Intel's Sandy Bridge Revealed: Core i5-2500K & i7-2600K Reviewed

[Rob Williams]

The long-awaited launch of Intel's Sandy Bridge is here, and we have all of the details of what to expect, what you need to "upgrade", what models will be available at launch, and of course, their prices. We're taking a look at two of the higest-end offerings, the Core i5-2500K and i7-2600K - both quad-cores and both fully unlocked.

You can read our launch article and then discuss it here!

 

[Optix]

There is an upside, though. Because the physical size of the CPU hasn't changed, neither has the mounting holes for the CPU coolers, so all LGA1156 coolers will fit an LGA1155 no problem.

Hot damn! I know a lot of people were complaining that they have heatsinks that they really want to carry over but could not verify if this was the case.

That i5 is really something though.

If nothing else it's nice to see the memory controller on the same die as the CPU so any latency that may exist is gone.

It's late here so I had to skim through the article but I'm really looking forward to more info on this.

 

[Rob Williams]

Yes, the LGA1156 CPU cooler thing is nice, although it still sucks that a new motherboard needs to be purchased. It's refreshing on the AMD side that such a move never has to happen, but on the other hand, changes AMD makes to its CPUs haven't been quite as robust as changes Intel has had to make in recent launches.

If nothing else it's nice to see the memory controller on the same die as the CPU so any latency that may exist is gone.

Yes, and that does help quite a bit. This is how I wish Clarkdale was designed, but it's easy to understand why it wasn't. It's nice to finally have one unified design though, that's for sure.

 

[Optix]

Gah! 4.7Ghz on water and 5+ on L2N!

It's not often that a CPU launch has me excited...

 

[Rob Williams]

I'll just leave these here.





Both were using this cooler.

 

[Doomsday]

Awesome! Just............. awesome! Thank u Tharic-Nar for the advice for waiting for Sandy Bridge!

 

[Optix]

Curse you H55! Why did you have to look so attractive!

 

[Rob Williams]

Curse you H55! Why did you have to look so attractive!

Haha! Each launch is like this, you should know that ;-)

It's funny because I even look at the 980X in my PC and realize that all it would take to match performance would be to overclock the $300 2600K to around 4.2GHz. That's some good value though, right there.

Of course, the 980X still has the potential to excel at really threaded applications, but for the regular consumer, one option seems to be a little more attractive than the other.

 

[Optix]

From...

...to...

I figure I'd remind people of how far we've come from a purely aesthetic standpoint if nothing else.

 

[Doomsday]

Look at the power consumption! Sandy Bridge, here i come!!

 

[Kougar]

I'll just leave these here.

View attachment 1094

View attachment 1095

Both were using this cooler.

Hot damn. If Rob can get 4.6Ghz, then everyone in the forums here should be able to hit 5GHz at least!

It's funny because I even look at the 980X in my PC and realize that all it would take to match performance would be to overclock the $300 2600K to around 4.2GHz. That's some good value though, right there.

Of course, the 980X still has the potential to excel at really threaded applications, but for the regular consumer, one option seems to be a little more attractive than the other.

Ain't that the truth! Except for transcoding there just isn't enough use for those extra cores yet.

After seeing these results it was easier to decide on fobbing my 980X onto eBay and just stick with a heavily OC'd Core i7 920 until the end of this year... Folding is fun but after resolving a few technical issues I just don't have a reason to keep it around.

I figure I'd remind people of how far we've come from a purely aesthetic standpoint if nothing else.

Hey now, I liked that Lego-theme they had going on...

 

[Optix]

It's a Fisher Price My First Mobo!

***EDIT: The more I read about these chips, the more I want one. The price for the unlocked i5 is pretty steep so though. Time to go through my hardware tickle trunk and see what I can sell! 4.4Ghz on stock voltages and an average of 4.7-4.8 with 1.3+ volts.

*sigh* @ no i3-2100K

 

[Optix]

Wow! It looks like Maingear/Origin PC is selling overclocked desktops running Sandy Bridge processors at 5Ghz! There must be a ton of cooling or they've gotten their hands on some choice chips.

 

[Tharic-Nar]

They can hit 5GHz with a good Air cooler and/or Water loop, they just OC that well. Luck helps, yes, but the chips can run 4.4-4.6 using the stock mini cooler.... you know, that 1inch high cooler we used to have on Pentium 2s... lol

 

[Optix]

Ok, it's official. I'm excited.

The thing with 5Ghz is that I read you're looking at close to 1.5v and that's just too high for everyday use as far as I'm concerned. I'd say 1.4 is the most I'd go unless I was doing a quick run for HWBoints.

 

[Tharic-Nar]

Looking around, it seems that 5.0 can be hit with 1.43v - 1.45v, I guess it depends on the cooler, TIM, Ambient Temp, airflow and luck of the draw... This is first generation as well, get a couple Step revisions in and these could probably hit 5.0 at 1.40v to 1.38... That or wait for Intel's 'Tick' with Ivy Bridge, then this'll probably be the case when they switch to 22nm.

 

[Optix]

It'll be a miracle if I can pull off a tick and a tock in the same clock cycle so another tick with Ivy Bridge is unlikely. With what I have planned for a Sandy Bridge build should last me for quite some time so unless Ivy Bridge is a ZOMG platform I'll likely skip it.

***EDIT: Gah! $214 for the standard 2500 @ Newegg!!!

It'll probably take a week for my favorite e-tailer to get them in.

***EDIT: WAAAAAH! $240+ for the unlocked version!

 

[Rob Williams]

I'd never recommend getting a non-K version for overclocking. The base clock on Sandy Bridge doesn't overclock nearly as nicely as it does on previous generations, so you are going to be rather limited on non-K versions.

 

[Optix]

Yep. That's why it's a K series chip or nothing if I go for P67. I think the highest I have seen is 3.7 with Turbo kicking in. Why stop there when I could tack an extra gigglehurtz onto that?

 

[Misha]

Thanks Rob for another great review!
I decide to dump my good old Athlon X4 620, cross the Bridge and go Sandy way...

I waited X6 from AMD to upgrade, but I'm really disappointed how poorly work my X4 620 in real world Photoshop test i made, comparing to old Intel E5200 with only two cores... Intel was faster almost 40%... I had to process few thousand still frames, i divide them in two half and put both computer to work... Intel with two cores only finished almost few hours earlier!!!! And AMD had Geil 2x2GB of DDR3 memory on 1333, and Intel some basic Kingston 2x2GB DDR2 on 800!!!

I'm still have to decide should i buy 2600K or 2500K...
In my country, it is almost 120$ price difference...

Now need recommendation for some great MoBo....