Intel Sandy Bridge sample OCed to 5.5GHz on air

Posted on Wednesday, October 27 2010 @ 2:01 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck
Overclocker JCornell managed to get his hands on an engineering sample of Intel's upcoming Core i7 2600K "Sandy Bridge" and overclocked the chip to 5.5GHz with nothing but air cooling!
The CPU in question, a Core i7-2600K, appears to have a peak turbo speed of 3.4GHz. JCornell takes the chip up to an impressive 5.5GHz, which is good enough to shorten its SuperPi calculation time from just over 10 seconds to a little less than 7.5.

According to SemiAccurate, the overclock was done with air cooling and less than 1.4V, making Sandy Bridge's potential all the more intriguing. Of course, you'll need a K-series CPU with an unlocked upper multiplier to get one of Intel's upcoming CPUs running at higher than stock speeds. Sandy Bridge prevents motherboards from increasing the base clock speed to push the CPU clock, leaving K-series chips as the only option for overclockers.
Source: The Tech Report


About the Author

Thomas De Maesschalck

Thomas has been messing with computer since early childhood and firmly believes the Internet is the best thing since sliced bread. Enjoys playing with new tech, is fascinated by science, and passionate about financial markets. When not behind a computer, he can be found with running shoes on or lifting heavy weights in the weight room.



Loading Comments



Use Disqus to post new comments, the old comments are listed below.


Re: Intel Sandy Bridge sample OCed to 5.5GHz on air
by Anonymous on Wednesday, October 27 2010 @ 3:48 CEST
THIS is the real reason PC sales are slowing. Money gets spent more wisely these days so folks are willing to wait to get the good boost in speed and features like USB 3 that Sandy Bridge machines will offer.



  • Reply by Anonymous on Wednesday, October 27 2010 @ 15:42 CEST

    And at the same time , Intel is not allowing overclocking except with the high-end processors. That is not a good idea, in my opinion, and will probably cause the enthusiast segment to look elsewhere.