Since Ivy Bridge appears not as enticing as I previously thought (yes, it's a little early to conclude this, so it's a 'soft' conclusion) I am tempted to rethink a SB machine. So, what can you say about maximum overclockability w/ an SB processor? I tend to be disinterested in water cooling. I use a cooling system which is effective for air-based. And an appropriate GPU solution for this well overclocked SB platform?Thanks in advance . . .Noel

I think it's way to early to make even a "soft" judgement on Ivy Bridge. After all, there's not even any hardware based results/reviews from which to develop such a conclusion. For now, the 2700K is pretty much a cherry picked 2600K - I think that's the only answer if you are adamant about reaching 5.0GHz.Unless you are running multiple monitors, the 560TI or 570 should be plenty sufficient. I would be hesitant to throw down on a 580 with nVidia Kepler coming in a few months.

I don't think you can guarantee 5 ghz full stop.Asus findings with 2500k / 2600k chips:Results are representative of 100 D2 CPUs that were binned and tested for stability under load; these results will most likely represent retail CPUs.1. Approximately 50% of CPUs can go up to 4.4~4.5 GHz2. Approximately 40% of CPUs can go up to 4.6~4.7 GHz3. Approximately 10% of CPUs can go up to 4.8~5 GHz (50+ multipliers are about 2% of this group)http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1578110

Same thing as above, but less confusing:1. Approximately 100% of CPUs can go up to 4.4~4.5 GHz2. Approximately 50% of CPUs can go up to 4.6~4.7 GHz3. Approximately 10% of CPUs can go up to 4.8~5 GHzIn other words, between approx. 4.45 and 4.90 GHz, your chance of overclocking success can be calculated by the formula 2.00x^2 - 20.70x + 53.51, where x is the clock speed in GHz Relying on that same equation for 5.0GHz yields a 1% chance of success

But what about the 2700k? It *is* cherry-picked, after all...Cheers,- jahman.

If we can talk someone into testing 100 of them, maybe we will know! Chances should definitely be a little better than 1%, though.

One could actually figure out the binning frequency for the 2700K given these constraints:Cheers,- jahman.

If the 2700k is nothing more than a binned 2600k, I'm going to have to go ahead and say that it's not worth the extra money. Seeing as how only 1 or 2 percent of the 2600k chips can do 5.0GHz in the first place, they're going to have to dig deeper into the 4.8 range to get any reasonable quantity of 2700k chips. This is all assuming they haven't improved the "golden chip" yields over the lifetime of the product.Then again, if they're taking all the good 2600k chips and labeling them as 2700k's, you may want to stear clear of the 2600k and go the 2700k route... good thing I got my 2600k early on.

Man, do I love conspiracy theories on these forums! Lovely!

Man, do I love conspiracy theories on these forums! Lovely!

There's no conspiracy theory here, just Intel adding one more bin at the top.Cheers,- jahman.

How about the AMD Bulldozer?Bulldozer Breaks Frequency Record Again: Overclocked to 8.46GHzRH

Same thing as above, but less confusing:1. Approximately 100% of CPUs can go up to 4.4~4.5 GHz2. Approximately 50% of CPUs can go up to 4.6~4.7 GHz3. Approximately 10% of CPUs can go up to 4.8~5 GHzIn other words, between approx. 4.45 and 4.90 GHz, your chance of overclocking success can be calculated by the formula 2.00x^2 - 20.70x + 53.51, where x is the clock speed in GHz Relying on that same equation for 5.0GHz yields a 1% chance of success

Hi Corey,Good to see you. Don't you think these numbers may be inccurate? I remember this data being reported way back by a single original source upon release of the i7 2600K, but I am not so sure they are not significantly lower than the actual attained results. It seems to me that in this forum and elsewhere users experience a significantly higher yield average.Kind regards,

How about the AMD Bulldozer?Bulldozer Breaks Frequency Record Again: Overclocked to 8.46GHzRH

Terrible single threaded performance. Worse than previous AMD's K10.5 architecture, avoid at all cost for FSX

Hi Corey,Good to see you. Don't you think these numbers may be inccurate? I remember this data being reported way back by a single original source upon release of the i7 2600K, but I am not so sure they are not significantly lower than the actual attained results. It seems to me that in this forum and elsewhere users experience a significantly higher yield average.Kind regards,

Good to see you too, Stephen - it has been a while! I'm pretty sure these numbers are a little low as you said. I think they were reported by ASUS within a couple weeks of the SB release. They tested 100 chips, so I can't imagine they spent much time on each one.