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Intel Targets AMD With Affordable Unlocked CPUs

Posted by kdawson on from the overclock-at-will dept.

EconolineCrush writes "For years, AMD has catered to gamers and enthusiasts with mid-range Black Edition processors whose unlocked multipliers make overclocking easy. Intel has traditionally reserved unlocked multipliers for its ultra-expensive Extreme CPUs, but it has now brought the feature to affordable models that compete directly with AMD's most popular processors. The Core i5-655K and Core i7-875K have two and four cores, respectively, and they're priced at just $216 and $342. It appears that both will easily hit speeds in excess of 4GHz with air cooling. Surprisingly, even at stock speeds, the i7-875K offers better performance and power efficiency per dollar than just about any other desktop CPU out there."

9 of 207 comments (clear)

  1. 4 GHz, eh? by Pojut · · Score: 5, Funny

    I thought we learned that, like sex and the Pentium 4, faster isn't always necessarily better...

    --
    Living With a Nerd
    1. Re:4 GHz, eh? by ch-chuck · · Score: 5, Funny

      sex and the Pentium 4

      Is that the new TV show for geeks?

      --
      try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
  2. Yawn by MBGMorden · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "just $216 and $342"?

    The majority of regular users can get by with just about any modern processor on the market today. Just glancing at Newegg, single core CPU's are starting at $32. Dual cores at $50. Quad cores at $81. I personally haven't spent more than $100 on a processor in ages, and I'm more or less a power user (do heavy programming and video encoding as well as other such tasks on my systems).

    Now, at work, for servers, and I'm sure other users who are doing things like heavy graphics editing and such, people do need faster processors, but the people doing such tasks are NOT going to give two shits whether or not the multiplier is unlocked (anybody using an overclocked processor in a professional environment is just asking for trouble).

    So you're left with the absolute hardcore hardware enthusiast market. Even in this market though you're going to have the "I'm poor and don't want to spend much" people who are still going for the low cost ones and trying to push them, and the "I've got money to blow and want the fastest available" people who were likely buying the really, really expensive stuff already.

    In short, I just don't see this feature, at the stated price points, as really having much of a market.

    --
    "People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
    1. Re:Yawn by Lord+Ender · · Score: 5, Interesting

      If you do computationally-intensive workstation tasks, like video editing, gaming, virtualization, or using java (sigh); you really will appreciate going from a $100 CPU to a $300 CPU. Using faster components also means having an overall less-frustrating experience with your computer.

      At home, I have an i7, an SSD, a high-end NVIDIA GPU, and the fastest RAM my mobo can take. At work I have a computer made of the budget components you think are good enough. The difference is extremely evident. My computing tasks happen as fast as I can think at home. At work, I often have to wait for things to load, which can derail my train-of-though, lower my productivity, or just generally piss me off.

      A few hundred more for good components is money very-well spent.

      --
      A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
    2. Re:Yawn by Pharmboy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I concur. I just set my watch back one year and save thousands of dollars on everything. New games $50? Nope, mine are $25. New processor $300? Nope, mine are $100 and runs my one year old games perfectly. My last "new" car was $30k new but I bought it with 8k miles and just under 1 year old for $20k with full warranty. I'm about to buy a pair of Motorola Droids, which I can get for $99-$199 for both (2y contract, yes). It doesn't always pay off, but on average it saves up tremendously without sacrificing anything but a little time.

      The net results is that I actually can buy MORE toys for the same money. Delayed gratification can be a beautiful thing.

      --
      Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
  3. Goes to 11 by wjousts · · Score: 5, Funny

    It appears that both will easily hit speeds in excess of 4GHz with air cooling.

    Nigel Tufnel: These go to eleven.

  4. 4GHZ by clinko · · Score: 5, Funny

    The cards! they bounce TOO FAST!!

  5. Re:That's "frequency", not speed by poetmatt · · Score: 5, Insightful

    for once, quite accurate by the anon. Reviews about these have been inconsistent, some citing bad overclocking potential and generally being not for enthusiasts.

    Meanwhile, others seem to state it's a full sweep and/or basically great .

    I'm wondering if this is another scenario of handpicked engineering samples or not.

    I'm not at all convinced that this is great, or horrible. Anyone care to weigh in with better comments than kdawson?

  6. NO 1336? so you are stuck with 16 pci-e lanes so by Joe+The+Dragon · · Score: 5, Interesting

    NO 1336? so you are stuck with 16 pci-e lanes so a good video card can uses that up and then when you add usb 3.0 and sata 6.0 you cut into the video pci-e lanes.

    for $200 you can get a AMD board with 890fx that has more pci-e lanes so you can have 2 x16 video cards + room for sata 6.0 and usb 3.0 as well.