It seems that the speed of any Core i7 Extreme processor can be boosted to 4.2GHz quite easily; at least, that is what recent news on the web says. The chips have the multiplier unlocked, which allows overclockers to raise the speed of the core by pulling the multiplier up. This is good news, yet not something unexpected, as it is a known fact that Intel has always provided customers with nice overclockable microprocessors.

On the other hand, users will face a barrier when it comes to boosting a Core i7 Extreme, as the CPUs do not allow the bus speed to be leveraged a lot. For those that do not know, a similar problem also faced the Phenom processors. This news is somehow disappointing, since the Core 2 chips would easily allow for a 500MHz+ bus speed to be reached.

The fact that Intel's Core i7 Extreme CPUs do have overclocking capabilities comes as great news for enthusiasts. Only last week we learned that the giant chip maker told motherboard and memory manufacturers to take extra caution when it comes to its Core i7 products, as they do not go well with memory modules that feature a voltage higher than 1.65V. It seems there is great risk that the processor would get fried if that limit was exceeded. Some vendors already started redesigning their products, while others announced having tested high-voltage memory modules with the CPU and all is fine.

One way or another, the new Core i7 chips should provide some extra-features over current processors if they want to be highly accepted. Moreover, the world's second chip maker, Advanced Micro Devices, has announced the launch of a Deneb CPU in the near future, one that could prove a strong competitor to Core i7. AMD's ready-to-come processor is manufactured under the newly adopted 45nm process and is said to be a good overclocker even on air. This means that Intel's chips must provide better performance to remain on top. 

And things look good for Core i7 with an unlocked multiplier, as showed in some test results from the Everest benchmark chart and 3Dmark Vantage. More on the results can be found here.