MicroCenter: i5 2500k + mobo = 299.98 - 349.98

tnt3k

tnt3k

2[H]4U
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Dec 3, 2006
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Once again MicroCenter has these deals. This is pretty good IMO. Also on their online ad.

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Ouch, seeing that bundle with the Gigabyte board makes the 2600k and GA-P67A-UD4-B3 I just bought look really expensive considering how close their performance is for gaming.
 
I have a stupid question, what does unlocking a CPU do and what justifies the ~$100 extra price on it?
 
Maverick1337 said:
I have a stupid question, what does unlocking a CPU do and what justifies the ~$100 extra price on it?
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unlocked cpus have a K appended to the 2500 and it means you can change the turbo multiplier up to 57X. you get get 4+ghz easily and even up to 5ghz.

do you mean a ~$100 change between the 2500k and the 2600k? if so, then the 2600k has 8mb cache and the 2500k has 6mb. In all these performance tests i've seen, there's not much of a difference once both are OCed, at least it doesn't justify an extra $100
 
Maverick1337 said:
I have a stupid question, what does unlocking a CPU do and what justifies the ~$100 extra price on it?
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The CPU gets its final peak clock frequency from a BCLK (nominally 100MHz) times a multiplier. Unlocked CPUs let you set that multiplier arbitrarily. So for my i7-2600K, I can set it to 48 and enjoy a 4.8GHz CPU when it's at peak speed w/ Turbo Boost. (along with the appropriate settings to make it stable at that speed of course).

I'm going to pick up an i5-2500K for my fileserver methinks, though now that I think about it, I don't really *need* the -K...

e: If I understand correctly that is $179.99 for just a i5-2500K? :D
 
Heck even the cheap Msi bundle is NOT a low end board, it has 8x/8x SLI unlike the vanilla Asus P8P67 they're offering. Here's the same MSI P67 GD55 board at Newegg in case anyone wants more pics or info.

These are great prices, just select the board with the features you want/need.
 
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tnt3k said:
unlocked cpus have a K appended to the 2500 and it means you can change the turbo multiplier up to 57X. you get get 4+ghz easily and even up to 5ghz.

do you mean a ~$100 change between the 2500k and the 2600k? if so, then the 2600k has 8mb cache and the 2500k has 6mb. In all these performance tests i've seen, there's not much of a difference once both are OCed, at least it doesn't justify an extra $100
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iirc, the 2600k has hyper threading because it's an i7 while the i5 2500k does not. That should make a difference for applications that can utilize many threads. For everything else, the 2500k is just as good.
 
I have just bought some of these things go with the ASUS boards if you are going to get this bundle.

Gigabyte has bios and has not put together a good UEFI yet. And having used several it is really nice to have UEFI. And I bought the MSI board and had trouble with memory, that memory worked fine in anything else I put it in.
 
tnt3k said:
unlocked cpus have a K appended to the 2500 and it means you can change the turbo multiplier up to 57X. you get get 4+ghz easily and even up to 5ghz.

do you mean a ~$100 change between the 2500k and the 2600k? if so, then the 2600k has 8mb cache and the 2500k has 6mb. In all these performance tests i've seen, there's not much of a difference once both are OCed, at least it doesn't justify an extra $100
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I think I was confused about what the "K" stood for in the first place.

A standard 2500 cannot be OC'd (Change the multiplier)
A 2500K you can OC by upping the multiplier?

The reason I said the ~$100 difference is because they are selling a 2500K for $249.99 when you can get a 2500k for 179.99.

TLDR: Unlocked = "K" and not Unlocked doesn't have a "K"?
 
Maverick1337 said:
I think I was confused about what the "K" stood for in the first place.

A standard 2500 cannot be OC'd (Change the multiplier)
A 2500K you can OC by upping the multiplier?

The reason I said the ~$100 difference is because they are selling a 2500K for $249.99 when you can get a 2500k for 179.99.

TLDR: Unlocked = "K" and not Unlocked doesn't have a "K"?
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I think you misread the ad. The 2500K is $179.99, not $249.99. They can't outright say $179.99 because that's way below the MSRP so they say $249.99 - $70.

Neither their newspaper ads or site advertise a standard i5-2500. The closest thing they have is the i5-2400 for $149.99.
http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/1bbfc96c#/1bbfc96c/28
 
If Bulldozer wasn't getting released so soon, and I didn't already have a Quad Core I'd be interested in the 2500K with MSI SLI board for 299.99+tax.
 
When I go to the website to order for in store pickup, it isn't showing any of these prices, except the standard 2500k price. No combo deals at all.
 
I wish they had a deal with a mATX mb or ITX, but most enthusiasts want a full ATX mb with quintiple XLI. :p
 
I hate this "In Store" only prices... all we got here is the super expensive Most Expensive Buy (BB), TigerSharks (TD) or CompUSA (same a TigerSharks)... no Frys or no MC. :(

I also don't need to upgrade buy the tax return is burning a hole in my pocket and if I don't find something to waste it on, my wife surely will... :D
 
ob1 said:
When I go to the website to order for in store pickup, it isn't showing any of these prices, except the standard 2500k price. No combo deals at all.
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prices are reflected when you pick up in store
 
motolube said:
I hate this "In Store" only prices... all we got here is the super expensive Most Expensive Buy (BB), TigerSharks (TD) or CompUSA (same a TigerSharks)... no Frys or no MC. :(

I also don't need to upgrade buy the tax return is burning a hole in my pocket and if I don't find something to waste it on, my wife surely will... :D
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That especially sucks since you could sell your Q9650 on eBay for almost the entire cost of the cheaper cpu/mobo combos (they go for $250+)
 
Anyone had any luck on having Fry's pricematch this?

I was able to get Fry's to pricematch the MC price on the i7-2600K for $279 even though it was in-store pickup. Manager approved it too.
 
NACZ3 said:
Anyone had any luck on having Fry's pricematch this?

I was able to get Fry's to pricematch the MC price on the i7-2600K for $279 even though it was in-store pickup. Manager approved it too.
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That's rare. I've read that Fry's generally refuses to pricematch CPUs from MC.
 
w4ffles said:
That's rare. I've read that Fry's generally refuses to pricematch CPUs from MC.
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Where did you read that? Because I've done it a few times already without any issues. Hell, the giant Fry's ad that comes in the paper has a huge banner at the top that basically says "We'll price match anything from any legit store, online or otherwise". Even the fine print doesn't say anything about excluding specific items (such as a CPU). As long as you can show them the ad, or let them verify the price online from whatever store, they'll do it.
 
Jon55 said:
Where did you read that? Because I've done it a few times already without any issues. Hell, the giant Fry's ad that comes in the paper has a huge banner at the top that basically says "We'll price match anything from any legit store, online or otherwise". Even the fine print doesn't say anything about excluding specific items (such as a CPU). As long as you can show them the ad, or let them verify the price online from whatever store, they'll do it.
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Stuff like this.
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1579115

I guess it just depends on your luck with the manager then.
 
I jsut thougt I should mention because I got caught in this, microcenter does not give full refunds for open motherboard returns. So think about it. They will give you store credit but alot of us travel long distances to get to microcenters and really would have a hard time making use of that credit.
 
rudy said:
I jsut thougt I should mention because I got caught in this, microcenter does not give full refunds for open motherboard returns. So think about it. They will give you store credit but alot of us travel long distances to get to microcenters and really would have a hard time making use of that credit.
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i think they do exchanges if its not working
 
Ya but alot of times with motherboard it doesn't just not work. Rather it works not very well and it is an endemic problem to that motherboard so you want something else. With microcenter you are going to have less choices and generally higher prices. So anyhow my point is you take a risk in my case it burned me.
 
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