The Verdict
Interesting... that's what this release of the K processors is. As stated in our introduction, there is quite a market for unlocked processors. See, recently Intel promised to start selling chips with unlocked multipliers that do not cost $1000 per unit as well... who can afford them really? Anyone who is even remotely enthusiast about overclocking and likes to play around with his/her PC and tweak a little should find these processors appealing. Especially for this (our) group of end users. As such I can wholeheartedly recommend these processor series if you like to fool arround a little. The potential is there alright.
Now, that doesn't mean that the unlocked K editions are a requirement, no Sir. If you stick with regular air-cooling as most of you will do, then at default the Core i5 and Core i7 series processors can already overclock really well. You might be limited to multipliers in the 22-25 range, but if history has taught us one thing, it is that the CPU base clock is a gem when it comes to overclocking as well. The very same performance levels you have witnessed today, we also have shown you on the original Core i7 870 and Core i5 650 processors thanks to base clocks of over 165 MHz, often even 190 MHz.
Still, if you'd like to take it a step further, and say you put decent water-cooling, phase-change cooling or even LN2 on processors like shown today, then the unlocked multiplier can definitely help you out reaching higher performance levels. There's also a second reason where the unlocked multipliers come in handy, you can overclock more quickly and easily by just increasing that multiplier.
So then, depending on the final pricing in the stores, the K-series processors can be a success. I can certainly wholeheartedly recommend them if you plan to do some serious overclocking. The Core i5 655K will cost roughly 216 EUR/USD, a tad high being a dual-core processor. And the Core i7 875K will cost 342 USD/EUR, which I feel is a really fair price for a quad-core processor in this genre.
For a mild overclock (in our humble opinion), we say just stick with the regular processors as the extra money will not make a difference to your performance.
But on the flipside, we recommend them if you are a bit of an enthusiast overclocker for sure. What we really like here as well is that Intel is making an effort to create products for the enthusiast market segment in a lower price-range. It might not be the biggest market out there, but definitely is a highly appreciated one, consumers like choices. And yes, consumers like unlocked multipliers on processors which will allow overclockers and enthusiasts to easily boost the clock-speed of the product without the necessity for a 'difficult' overclock.
So if you like to go the extra mile on overclocking then you'll surely have a lot of fun with either the Core i5 655K or Core i7 875K, and for the LGA 1156 platform, the Core i7 875K will be the most advanced chip available. Though we do expect a Core i7 880 later this year, ah well ;)
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