Intel Core i7 7820X Skylake X Review

Test Setup

ASUS X299-A Prime
Intel i7-7820X
Corsair ROG Dominator Platinum 3200
G.Skill Trident-Z 3600
Corsair RM1000i
Corsair MP500 512GB
Corsair H110i GT
Windows 10

Stock 

Straight out of the box (mainly thanks to the X299-A motherboard) our CPU just sat at 4GHz. As you can see below it was only using 1.069v too which we further reduced to 0.9v and it still remained stable. Turning XMP on to our 3200MHz memory it did get a bit flakey but with everything in tow we did have the system running again at 1v. Yes one volt for 8 Cores and 16threads with 3200MHz memory 100% stable.

Overclocking

The updated X series is capable of some seriously beefy overclocks, particularly given how many cores there are. As you should be aware, the more cores there are, the greater the chance that one of them isn’t up to the task. It speaks volumes about the quality of the Intel silicon yield that our i7-7820X was capable of 4.8 GHz at 1.22v and 5 GHz at 1.3v. Naturally with this many cores in play at these clock speeds the i7-7820X requires a decent amount of cooling to keep everything under wraps, but even at these speeds we saw 72°C at 1.2v but at 1.3v temperatures got to unsafe levels in a matter of seconds. So don’t attempt to overclock this on a single fan air-cooler, and if you can stretch to a minimum of a 240mm rad, preferably 360mm, then all the better. If you’re hoping to run above 1.25v (or for that matter need to) then we would seriously advise thinking about de-lidding your CPU AND a beefy AIO as an absolute minimum.

Memory speed wise 3600MHz was our ceiling but this was probably limited by the fact we dont have any faster quad channel kits than this. Looks like we need some testing kit upgrades! 3200MHz was easy peasey though and it had next to no impact on the volts the CPU required anywhere. This in itself is a massive step up from the old X99 days.