Introduction
It's inevitable that we'll see a glut of systems released that are based around Intel's newest CPU architecture, Core i7, which we took an in-depth look at here and here.
Desktop-based Core i7 will ship in three speed-grades at the back end of this month, and whilst it's not the same kind of architectural breakthrough that defined the transition between Pentium 4 and Core, there's little reason why system builders wouldn't favour it over Core 2 when specifying rigs costing, say, £750+.
The new CPUs are mighty quick at their default speeds of 2.67GHz, 2.93GHz, and 3.2GHz for the Core i7 920, 940, and 965 Extreme Edition, respectively, but there's nothing wrong with an enthusiast-oriented SI pushing the boat out and releasing heavily-overclocking systems.
This, it transpires, is exactly what BEAST Computers will be doing very shortly, and it sent us a pre-production Core i7 for our delectation.
Read on to see if BEAST's engineering skills are put to good use.