Yep, it did. They destroyed the previous gen in performance, price and power usage. I still run my 2500k at stock at the moment even though it will do 4.5 with the smallest of voltage bumps, as there is no need for the extra power for gaming or browsing at the moment.
Utter rubbish. A stock I7 950 isn't far from a 2500k. Infact, I clearly remember when Tom Logan was reviewing his samples saying to me over MSN...
"Dude, these new Intel chips are absolute rubbish, they don't overclock !".
Now of course, he was trying the old method. FSB. He hadn't yet twigged that the clocking magic hailed back to the old days.
If what you are saying is "The 2500k is more than capable at stock" then yes, I agree. Just like my I7 950 is more than capable at stock speed and as such will be staying put. I've simply upgraded everything around it (ram, 7970, 120gb Corsair Force, 3d monitor and so on).
So I maintain. Had it not been for the enormous overclocks of Sandybridge the enthusiast would have slagged them off.
Which is why you won't see many, if any, recommendations to buy an I3 Sandy or Pentium Sandy as they are quite clearly boring and crap.
Don't forget sandy is not just the "K" series and you can't even overclock on the H61 boards and they still sell very well.
To think the success of the sandy range was because of the overclockabilty (made up words for the win) of the 2500k and 2700k alone is a joke.
Do you take me for being stupid?
Go and have a look at some comparisons on sales figures for £280 Dell desktop PCs compared to Alienwares. I know, because I used to work selling Alienwares. I saw all of that "junk" tearing from the shelves of Best Buy in New Jersey whilst the Alienwares were an incredibly hard sell.
I am fully able to realise that Llano is AMD's bread and butter, along with its other low powered solutions.
I am also able to understand that Llano is an absolute landmark for AMD. Quite simply because it's the first CPU *ever* that can say the word
game without the price tag. It's amazingly clever, and will be a success.
I'm also aware of all the cheap MATX boards (£28 for example) that carry AMD chipsets. The millions, billions even, numbers they are sold in.
And then, I am able to see what sells in the "enthusiast" market.
1. It needs to be made to go faster. If it can't? it's crap.
2. It needs as many cores as you can cram on it. Even if it's a re badged server part that doesn't matter, because it will still make some one's hickory dickory dock feel bigger.
3. It needs to be pretty colours. People are really fussy about matching colours and parts in their "enthusiast righ".
4. Price doesn't matter, as long as it's the fastest.
Therefore, that would be why Intel have not released a K series I3. Quite frankly because driven to 4.8ghz and beyond at an enthusiast level (IE, in games) it would do what their I3 Clarkdale did to their I5 1156.
Make it completely pointless and a waste of money.
Bravo Intel, you're finally working it out.
. Seems hardly worth the headache when you think about it.
) 
