Intel Core i5-4670K Haswell Quad-Core 3.4 GHz LGA 1150 84W BX80646I54670K Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics

Pros: This thing is lightning fast even without an overclock. It overclocks decently, but I'm perfectly satisfied with it at stock, it loads from my SSD much faster than my AMD FX-4100 @ 4.2 GHz would.

Cons: It runs pretty warm. This thing idles hotter than my AMD was at 100% load. It does have a higher thermal limit though, but I don't like having a space heater in my house during the summer.

Overall Review: This is my first Intel CPU I've ever bought, outside of some older store-bought computers that I've had long ago. I didn't realize the difference in performance between AMD and Intel. I know comparing a ~$100 at release Bulldozer to a ~$200 newer Haswell isn't a fair comparison but it's definitely worth it for the performance gain.

Pros: Performance is pretty good. I was able to reach between 50-70 FPS in Guild Wars 2 while standing in Divinity's Reach. Compared to my old CPU (listed in other thoughts), that's a huge and impressive improvement (20-30). I get 40+ FPS in most cases with Grand Theft Auto IV with settings on high, 100 vehicle density, 50 everything else. Had to drop to medium/low and to 1 on the draw distances to get comparable framerate on my old CPU. Everything else I played (Path of Exile, Dota 2, WarCraft III, Dynasty Warriors 8) did see an improvement as well, but the performance of the old CPU wasn't too bad either to make it really noticable. Windows 8.1's performance is noticeably better as well.

Cons: Runs a bit hot. Temperatures while running prime95 at 4GHz @ 1.2V climb upwards to around 80C. Idles around 40C. The temperatures spike up pretty quickly too (from 40C to high 60s the second I start the stress test). Doesn't support VT-d. If you're familiar with Intel, this shouldn't be a surprise though (unlocked CPUs usually lack certain virtualization features).

Overall Review: Firstly, if you are considering this CPU at the time of writing, and have a Z97 or H87 chipset, I may suggest waiting about a week and getting the 4690K for around the same price. Should also note the 4690K has advertised support for VT-d too, and is rumored to be using a better thermal compound in-between the CPU die and IHS (for better temperatures). I upgraded from a Phenom II X3 720 (unlocked to X4 @ 3.2GHz) and an ASRock 970 Extreme3 R1.0 board, so in that regard, the 4670K is a really nice and noticeable upgrade. I overclocked my 4670K to 4.0GHz across all cores, with a cache ratio of 40. Vcore voltage is 1.2V. YMMV. My environment consists of an ASRock Fatal1ty H97 Killer, a CM Hyper 212 Plus (using Arctic Silver 5 thermal compound with the dot in the center method), and a hec 585W PSU (about 3 years old). That PSU in-particular only has a 4-pin CPU connector, which I can confirm is enough to reach the above clock speeds (anything higher isn't ideal temperature and stability-wise in my setup). My GPU is a MSI R7850 PE 2GD5/OC @ 1GHz core clock, at 1600x900@75Hz. So about the lack-of VT-d, it seems relatively common that Intel strips certain virtualization features from their unlocked CPUs. I was interested in trying out some GPU-passthrough and virtualization. Considering my old setup met the requirements to do the passthrough (IOMMU), I thought it wouldn't be a problem with way-newer Intel hardware. Needless to say, I was rather surprised by the lack-of that feature. As for why Intel does this, it seems to be mostly speculation, but an idea is to just keep their non-unlocked CPUs relevant. And as for a temperature note, it seems Intel chose to use a cheap thermal compound in-between the CPU die and IHS (the top cap you sit the heatsink on; note the die is significantly smaller than that area). Previous CPUs by Intel used solder, which transfers heat from the die to the IHS far more efficiently. There's no official-word for the reasoning as far as I know, but there are two ideas: - Due to the die manufacturing process, using solder and having temperature changes would cause the die itself to crack under stress from typical usage scenarios (would be bad for PR and the RMA department). - It's cheaper to use thermal compound over specialized solder (this wouldn't surprise me coming from Intel). And on-top of the cheap thermal compound, the IHS is secured to the PCB via thick glue. Because of this, the IHS and die don't come in-contact with each other as close as they can, which then leads to poor heat transfer. You can attempt to fix the temperature situation yourself via "delidding", but be very aware of the risks of doing so (one wrong scratch on the CPU die and it's likely done), along with accepting loss of any warranty. It cannot be stressed enough; do your research before even thinking about trying delidding! The risk is well worth the reward in some cases though (significantly lower temperatures, thus more O

Pros: Very fast. Decent price. Doesn't run hot (at least not with a Corsair H110...)

Cons: Very odd lottery of overclocking potential. No one knows if they will get a 4.2 OC or a 4.8 OC until they fire it up and try. Need serious cooling to OC one of these (from what I've read...)

Overall Review: The one I got turned out to be a decent mid-range overclocker as I was able to get 4.4GHz stable with Gskill Sniper memory at 1866. Never had temperature issues, just flat out instability above 4.4 GHZ, but hey: That's still almost a 30% OC! Had to push cpu voltage up to 1.295 -just under the 1.3v ceiling where Haswell starts to really heat up. Memory rated for 1866 @ 1.5v needed a boost to 1.52 volts to stay stable but it has been running 24/7 like this for almost a week now. I do have an H110 mounted in the top of my Corsair C70, pulling air through the radiator and exhausting out the top of my case. Glad I got that because temps have been very good. Also have four intake fans (2 front, 2 bottom) and one rear exhaust which give the C70 great positive air pressure (side panel vents taped up with clear packing tape.) At stock clocks idle temps are in the mid 20s, and overclocked to 4.4 running benchmarks temps never go over 80c. That's a win as far as I'm concerned. System: Corsair C70 ASUS Z87-Pro (V Edition) i5 4670K 8GB G-Skill Sniper 1866 Sandisk Extreme 240GB SSD MSI R9 270X OC Gaming I replaced a Core2 Duo e6870 (Couldn't even get a 10% OC with that) and am very pleased with the Haswell i5, especially since the ASUS MB can access all of its overclocking potential and tweak every little thing the processor has to offer (which is a lot.) All games so far are on max or ultra graphics settings. This processor compliments a good graphics card very nicely.

Pros: I am running this stock and have had no problems with it.

Cons: Not as easy to overclock as other CPU's.

Overall Review: ASUS GTX780-DC2OC-3GD5 GeForce GTX 780 3GB ASUS Black Blu-ray Drive SATA LITE-ON DVD Burner - Bulk Black SATA ASUS Z87-DELUXE LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI SATA Intel Core i5-4670K Haswell 3.4GHz LGA 1150 84W Noctua NF-S12A PWM 120mm Case Fan CORSAIR HX Series HX750 750W ATX12V 2.3 CORSAIR XMS 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333

Pros: Great processor, Haswell is a cool and well performing Core processor and the i5-4670K with its unlocked multiplier enables many possibilities with overclocking as long as sufficient cooling is provided. My copy of the chip can push easily to 4.5-4.6 GHz range on air with the Cooler master cooler I have. I settled on 4.3 GHz to leave head room during really hot days after observing 60-70 degree temps under Prime 95 after 24 hours of continuous testing. This chip is more than 2X the performance of the over clocked Core 2 Quad chip it replaced, truly amazing performance. The C2Q was over 115W of TDP while the Haswell is 84Watts, amazing what High-K gate material and a small fabrication (22nm) method can do to the power efficiency of CPUs. Intel is doing amazing stuff with the 4th gen Core chips. Properly over clocked and provisioned with fast memory (in my case DDR3-2400), this chip will outpace all but the unlocked version of the Haswell i7 chips.

Cons: Why does Intel throw in a CPU cooler of such poor quality on an unlocked CPU? Intel should just sell these chips w/o cooler, the cooler is completely a throw away if anyone intend to use the "K" portion of the chip. The thermal grease on the coolers are of such poor quality and the fins are so small, and I hate the mounting of the intel OEM coolers, they're just a disaster waiting to happen.

Overall Review: Great CPU, I got my C2Q more than 5 years ago, and the Haswell is quite a step up after waiting patiently for the Core architecture to mature over the past few years. But I don't understand why Intel throw in the completely inadequate CPU coolers in with these unlocked multiplier CPU's, that's like putting low rolling resistance tires on a Ferrari.

Pros: Great bang for the buck processor. Amazing value! Note that my primary reason for purchasing this chip was to improve gaming performance as my system was becoming bottle necked by the CPU. I have an nVidia 570 card which is not top end but high enough. I upgraded from a Core 2 Quad Q6600 processor and the performance increase while gaming was significant. To give one data point, my FPS in Kerbal Space Program increased by over 3x for the same rocket design during launch. On a more subjective note, Skyrim was sluggish and difficult to play on the Q6600 so I put it on hold until after the upgrade. Now I can play the game without any noticeable drop in performance on high settings. In terms of other applications, I have not stressed the processor too much by running SETI or PRIME benchmarks. I only did that when playing with overclocking the frontside bus. So far it's been very stable and reliable. I would agree that for my application, the quad core i5 was a much better value than a quad core i7 with Hyperthreading. The games I run do not tend to take advantage of the Hyperthreading therefore it wasn't worth the price increase for the i7 equivalent.

Cons: None at this time.

Overall Review: I would like to make a few things clear, this is a retail processor with a stock heatsink. My temperature do run warm, especially when playing around with a little bit of an overclock (I don't push it too much because I don't want to adjust the voltage). If you want to really overclock, I would recommend a larger cooling setup (and I assume you are looking into overclocking, otherwise you wouldn't be purchasing the K version). On that note, if you have little-to-no interest in overclocking, I would recommend saving your money and purchasing the non-K version (doesn't end with the letter K after 4670). At the time of this writing, it's only a $20 difference, but hey, that's an extra $20 you don't have to spend. Don't spend extra money on faster memory if you're not going to overclock, I made that mistake (I only overclock a little, but maybe I'll try a faster overclock later on). This is NOT a computer so I don't understand some of the other comments talking about Cons that are computer or motherboard related. Make sure you have the right motherboard and memory to work with this processor. I spent extra money on very fast memory, but since I don't overclock too much, it was bit of a waste. Make sure you purchase the correct hardware to fit your intended setup.

Pros: Very easy to install - as a first time PC builder, I was told putting in the CPU is the most nerve wracking part. On the contrary, I simply lined it up where it needed to go, and it fit in! Very cool. I'm using the stock CPU fan, and it's not bad. I'm not going to OC it just yet, so it fits me well, but even so it goes around 26-30 degrees Celsius in my Fractal R4 Case and at a maximum of 60 degrees Celsius in the most intense of games. So really, I don't see myself needing any aftermarket cooler so long as I don't OC.

Cons: None that I can think of right now.

Pros: Fast processor! Been 6 years since I have built. Just thought my old Core2Duo E6600 played games well. Been holding my games back till now. Paired with a Coolermaster Hyper 212 EVO and had no temp issues. Have not even began to overclock yet. Have that possibility though in the future.

Cons: Not really a con here. If I had a Sandy or an Ivy probably would not upgrade here (common reviews/articles reinforce that). But me coming from a Core2 Duo, why not the latest and greatest.

Overall Review: Wanted to get an AMD Fx 8350. Tried every which way I could to pull the trigger for it. I like AMD, think they make great stuff, and they keep Intel from dominating the market. But in the end, I don't build a new system but once every blue moon. Had to have the latest technology for a desktop processor (I know, insert your Haswell geared for portable platform joke here). I just could not buy a processor that virtually uses 2 year old technology and pulls more juice and generates more heat. Facts are facts. If I had AMD, I might choose to upgrade on the AM3+, not a bad choice by no means. Overall, great processors everywhere. Great time to be an enthusiast who loves his desktop!