Intel Core i5-655K Review

Testing

The key objective for this review was seeing how the i5-655K stacks up against similarly priced i5-750 and the Phenom II X6 1055T. To do this we ran the CPUs though our suite of benchmark tests using our standard test components.

For the X6 1055T we used the brand new Asus Crosshair IV Formula motherboard which is based on the new AMD 890FX chipset. This is a more expensive motherboard than the Gigabyte GA-H55M-UD2H that we used for the Intel CPUs, but both boards are excellent overclockers and allowed us to get the maximum performance from the CPUs on test.

Test Setup

Software

Here is a list of the applications we've used for our testing - most of them are available free for public consumption, although some are popular professional software applications.

• Crysis v1.21
  
• X3: Terran Conflict rolling demo v1.2.0.0
  
• WPrime v2.00
  
• Media Benchmarks v2007.235
  
• Maxon Cinebench 10 (x64)

We've used Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, as this is the most flexible and reliable 64-bit OS for testing the applications above.

Hardware

• ATI Radeon HD 5870 graphics card (Catalyst 10.5 WHQL)
  
• 1TB Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 hard disk
  
• PC Power & Cooling 750W PSU
  
• Asus Crosshair IV Formula motherboard
  
• Gigabyte GA-H55M-UD2H motherboard
  
• 4/6GB (2/3 x 2GB) Corsair 1,600MHz DDR3 memory (CL9)
  
• Titan Fenrir TTC-NK85TZ CPU cooler