Intel 3rd Generation Core i5-3570K CPU (4 x 3.40GHz, Ivy Bridge, Socket 1155, 6Mb L3 Cache, Intel Turbo Boost Technology 2.0)

This cpu comes with a cooler, the same cooler that came with my E8400 cpu in 2009, which was a surprise when I opened the box. The cooler is fine unless you want to overclock.

The i5 3570k is overclockable, and you can tell this from the k in its model number.

I got this, and was playing Skyrim full screen with windows task manager, permformance tab, showing on my second screen. None of the 4 cores seemed stressed out and the game was silky smooth. I then played skyrim with a hd movie playing on my second screen and skyrim didn't skip a beat. My E8400 couldn't handle that and it was overclocked by quite a bit.

I looked at getting an AMD FX 8 core cpu, but that costs about the same, is slower most of the time and the deciding factor was the AMD FX chips use far more electricity than the intel cpu's.

This cpu comes with built in hd4000 graphics, a built in graphics "card", It is not really upto gaming, but if you have to remove your graphics card for some reason, it is there as a back up. I intend to remove my graphics card and make a low profile home theatre pc when I upgrade this cpu, as the graphics should handle movies.

The hd4000 graphics also means you can use Lucid's Virtua MVP. That is a way of using the graphics on the cpu to help out with games or save energy, but I have not had much luck with it so far, and I do not regarde this as much of a selling point. Time will tell as Lucid sorts the software out for it.

If you buy this cpu and decide to overclock it, Intel has a tuning replacement plan. This means you pay 20 dollars and if you fry the cpu, they will send you a new one. Just don't bin the retail box like I did, you need to send the cpu back in it................

Hyperthreading isn't used in games, so if you just want to go on the internet, use Mircosoft Office and play games, there is no reason to get an i7. Hyperthreading isn't a part of this cpu and is part of the i7 lineup of cpu's, but for my needs the i5 3570k is the daddy cpu out at the moment. Coupled with 16gb ram and a Solid State Hard drive, is brutally quick. Happy days!

I can't really add anything to the highly technical reviews you can find on any of the big tech sites, so I'll cut to the chase.

This chip is incredible.

Even at stock frequencies it flies through tasks you throw at it. Video encoding, BOINC projects, recent game titles; The 3570K doesn't care.

If you were wondering whether to get this CPU or the 2500K, I'd advise you to check prices. When I bought mine, the difference was £8, so I opted for the 3570K's lower power consumption and 5-10% better performance. If you get the older chip for around £150 and this one still stays above £170, you might choose otherwise.

That's on stock frequency. I wouldn't run a K series CPU on stock, though. While I have no experience with overclocking Sandy Bridge, I'm very pleased with what this i5 Ivy Bridge brings to the table. I'm at 4.4 ghz at 1.215V with max temps under 75C in 4-thread Prime95, which is the most heat you can possibly generate. Even folding Einsten@home 7/24 brings it to 67-69C at most, which for these chips is well within safe territory.

For anyone who cares to compare their current setup, Hyper PI 4M calculated on 4-threads gives a result between 47.8 and 48.4 seconds.

Oh, and Amazon ships like they mean business. I ordered it using Prime, and it took them 16 hours to deliver it (London address).

I'm very well pleased and would recommend it to anyone thinking about building a PC that doesn't bat an eye at the most demanding games or video encoding.

The only thing I'm baffled by is the size of the stock cooler. The aluminium-copper heatsink is barely 2 centimetres high, if that. I have a hard time imagining it's capable of keeping the processor under 70C at stock voltage and frequencies. The one I use came with my Gigabyte Z77-D3h motherboard and is called Arctic Freezer 7 rev. 2. Hardly a monstrous high-end cooler, but does its job exceptionally well if you don't venture near 1.3V core voltage.

Packaging: 5 stars
Performance: 5 stars
Consumption: 5 stars (whole system with 22" LED monitor at full CPU load floats around 200w)
Shipping: 5 stars

This customer is very satisfied.

I've recently bought this CPU, upgraded from an e4500 @ 3GHz, and threw everything I could at it, installing programs + games (steam), running downloads, running furmark, playing a 1080p video and a full virus scan...*all at once* and it never even blinked! This is on stock cooling and with no overclocks (will apply some when I get a cooler, the stock cooler is VERY bare minimum). Gaming wise, my HD 6850 is nowhere near capable of bothering this CPU. Not used the VirtuMVP aspect yet, will update when I have.

That it actually remains cool with such a paltry stock cooler whilst doing all this is quite amazing...absolutely recommended if you want a CPU that will just do anything you want (within reason).

4 days edit:

Stock 'squashed donut' cooler has proven good for upto 4.2ghz overclock @ 1.168v on all 4 cores (using the turbo function), used intelburntest on it and it peaked at 94c, very hot but that's under extreme load, in normal use, videos/games, it hasn't passed 65 yet.

Virtu MVP however has proven utterly useless, perhaps you will get more mileage from it but I'm getting weird behaviour from games, lack of loading screens/skill icons in WoW, and actual lower FPS in some like mafia II when I was testing it out. It's been uninstalled.

7 month edit 31/01/2013):

Running a leisurely 4.3Ghz overclock with +0.020 dynamic voltage (for 1.2vcore under IBT load) and all power states enabled, PLL at 1.6v (-0.200 below stock) with a 212 Evo cooler. This update is about the Intel HD4000 graphics onboard which I'm using as I save up for a graphics card after selling my old one, afterall I want to *really* appreciate it! The onboard graphics are actually quite capable, games like Starcraft 2 and Team Fortress 2, and a whole host of older games, are actually playable, albeit at lower resolution and quality settings, but we're talking a fluid 30ish fps. It's nice to be spending some time with this aspect of the CPU.

Haswell is coming soon, it's certainly not going to render the 2500k/3570k obsolete, but might be worth waiting for considering the socket change, and there's always the competitively priced FX8350 if you really need 8 threads.

Oh, never did get Virtu MVP to work right.