While “Llama Mountain”, SoFIA and the next generation Intel Atom SoCs took the limelight at Computex 2014 in Taipei last week, Intel made sure its desktop Core-based platform didn’t get completely ignored. “Devil’s Canyon”, an unlocked quad-core 4th generation Intel Core i7 processor (K-SKU) targeted at enthusiasts, was unleashed at the show.
Devil’s Canyon is the K-series 4th generation Intel Core i7 “Haswell” processor, Intel’s first processor that runs 4Ghz on all four cores simultaneously.
At a satellite overclocking event at Computex 2014 labelled “Unleash the Beast”, competitors battled for glory using Devil’s Canyon and the Z97-based motherboard as a base platform, matched with fancy air/liquid cooling and LN2 set-ups.
The challenge was split into an invite-only pro-level competition amongst motherboard manufacturers, and an amateur competition limited to air-cooling.
Major motherboard manufacturers namely ASRock, ASUS, EVGA, MSI and Gigabyte participated, where they got to handpick their own overclockers.
For several hours, competitors pushed the unlocked i7 processor to the limit.
Team ASUS managed to achieve the most top-ranked scores in multiple categories.
At the climax, however, Team MSI emerged winners, successfully overclocking Devil’s Canyon to 5.5Ghz, shattering the world overclocking record in the air/liquid cooled category. The winners took home US$5,000 in prize money.
Team Gigabyte took home US$4,000 for hitting 6.3Ghz in the LN2 (liquid nitrogen) category.
In the amateur category, overclockers impressed with “zzolio” emerging champion with 5.2Ghz.
Results snaps image credit: Overclocking TV
To celebrate over 20 years of Intel Pentium processors, Intel also announced the Intel Pentium Processor Anniversary Edition, an unlocked desktop processor that is sure to make PC overclockers happy. Both “Devil’s Canyon” and the Intel Pentium Processor Anniversary Edition will be available in volume this month.
Are you ready to Unleash the Beast?
