We reported as late as yesterday that Sandy Bridge-E will most likely not ship with a cooler but it will have to be bought separately. It looks like we now have the prices of the of the new processors and they should come as nor surprise for most users, but the platform may not be more expensive than LGA 1366.
The new socket LGA 2011 have been a turbulent story with a delayed launch to 2012 then to be moved back into 2011 with less functions in the chipset. The new enthusiast platform will be the spiritual replacement for LGA 1366 and brings quad-channel memory and completely integrated northbridge with 40 PCIe channels.
Six cores, four memory channels, 40 PCI Express channels require a lot of pins, 2011
Sandy Bridge-E would first bring PCI Express 3.0, but due to lack of expansion cards that support the new standard Intel has had a hard time testing it. It has been scaled down to PCI Express 2.0 to reach a 2011 launch, which also means fewer SATA ports. If the processors will support PCI Express 3.0 at a later date with newer motherboards we don’t know at this time.
| Model | Core i7-3960X | Core i7-3930K | Core i7-3820 |
| Corers/Threads | 6/12 | 6/12 | 4/8 |
| L3 cache | 15 MB | 12 MB | 10 MB |
| Clock freq./Turbo | 3.3 GHz/3.9 GHz | 3.2 GHz/3.8 GHz | 3.6 GHz/3.9 GHz |
| Unlocked multiplier | Yes | Yes | No(?) |
| TDP | 130W | 130W | 130W |
| Socket | LGA2011 | LGA2011 | LGA2011 |
| Price | $999 | $583 | $294 |
The prices fall into the same scheme as always. Core i7-3960X will cost the same as Core i7-990X, which is replaces and cost $999. Core i7-3930K will get the same price as Core i7-980, which is €583, while the quad-core model Core i7-3820 will actually cost the same as Core i7-2600K at $294.
Core i7-3960X and Core i7-3930K will both bring unlocked multipliers to make it easier to overclock, while Core i7-3820 is still a bit vague. According to information it will have “limited unlocking”, but if BCLK overclocking to some extent is possible it should not be a big problem for overclockers.
Source: VR-Zone
