Mesh Hush i7 980X review

We were introduced to Intel’s first six-core “Gulftown” processor last month, with the Core i7-980X offering blistering performance and a typically ludicrous Extreme Edition price. Now Mesh has won the race to produce a full review system using the chip, and the resulting Hush i7 980X is as wallet-unfriendly as you’d expect.

It does pack quite a punch, though. The six cores and 32nm die grab the headlines, but the Core i7-980X also offers Hyper-Threading technology to handle a dozen processes simultaneously, and there’s a massive 12MB L3 cache. Turbo Boost has also been enhanced: the i7-980X can dynamically adjust individual cores from the standard 3.33GHz, down as low as 1.6GHz and up to 3.6GHz as required.

Mesh has paired this monstrous CPU with 6GB of 1,600MHZ DDR3 memory, which together produced stunning levels of raw power. In our 2D application benchmarks, the Hush i7 980X roared to a score of 2.48. That’s the best result we’ve seen from a processor running at its stock speeds, beaten only by overclocked monsters such as Chillblast’s Fusion Mustang with its souped-up Core i7-920.

The Mesh is a powerful gaming machine too. The best match for the CPU would have been a dual-GPU graphics card, but Mesh has opted for an ATI Radeon HD 5870, which is the next best thing. Our High-quality Crysis test was brushed aside with an average framerate of 72fps, and even at Very High settings and a resolution of 1,920 x 1,200 it managed 38fps.

The rest of the Hush i7 980X’s internal specification is of suitably high quality. Windows 7 Home Premium comes installed on a 64GB Kingston SSD to boost boot speed and keep core processes running as smoothly as possible. There’s also a 1TB Samsung SpinPoint hard disk for data storage and a Blu-ray reader.