Pentium 20th Anniversary G3258 Processor Review - Introduction

The Pentium-K 20^th Anniversary Edition / G3258  Processor

We review the Pentium G3258 (also dubbed Pentium-K) processor. So yeah, it has been an interesting series of releases from Intel the past two months. First the Haswell refresh products, then Devil's Canyon, the Core i7-4790K was released. But just for fun, Intel decided to create yet another SKU. A simple two cores Pentium processor that normally ends up in the cheaper net-tops and gear like NAS servers. 

The Pentium 20^th Anniversary Edition / G3258 processor features an unlocked multiplier and is all about nostalgia on a modern CPU socket with rather tremendous OC potential. That's right, you can seat this Pentium processor into a Socket LGA1150 motherboard and then have some great fun. We actually managed to overclock this 3200 MHz processor, towards 4800 MHz! The processors are now slowly becoming available and we quickly want to say thanks to Azerty.nl for supplying this processor. Now do not expect huge performance numbers with the Pentium G3258 processor, really this is a low level / budget SKU, but make no mistake, it is a capable processor alright. Intel introduced an extra K-model just for fun, as the Pentium series processors has reached its 20^th Anniversary. 

The Intel Pentium G3258 processor will fit onto your socket LGA1150 motherboard boards, all Z97 and H97 (with special BIOS) will work with the SKU, selected B85/Z87 motherboards will work fine as well. The processor runs with a base clock of 3.2 GHz and has 3 MB of L3 cache. The TDP on the Pentium G3258 is only 53 Watts, and that's  just cute we think.

The 22 nm Intel Pentium G3258 processor uses traditional thermal interface material (TIM) in-between the actual die and integrated heat spreader (IHS) of the Intel Pentium G3258 20^th Anniversary Edition Processor. This will make it a tweakable SKU. The Pentium G3258 will be priced at $72 when bought in quantities of 1,000 processors. We spotted the processors here in the Netherlands for roughly 60 EURO, and that is excellent value for money really. And yeah, with cheap LGA1150 boards available, dual-channel memory at all time low prices and these processor prices, versus its tweak-ability, we can easily recommend these chips

Have a peek at what will be tested, let's head on-wards to the next page.

Intel Pentium-K G3258 20^th Anniversary Edition processor. This is an ES version, short for Engineering sample. Yet was derived out of a retail batch.