IntelCore i5-3570K Quad-Core Processor 3.4 GHz 4 Core LGA 1155 - BX80637I53570K

Replaced the trusty, but aged E8400 Wolfdale with this and am extremely happy. The 8400 never missed a lick, and probably logged a million hours of gaming. So far, I have nothing to suggest any lesser performance from this newer workhorse.Runs everything - and I mean EVERYTHING we throw at it, runs it well, and runs it smoothly at stock settings. Finally went with water cooling, and while the old system ran fine, it did run hot - a couple of times SO hot it started artifact-ing and 'sparkling' under stress until we blew out all the cooler fins and plugged it back in for another year. This chip runs 24/7, games for a good percentage of that time, and has NEVER exceeded 42c. (Normal idle is mid 30s) Not a stutter, hiccup or bump since it was installed, powered up and booted the first time.Should the need arise, according my motherboard, it will OC like a big dog (preset on my MB will crank it up to 4.8), LUCID has reduced GPU temps as a bonus, and I'm a happy camper ... oh wait - I hate campers, but you get my drift.It runs Photoshop and Premiere like it's strolling a beach, encodes x264 in several iterations in a tiny fraction of the time I'm used to, and mutlitasks MUCH better than I do.Thought about going to the dark side (AMD), but held fast and very happy I did. Thought about the 3770, but my research indicated there would be no improvement in gaming, so the extra $ could not be justified. I'm all about best bang for the buck, and fully believe THIS to be it if you're even a part-time gamer. If all you do is render video, the move up might make sense, but for me, it did not.I can't think of any way I could be more pleased with the performance (obviously unless it were free), and I'd buy it again without a thought.

I recently upgraded from an AMD 955 CPU to an i5 3570k CPU, and I must say that Intel has gained another convert. This CPU will chew through any game, and I get much better performance than I ever did with the 955--the 3570k simply blows AMD out of the water. I do not do any sort of image editing or video encoding, so this review is written entirely from a gamer's perspective.PROS:-Great for extremely CPU-intensive games like the Total War games (Empire and Shogun 2 in particular). These games are fairly difficult to run smoothly at very high graphics settings due in large part to incredible (but demanding) particle effects, high unit density, shadow effects and many others, but the 3570k has no problems handling Empire at max settings (assuming you have a decent GPU to boot).-I get much higher frame-rates and better performance in games like Crysis, Crysis 2, BF3, Max Payne 3, Empire: Total War, and Deus Ex 3 as well as older games like FEAR, Half-Life 2 and Rome: Total War.-Achieves an overclock of 4.3-4.6GHz without much trouble at all (I've got mine at 4.5 GHz), at least on a Gigabyte Z77-UD3H motherboard.-Using the Gigabyte Z77-UD3H MB I managed to OC to 4.3GHz with no stability issues at stock CPU Vcore voltage (1.13 V).-Built-in Turbo boost feature clocks the 3570k up to 3.8GHz--which is a pretty decent boost and would be a good option for gamers who are uncomfortable with messing with BIOS settings to OC their CPUs.-Almost identical to the 3770K in terms of gaming performance. Benchmark scores for a number of games show marginal (if any) improvements for the 3770k. Other benchmarks and certain games like the Total War series actually see improved frame-rates with the 3570k versus the 3770k.CONS:-It does run somewhat hot--I get temps in the high 70s, low 80s (deg C) with the Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO (with Arctic Silver 5 TIM) at 4.5GHz and 1.35 Volts. However, IB CPUs are designed to withstand more heat, so this is not a huge issue, but it may warrant considering a pricier cooler if you want to OC to around 5 GHz or higher.OVERALL: The 3570k is an excellent CPU for any game on the market with a great performance-to-price ratio. Virtually all gaming performance benchmarks that you will find give near identical results for the 3570k and 3770k, so I would save yourself $100 and take the 3570K over the 3770k and put that money into a better graphics card or an SSD. If you already have a 2500k I would say that a 3570k is not worth the upgrade, but if you have anything older or are looking to switch over to Intel from AMD I would highly recommend it!My PC specs:Gigabyte Z77-UD3H MBi5 3570k OC'd to 4.5GHz with Cooler Master 212 EVO + AS5 TIMEVGA GeForce GTX 680 2GB on stock settingsCrucial M4 256GB SSDCorsair Vengeance 1600MHz 8GB DDR3 RAM

I think no matter where you look, you'll generally find good reviews for this CPU. I personally have nothing bad to say about it, this is the CPU I picked for my first gaming build. Originally, I planned to buy an i7. However with a little research, I found that dollar for dollar, the i7 simply wasn't worth it. The performance increase wasn't worth the extra money, which got me searching for an i5. I think this is a wonderful higher end i5 and works beautifully for me when gaming both online and off when paired with my Asus P877-V LX LGA motherboard. One of my favorite games is League of Legends, and I'm able to run it with the highest end graphics via a VGA Sapphire 100358L HD7770 1G just fine.The package comes with the CPU as well as a round Intel heat sink with pre-applied thermal compound, so no need to go through the effort of buying a tube and then wondering how much to apply (perfect for first time builders!). I think the price is very reasonable for both, since you'll end up spending at least $30 for a standard heat sink. I personally did not use the heat sink included, I purchased a contained liquid cooler (CORSAIR CW-9060007-WW) for it which seems to work great. Some reviewers mention that this CPU tends to run hot if you really work it, so keep liquid cooling in mind when considering cooling options.Honestly if you're thinking about upgrading your computer or building a new one, consider this CPU! Save a little money getting a top of the line i7 and go with an SSD instead, (I loaded Windows on my Samsung SSD and startup time is approx 15 seconds, restart is around 30) you won't regret it.