Core i7 3770K World Record Beaten by ASUS ROG, 7184.3MHz Is the New High

The world could probably go on existing just fine even if overclocking records didn't get beaten every other day, but then professional overclockers wouldn't have anything to do.

We also can't deny that it's a nice badge of valor to have your name next to the highest clock speed ever achieved for the flagship central processing unit of Intel's Core lineup.

The Core i7 3770K third-generation CPU (Ivy Bridge) has been driven, by the ASUS ROG team (Republic of Gamers), to 7,184.3 MHz frequency on the Maximus V Extreme motherboard.

This beats the previous record (from a few days ago) by almost 50 MHz, which isn't all that much, but also not the smallest difference we've ever seen.

We may as well specify that the speed of 7,136 MHz was accomplished using a different mainboard, the Z77 OC Formula.

Since we're on the subject, the complete system configuration of the test bench involved in the latest test, in addition to the CPU and Maximus V Extreme motherboard, used G.Skill DDR3 memory, a Kingston SSD and an Antec HCP 1,200W power supply unit.

The names (or rather nicknames) of the overclockers in the gallery below are Andre Yang, TeamRU Slamms and Smoke, Hazzan and Shamino. Their entry has been validated and can be found here.

Readers should be careful not to try this at home, unless they really know what they are doing. After all, among overclocking attempts, this was particularly unusual in that it used liquid helium instead of nitrogen.

We're sure that the portrayal of helium as a substance that turns inhalers' voices squeaky is at least partially exaggerated in entertainment media, especially when the concentration isn't too high, but we wouldn't want to be in the middle of the thick cloud shown in that photo up there. The lights, not to mention the ceiling, are barely visible through it.