" PC is faster and runs very smoothly. It even boots up quicker. It also uses a little less wall power with the wider range of power throttling in the new chip. The best part was not having to install my old applications. This was a very worthwhile upgrade that should keep me happy for at least a year.
Great processor, but upgrading from a Core i5-750 @ 3.8Ghz, it does not feel any "snappier" than that processor for everyday tasks. Of course I've not utilized all the cores at once. I'm sure once applications can take advantage of multi-core and multi-threading it will be a much different story. Overall a great Processor for heavy multitasking and gaming that utilizes more cores. Better get a good CPU cooler if you plan on overclocking.
Singing along at 4ghz on stock cooling.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
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