KitGuru KitGuru.net – Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards
The Core i7 2700k has been released in a very low key manner. The plan was that Intel would release the new chip to redress the performance balance brought to market by AMD's FX 8150 Black Edition. As we all know by now, AMD's FX failed to excite the enthusiast audience and Intel's i7 2600k held strong as the performance leader in the sub £300 market.
Intel's i7 2700k has basically just replaced the 2600k as the new leader in this sector. As a talking point, it makes for a rather dull conversation. In reality however, the 2700k is a stunning processor and we found that it was easier to get stable at even higher clock speeds. We have several 2600k processors in our labs and they all hit 4.8ghz with modest air cooling. The 2700k sample we received was stable at 5ghz and more is surely available with quality watercooling.
At 5ghz, the 2700k delivers a stunning Cinebench 11.5 result of almost 10 points, which is ahead of a reference clocked Intel Core i7 990X, at a third of the price. With the right cooling, the Core i7 2700k would make for a spectacular, low cost 3D rendering station.
It really is a simple product to rate, because there is no competition from AMD. At £258, it is only £10 more than the Core i7 2600k and as such becomes a clear ‘must have' purchase. We can't guarantee all 2700k processors will hit 5ghz on air, but if our sample is anything to go by, it looks really promising for Intel.
Pros:
- 1.5 ghz overclock on air with modest cooling.
- new performance leader in sub £300 sector.
- efficient power consumption.
- Unlocked.
- Overclockers will love it.
Cons:
- Nothing.
Kitguru says: The new sub £300 performance leader and a bargain buy considering the performance available when overclocked.
Oh dear. AMD have lost this round again 🙁 nice review thanks.
It just keeps getting better.
I saw the price on scan last week and thought it was a bit much. For £10 it is a solid choice, especially as the architecture and engineering has improved over time. I would say these will overclock better, especially on phase and with high end water.
AMD havent answered this yet. what a disappointing year for them. just as well they bought out ATI.
Kick ass. I love my 2500k. running at 4.6ghz and more than fast enough for anything I need.
Its a great chip, but not worth moving from a 2600k to this. good for a new system build
Not very exciting but miles ahead of anything else out there. Intel own the market
I’m not sure that I know the difference between the 2700k and the 2600k? ANY 2600k will easily oc to the stock of the 2700k so unless they are binning the higher clocking chips and guaranteeing the 2700k will oc higher than the 2600k does then its a strange distinction between the two?
Personally, I’d stick with 2600K right now if you already have it, but if you’re building a new system, why not make the move to 2700K.
This CPU does not excite me in any ways when it comes to results, i mean come one 100 Mhz boost can be had with a 2600k without a sweat. What this CPU actually brings is the price drop.
Hi . i’m just waiting for my build with 2700k to be finished but review has me worried as you failed to get a good OC on the same mobo as my build is using, weve got the corsair hydo 80 as cooler but as we were wanting 5ghz the reviews worried us
BTW (no HT) comp is for computer chess so no HT is needed for it
Anyone know why OC failed with that mobo(Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 ) ?
Hi Venus,
Not sure what happened, but I couldnt get good stable overclocks above a certain speed. You might do better with slightly different components in the system build.
the only differences might be hydo80, as we need a reasonably priced mobo with on board graphcs and the one that failed in review has been exellent with 2600k stable at 4.8 on air so we were expecting 5ghz on liquid not falure at 4.6
any advice appreciated
we wont be using HT as its for computer chess but wanted the extra speed the 3.5 ghz should offer
i7 2600k @ 5.2ghz! on Asus P8Z68-V PRO Z68 Gskill 8gb 2100mhz , only limited by reaching 81degrees , with better cooling could go higher!!!
Normally I do not read article on blogs, but I would like to say that this write-up very forced me to try and do it! Your writing style has been amazed me. Thanks, quite great post.