Skip to main content

Think your processor is quick? It has nothing on this 7GHz, overclocked Intel Skylake

Overclockers are always searching for a way to get a little more juice out of their powerful computing hardware. Even top of the line hardware, like the $400 Intel Core i7-6700K, doesn’t go far enough for some overclock junkies looking to get the craziest speeds possible with their computer system. While many see a 15 to 20 percent boost through overclocking as modest achievement, one one Hong Kong man broke the record for his Intel Skylake by overclocking to a mind-blowing 7.025 GHz clock speed — a 75 percent boost — with liquid nitrogen cooling.

To accomplish this feat, the overclocker had to bootstrap a nitrogen cooling solution for their CPU, using its extremely low temperature (-321 degrees Fahrenheit to be exact) to draw heat away from a CPU pushing past 7.025 GHz on a single core.

Recommended Videos

As cool as this may look, it’s also very dangerous. Liquid nitrogen can cause frostbite if accidentally touched, and liquid nitrogen also causes water vapor in the air to condense, which can easily short circuit your very expensive computer into a very expensive brick. This is why the overclocker has a towel around the CPU and electronics to soak up any water droplets.

As amazing as this is to witness, it’s only a record among Skylake CPUs. An AMD CPU was overclocked to nearly 8.8 GHz several years ago, and someone even managed to get a $50 Intel CPU to reach a mind-bending 8.5 GHz clock speed in 2013.

All of this is for bragging rights, too. Most of these setups are not designed for long term usage at these high speeds, and are usually tested on just one core, rather than all the cores on a typical desktop CPU. Still, it’s crazy to see what a little elbow grease and some liquid nitrogen can achieve with just a processor off the shelf from your local electronics store.

Joshua Sherman
Joshua Sherman is a contributor for Digital Trends who writes about all things mobile from Apple to Zynga. Josh pulls his…
Apple loses AI whiz to Meta with an offer that will make your eyes water
Meta AI widget on Home Screen.

It was just last month that OpenAI boss Sam Altman claimed that Meta had been trying to poach his top AI engineers by offering hiring bonuses of as much as $100 million.

There was renewed interest in the matter earlier this week when it emerged that Ruoming Pang, an esteemed AI engineer who oversaw Apple’s AI models, had jumped ship to Meta.

Read more
I found the best Prime Day deal on a tablet hidden beyond Amazon
Microsoft Surface Pro 12-inch, stylus, and keyboard.

A good tablet can take your productivity to the next level, but a boring one will find a niche use and eat dust on a table or couch for most of its time. I love iPads and have been pushing them – as far as I can — to act as my primary computing machine for nearly half a decade now. It has never managed to replace a proper laptop, like a MacBook Air or a Windows machine. 

Why not buy a Windows laptop, you might ask? Well, Windows-powered tablets, especially those Surface devices sold by Microsoft, are pretty expensive. I love the new 12-inch Surface Pro, but at $799, it felt like a steep purchase despite its impressive specifications. 

Read more
Prime Day is over, but this powerful Dell laptop is still at its lowest price
The Dell Vostro 3530 laptop on a white background.

Prime Day is already over, but that doesn't mean that there are no more laptop deals for you to shop on Amazon. Here's one that caught our eye -- the Dell Vostro 3530 with 32GB of RAM for its lowest-ever price of $649, following a 28% discount on its original price of $899. This limited-time offer of $250 off may not last much longer though, so if you want to take advantage of this bargain, we highly recommend that you finalize your purchase for this device as soon as you can.

Buy Now

Read more