IntelBX80623I52500K I5-2500K 3.30 GHZ 6M Turbo OVERCLOCK

Greetings and welcome to the ultimate review; written by: L2MICRO! (CPU Code name: Sandy Bridge)This chip handles everything! It is great for gaming, photo editing, video streaming, etc.First Things First(IMPORTANT!!!) This chip does not go into an H55 motherboard. I can't stress this enough! The 1156 sockets are not compatible with this chip. If you want to get this chip, you need to either upgrade to a P67/H67 or Z68 motherboard first. The socket you need is a LGA 1155. This is you're only major requirement.This chip is EXTREMELY similar to the i7 2600k, but at 100 dollars cheaper, the single most major difference between an i5 2500k and an i7 2600k, is the Hyper Threading feature that the i7 2600k has. The i5 2500k does not have it. If you're in the market for an Intel processor and all you do is game, some photo editing with Photoshop, or stream, than get your hands on an i5 2500k (The k means overclock-able. no K means the core speed is locked and won't overclock). Gaming, in general, does not support and may even decrease your gaming performances with a hyper threaded enabled Intel core processor, which means, you can compromise with confidence. Most (if not all) games only use about 1 to 2 cores on your processor anyway. For $100 cheaper, Hyper Threading does not make a difference in gaming performance, but if you do many different things and run many different programs at once, Hyper Threading might just be what you are looking.The stocked clock speeds for the i5 2500k is 3.3ghz. The i7 2600k has 3.4ghz speed. Not a huge difference, right? Especially when you can overclock your i5 2500k a little to reach the 3.4ghz speed, easily. The i5 2500k processor has slightly upgraded Intel HD graphics (3000 engine) VS the i7 2600k (2000 engine). This feature only applies to Z68 motherboards users, as these users have integrated vedio on the motherboard or "on board graphics". All this means is if you don't have a Z68 motherboard, you won't be able to overclock this processor and use the HD Graphics 3000 engine at the same time. Add a graphics card to you system and you don't need to worry about this factor. This core processor works just as good with H67 or P67 motherboards perfectly. That is pretty much it. Perfect for gamers.Differences in a nut shell!- i7 2600k 8mb cache (very little performance increase for the price) -> i5 2500k 6mb cache- i7 2600k Hyper Threading feature -> i5 2500k None- i7 2600k 3.40ghz speed -> i5 2500k 3.30ghz speed (Easily overclocked to 3.40ghz or higher)Things you should know!- These chips work best with ram at 8gb or 12gb on a x64 bit systems. This CPU loves RAM modules STOCKED/CLOCKED to 1.5 volts and no less than 1333mhz of speed. These chips also prefer timings of 9-9-9-24 timings. However, 8-8-8-24 timings are viable.- i5 2500k is easily overclocked to 4.1ghz with BIOS tweaks or third party software. Anything higher than than a core speed of 4.1ghz, will cause a hotter CPU. I would suggest switching to a water cooled system setup, because you may run into a 60 degrees Celsius increase without water heat removal. Stock or fan operated heat-sinks are only good to a certain point.- When you buy an Intel processor, it will come with a case badge to place on your PC case to show your friends. It'll be on the back of your Intel manual booklet.- The i5 Intel processor also comes with stock heat-sink that you may or may not use. I prefer after market heat-sinks, because the stock heat-sinks don't cool all that well and, from my experience, after market heat-sinks perform better and last longer; Especially, if you're going to overclock your CPU. I would also suggest picking up an after market cooler if you are planning to overclock this CPU.Thermal Paste & You- There is an applied application of thermal paste compound on your Intel i5 2500K stock heat-sink already. I would suggest removing and applying a new application from paste you purchased. If you have or bought an after market heat-sink, that I explained above, please use only a PEA SIZED amount of thermal compound for best, even spread, as well as, better heat transference. Remember, Less is more! Keep in mind when purchasing and allying thermal paste to your CPU that lower viscosity thermal compounds require more than a pea sized amount, because they don't spread as easily compared to higher viscosity pastes. Arctic Silver 5, MX-4, and OCZ freeze are better brands to consider for a best application.Testing results!I tested this CPU with Prime95 for 20 hours without any errors. Buying the right memory also factors into these tests and errors. When you do test, using Prime95 or a different program, RAM does contribute to errors/blue screens and can easily be mistaken for a CPU issue. My solution to this would be to run a memory diagnoses test first, as well as, test the CPU with Prime95 after.That is pretty much it.Thank you for reading my review! Hope you enjoy your new processor!

I upgraded my desktop recently, going from an LGA 775 Gigabyte P35-D3SL motherboard with 4GB of 800MHz PC2 ram and a E6850 3.06GHz Core2Duo (OC'd to 3.6GHz) and a 7900GS NVidia card. I kept the video card but switched to a Gigabyte Z68MA motherboard (only $110), 16GB (4x4) of G.SKILL Ripjaws PC3 1600MHz ram, and this 2500k i5 CPU. I did a lot of research before picking the CPU, and found out that while the 2600k i7 would be better for what I was wanting to do (video encoding), the 2500k was still very capable and added a lot of performance over previous Intel CPU's. Before I had the E6850, I had an E4300 Core2Duo, OC'd to 3.0GHz. I didn't notice much of a difference between the two, the 3.6GHz (OC'd) ran things a bit better, but in terms of gaming I didn't find the E6850 to be that much more capable. So when I upgraded to the 2500k this time around, I wasn't quite sure what to expect in terms of graphics improvements with the sandybridge CPU's.It is very impressive, I didn't realize it at first as I had to install all the new drivers and make sure everything worked right. Even then I still didn't notice a huge improvement. I started to play Bad Company 2, to see if their was much difference, and while it did run smoother I wasn't incredibly blown away by it. Older games like Day of Defeat: Source ran much smoother at a higher resolution, which impressed me a little more. Then I opened up my 10GB folder worth of pictures I've taken on my DSLR camera. The folder which on the E6850 and 4GB would have taken maybe 15 seconds to fill with all of the thumbnails - which would probably be mostly blank for another 30 seconds, and finally after a minute or two would lose their grainy quality, took maybe 5 seconds to reach the grainy quality, and less than 10 to get to a good quality. We're talking about 800 pictures at 10-20MB each. Awesome.I haven't overclocked it yet, but because I'm still running a 7900GS video card, I don't think it'd be in my best interests as I can't really worry about 100FPS on max settings latest games. I've heard these OC excellent, though I am slightly concerned about one thing: heat. This CPU does not run hot, but it idles at about 30C with the stock fan, but can get up to 60C when playing intense games. This is significantly higher than my old CPU, even when overclocked, though I did use a Cooler Master X Dream 4 fan for that CPU. I believe my E6850 did run quite a bit higher before I installed that fan, so I'll have to check into getting one for this build as well. A new video card probably wouldn't hurt either!This was definitely worth the $400 to upgrade, with the Gigabyte Z68MA motherboard, this took maybe 45 minutes to disassemble my old build and reassemble, and best of all, I only needed to reactivate windows 7 ultimate 64bit, not a full reinstall which I was expecting. I'm not sure if Windows changed their policy on this or if I just got lucky, but the reactivation took about 5 seconds, so overall this new build has rocked so far!

Habe mich bei der Neuzusammenstellung meines PCs für diese CPU entschieden und nicht bereut. Stellt aus meiner Sicht mit 7,5 im W7 Leistungsindex die günstigste Preis-/Performancerelation dar.Spielt mit dem ASUS Mainboard P8P67 bestens zusammen, sowohl was die automatischen Leistungs/Clocking-Optionen betrifft als auch mit den Energiesparmodes.Über den beigepackten Lüfter kann ich nichts sagen, da ich ihn nicht verwende sondern gleich den Skythe Mugen eingebaut habe. Da man sogar mit dem riesigen Mugen mit 120mm Lüfter (extrem leise) beiCPU intensiven Anwendungen doch auch über 50° kommt erscheint mir der vergleichsweise winzige Beipacklüfter jedoch etwas schwachbrüstig - wahrscheinlich wird der Lüfter dann meist mit hoher (=hörbarer) Drehzahl laufen.Bin jedenfalls bis jetzt rundum zufrieden mit der CPU.

Klappt alles und schafft bei win 7 den Wert 7,5. Bin kein Gamer und habe höchstens in Videokonvertierungen plus zusätzlich surfen oder Büroarbeit max eine Auslastung von 70 bis 80% erreicht. Bleibt kühl bei Volllast (4xCALC.exe 1000000! mit Scythe (s.u.) max. 45°C bei 24°C Raumtemperatur.ASUS P8P67 Rev1.xx BIOS1850 06/27/2011 Socket 1155, i5-2500K@3.3GHz, Corsair PC1600 240-polig DDR3 4GBx2, Sapphire Radeon HD 6790 PCI-e 1GB GDDR5, be quiet pure power 530W 580W(max) 22A, Samsung SAM05CC Syncmaster P2450 DVI, Seagate ST2000DL 2TB, LG HL-DT-ST BD-RE BH10LS30, CPU(Scythe RASETSU) + 2 Fans, WIN7 Prof 64 SP1

Der Prozessor ist einfach der Wahnsinn. Ich hatte vorher einen Core2Duo E6750 und muss sagen, dass es ein echt großer Unterschied ist.Der beiliegende Boxed-Kühler ist wie gewohnt nichts besonderes, er wurde bei mir etwas warm. Also von der Geschwindigkeit her übertrifft er die i7 der ersten Generation und auch die AMD Prozessoren. Klare Kaufempfehlung! Ich hatte vorher überlegt den i7-2600k zu nehmen, aber bei der Leistung des i5-2500k bin ich froh, dass ich diesen gewählt habe.Liebe GrüßeJan

I use to do computer aided design using Solid Works, Inventor and Solid Edge and of course AutoCAD so I was always worried about speed. This one does well enough to do that but I really do not need it anymore.

Build 3 computers with this beast and overclocked to 4.2 ghz and lowered voltage.A bit pricey compared to new generation but a recommended buy but I don't think you can find them anymore. Too bad.