• Hardware

  • Intel I7 7700K Kaby Lake Review Stock, OC, & Delidded.

Hello Geeks,

Its been a while since i contributed,let alone create a thread, so be easy on me. Pictures taken using my trusty old Galaxy S3, sorry for the quality.

The system specs are:
Intel i7 7700K
Asus z170 Maximus VIII Impact
16g of Gskill Trident Z 3200 mhz (16-16-18-38-1)
Thermaltake Smart SE 730w psu
Msi gtx 980 ti gaming oc edition
Thermaltake Suppressor F1 mini-itx case
Themraltake Frio (original frio) & Corsair H80i V2
Samsung UD590 4K @ 60 hz
1TB Seagate HDD
120gb Samsung 850 EVO SSD

First a small note on the case and motherboard. The case am using does not support the graphic card, so i had to "create space" for the card to fit (bending the case, and cutting the power supply cables).
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Also it only supports up to 14 cm cpu coolers, so the frio doesn't fit (16 cm), hence the modified plexi top.
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For size comparison, the cases are CoolerMaster HAF X, generic tower case, Fractal design node 202, thermaltake suppressor F1, and a small Lenovo prebuilt pc.
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With that out of the way, lets dive into this shall we. Please note that running pc components in a small case will result in "hotter" than usual temperatures, so keep that in mind.
Its totally normal but you will see that i will have higher temperatures if you have similar hardware.

The benchmarks i am using will be 3dmark 11, 3dmark Firestrike, Aida 64 cpu benchmarks, and cinebench R15.
I will also include some gaming numbers, mainly Batman arkham night, Rise of the tomb raider, Deus ex mankind divided and Doom.

I will be testing stock cpu/ram (4.5ghz/3200mhz) settings and oc cpu/ram setting (5ghz/3534mhz).
For overclock settings, i used a 1.35v cpu core (my cpu isnt the best, but its good), bclk 102.2.
This is just a fast 5ghz clock, i will spend more time to refine once i get better cooling.
Temperatures when stress testing reaches high 89-92 degrees (bad cooling i know). So i can really check for stability since i run in temperature throttle.

This system originally had an i3 6100 cpu and 3000 mhz ram, so i will add some of the numbers.

System Specs:
Specs
Overclock:
OC
Aida 64 tests:

CPU AES stock: 20611MB/s
CPU AES OC: 22852MB/s

CPU Hash: 5165MB/s
CPU Hash OC: 5748MB/s

CPU PhotoWorxx: 26112Mpixels/s
CPU PhotoWorxx OC: 29150Mpixels/s

CPU ZLib: 408.5MB/s
CPU ZLib OC: 449.9MB/s

FPU SinJulia: 5436
FPU SinJulia OC: 6046

FPU V8: 7780
FPU V8 OC: 8522

Link for pictures: AIDA 64 Bench Pictures

CineBench R15 Stock:
Cinebench R15 Stock
Multi 984 cb
Sinlge 195 cb

CineBench R15 OC:
Cinebench R15 OC
Multi 1084 cb
Sinlge 216 cb

Next up More benchmarks
Now 3dmark 11 P stock
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Graphics Score: 25285
Physics Score: 13135
Combined Score: 13374

Total: P20593

N.B: i3 6100 system scored:
Graphics Score: 24926
Physics Score: 6266
Combined Score: 6648

Total: P14478

Now 3dmark 11 P OC
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Graphics Score: 25341
Physics Score: 14655
Combined Score: 14809

Total: P21466

Now 3dmark 11 X stock
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Graphics Score: 8093
Physics Score: 6258
Combined Score: 6442

Total: X8560


N.B: i3 6100 system scored:
Graphics Score: 8083
Physics Score: 6266
Combined Score: 6648

Total: X7664


Now 3dmark 11 X OC
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Graphics Score: 8081
Physics Score: 14255
Combined Score: 9795

Total: X8604

3dmark Firestrike:
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Score 15996
Graphics score 18651
Physics score 14631

3dmark Firestrike OC:
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Score 16543
Graphics score 19073
Physics score 15742

3dmark Firestrike X:
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Score 8295
Graphics score 8801
Physics score 14638

3dmark Firestrike X OC:
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Score 8369
Graphics score 8834
Physics score 15869

Batman Arkham Knight: (1920x1080, v-sync off, all settings max/on)
Stock: Min 55 Max 133 Avg 89 fps
OC: Min 54 Max 140 Avg 92 fps
i3 6100 cpu: Min 43 Max 108 Avg 71 fps

Deus Ex Mankind Devided: (2560x1440, v-sync off, AA off, all setting max)
Stock: Min 17.1 Max 56.9 Avg 45.7 fps
OC: Min 24.7 Max 56.9 Avg 45.5 fps
i3 6100 cpu: Min 17.9 Max 56.9 Avg 45.5 fps

Rise of The Tomb Raider: (2560x1440, v-sync off, FXAA, all settings max)
Stock: 63.06 fps
OC: 63.62 fps
i3 6100 cpu: 54.73 fps

Doom: (2560x1440, all settings ULTRA/Nightmare, 8x MSAA)
(I played through the first level and fought the gore nest on nightmare difficulty)
Stock: 126 fps
OC: 126 fps
i3 6100 cpu: 115 fps

Next will be a small temperature comparison, as you saw in the system specifications, i included both FRIO and H80i.
So here are the temperatures on load using aida64 stressing everything cpu.
Using Thermaltake Frio:
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H80i:
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Temperature dropped from 90 degrees to 83 degrees, 7 Degrees Drop!!!!!! (sarcasm on).
Now as you can see its not earth shattering, but its an itx case. Every degree counts, trust me. Using AIO coolers in small cases does that.
Still temperatures are a bit toasty so lets slice open the cpu.
Tools Used:
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Ew Intel
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Oooh Shiny
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CLU applied
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And the moment of truth:
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Now we are talking, temperature dropped from 83 to 62, a 21 Degrees drop in temperatures (sarcasm off!!).
OC stress
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Why stop @ 5 ghz
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Final System looks:
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So that concludes the review, i hope you all liked it. I can push more and refine the oc, still have not messed with ram timings or push more. I tried a lot of 5.2 ghz attempts with no avail. Changed multipliers, bclk, volts...etc, but i am satisfied with the results so far.

So If we may draw some conclusions, they will be as following:

Oc i7 7700K is fun, hot and HOT. But no real world benefit when it comes to games at least when overclocking.

i7 7700K isnt at all faster than previous gen cpus (mainly 6700K) as seen in reviews. If you own an i3 series, then upgrading to i5/7 is slightly worth it.

If you have an i7/i5 from previous gen(6xxx,4xxx, hell even 3xxx series) its not worth the hassle or the $ spent.

i3 6100 when it comes to games, coupled with high end gpu and fast RAM is NOT BAD AT ALL. i3s are fast man, newer ones are faster, but even the older generations are fast.
I also oc-ed the i3 6100 (unofficially) to 4.6ghz, which narrowed the difference (but i do not have any numbers :/ ).

Case, case, and...case. This case is lovely, but watch for proper fits and temperatures. You want to move as much air out as possible. So blower style gpus work best. Tried 1070 in there, system temperatures where lovely.
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Delidding the cpu gave me the best results overall, as the drop is indeed massive. And OC temperatures are not bad at all.

Sorry for the wall of text and picture, i hope you guys liked what you saw. Maybe some of you where encouraged/discouraged by intel new cpu. Now you have a better view. Intel will release new i7 cpu with a 112 tdp with no igpu and the heatspreader will be soldiered (where is the fun in that). Also they will release a new i5 and a i5 with HT enabled!? But they will not call it i7, will it be i6? Anyway competition is good, hopefully ZEN will shake intel up.

Until next time guys...Regards
Thanks for the review ! I built a budget PC for my friend using the i3 6100 and that thing is fast !
Nice rig, though please for the love of God put an ssd in it.
Very nice, I'm shocked from the pre-applied Intel CLU, seriously! Are they saving some cost for such a high end CPU in this part! WTH
Thank you guys.

@ MrClass...oops my bad, ill add my drives to the specs, i have a Samsung 850 EVO, its behind the HDD.
I have an i7 7700 with a Thermaltake Riing 12 Silent Pro. The cpu does not go beyond 70C. I have no idea if something is wrong, my cooler is just that bad or maybe the cpu just run hot
How dangerous is delidding? I was think of trying on my 'ole 4770. Mine is air cooled so best i can have is 60 degrees. Would like to lose 15 degrees if the operation is doable with very minor cost
Very nice and thank you.
Now if I only could muster the courage and delid mine!
MrClass wroteHow dangerous is delidding? I was think of trying on my 'ole 4770. Mine is air cooled so best i can have is 60 degrees. Would like to lose 15 degrees if the operation is doable with very minor cost
Not all CPUs models will give such an improvement, you need to check for examples of your specific CPU model
I delidded my 3570-K 3 years ago and lost around 10 degrees. Still going like a champ. You just have to be careful not to damage the core or a resistor but it's fairly easy to do.
So like after you the delidded the cpu, you installed the liquid cooler on a delidded cpu?
Or you changed the factory thermal compound under the lid, and applied your own then put the lid back on, and install the liquid cooler on a normal lidded cpu.

Which method did you use, and does the first method even work?
@AVOlio

I did put back the heatspreader back on, so i only changed the thermal compound between the silicon and the heatspreader. Installing the cooler on the die directly is not recommended nowadays, since the pcb is too thin. It will break under the mounting pressure of the cooler.

Some companies sell what they call "Die guard", MSI and EK sell them.

@ Lamba

Its my first attempt at delid, i had it in my mind along LONG time ago. I bought the liquid metal ultra back in the core2 days.
a month later
nice job , you need serious courage to play around a new cpu out of the box , in a country where after sale support is pathetic ... cheers
5 days later
Today i built a monster rig
2x 1080 ti with msi hb sli bridge
Z270 xpower titanium
I7 7700k
2x ssd
3x hdd
1000wat powersupply
I went with msi core frozr l as a cpu cooler , went to 4.8 @ 1.26 vcore on cpu
Sadly didnt find a decent water cool for this beasly rig