Intel Core i5-11600K

The i5 11600k is, at the time of this writing, really the best value in CPUs on the market. You have to pay a bunch more to get a couple more cores in an i7, while an i3 is only a bit cheaper for certainly less performance. Meanwhile, Ryzens are just too much extra money for frankly a little less performance. They may have a huge marketing cult, and they are very good processors to be sure, but if you're trying to maximize performance for the dollar, the Intel cores still have the edge. The i5 11600K is the strongest performing and most flexible of the gen 11 i5 variants and is plenty good enough for the casual to moderately serious gamer or workstation--especially if you dabble in overclocking, but also even if you don't, this is still a little stronger than the 65wtdp locked version. Keep in mind that the unlocked K version i5 is the full performance version and does not include a cooler like the locked i5s usually do. It's also rated to dissipate more heat which is surely why intel doesn't include one. I think the intel vs. ryzen people do entirely too much hand wringing over architecture and TDP differences between the brands. Guys, stop being silly. The truth is that unlocked intels and ryzens BOTH put out a ton of heat and both need coolers that exceed the rated TDP. For the 11600K I'd recommend a cooler in the 150w-190w TDP range. I ended up finding a good price on a Be Quiet Shadow Rock 3 which is a very nice air cooler for the i5 and probably overkill unless you're playing with overclocking. I'd also recommend the same for the congruent ryzen, by the way. The inconvenient truth is unlocked intel and ryzen both put out more heat than CPUs ought to be in this day and age and you need to spend some money on cooling any of them. At least with the 5s you can get away with upper mid-grade air cooling and definitely don't "have" to do water if you don't want to, especially if you're keeping to a budget. The 11600Ks generally support 3200 ram with no need for ram overclocking which is great, but check the capability of your particular motherboard. This is one of the improvements from 10th gen. I'm running a couple 16gb sticks of 3200 cl 16-18-18-38 with excellent results and no funny business in the bios. The intel integrated graphics on the 11600K is what you'd expect. It's fine for workstation/business use, can output 4k video content fine, and will get you by for light gaming, but serious gamers will obviously need discrete graphics. You can get the KF version of the 11600 if you don't want or need integrated graphics, but depending on the day, it may or may not actually be cheaper than the K. Overall, the i5 11600K really is the current value champion for mid to upper-mid grade PC builds in 2022 to date and will continue to be until the next big price drop on the 12th gen CPUs and motherboards. You get near-i7 performance for less money and you get a bit better than current ryzen 5 also for less money. Match this up with your favorite reasonably robust cooler and a good mid grade motherboard (I like Asus TUF, but you do you) for a really great bang for the buck PC build with some lasting power.

rags · 2022-07-25 · via amazon

Using this in the ASUS TUF Gaming Z590-Plus WiFi motherboard. To my surprise, it also came with its latest BIOS update, so no need to flash it so far. Coming from an i5-4690k, man... I'm just floored. This thing is insanely fast compared to what I'm used to. I was aware it could get rather hot as well, so I decided to get water cooling (AIO Cooler) for the very first time. Managed to fit the NZXT Kraken X53 in my Corsair Carbide 200R case. Rigged it just above my Low-Profile RAM sticks, with screws in the hexagonal grill with the included washers, and used Velcro to stabilize the frontal area, as there was no coverage for screws there. Spent all day building this, but hoo boy, it was worth it. Stable, fast, and ultimately, an absolute joy to game on. I'm still using my EVGA GTX 1660 Ti XC Ultra with this, as I've nothing better. However, I'm no longer CPU bottlenecked like I was before. Now it's maybe a 5 ~ 10% GPU bottleneck. Nothing too serious, and games run phenomenal. Zero issues. Temps never go above 65c with the aforementioned cooler. (Which I highly recommend, if you can both fit & afford it, it's about $140 including tax at the time of this review) 16 GB of low-profile RAM fit perfectly with my build, and they're of the 3200 MHz kind. It only reaches that via XMP in bios, but that is intentional, so definitely use it if you have sticks like these. Goes great with the CPU. So far it varies between 4.6 GHz and 4.9 GHz all on its own, and so far I'm just leaving it that way. Typically stays at 4.9 GHz during heavy gaming. Temps are still good, below or around 60c depending on the game. Just know that air cooling may not be as safe for this one, not that I can attest to that personally. I almost chose to air cool it, but now that I've experienced liquid cooling, I'm not sure I can go back to air. Haha. I highly recommend this processor, as well as the cooler and motherboard I mentioned. RAM was the all-popular Corsair Vengeance kind, of course. Couldn't be happier!

Thomas G · 2021-04-07 · via amazon

I own a Gigabyte Z490M Gaming X motherboard. It has two M.2 slots, but one that doesn't work (labeled limited functionality). It turns out that Gigabyte built ahead to provide added functionality once the 11th Gen processors were released. So, when the new processors came out, I replaced my 10th Gen i5 10500 processor with this one. Initially, I noticed six things: 1. This processor requires more power (125 watts vs 65 watts for the i5 10500) 2. Even though it uses twice the power, it only runs about 4 degrees Celsius hotter under an average or light workload. (I used the same 120mm liquid cooler for both). 3. The onboard graphics are noticeably improved over the previous generation chip. 4. The processor doesn't feel twice as fast, but is noticeably faster than the 10th gen i5 10500 (which was a solid processor too). 5. My second M.2 slot on my motherboard now works due to the functionality of the 11th-gen 11600k. Currently, I use one slot for my Intel WiFi card and one for my uber-fast M.2 hard drive. This frees up a ton of room on my PCI-Express ports for a really nice video card. 6. My motherboard required a firmware update in advance of installing the processor. Words of caution before buying: 1. Make sure your motherboard has the right socket type: LGA1200. 2. Make sure your power supply has not just the four-pin power connection, but also a second 4-pin power connector (for a total of 8 pins). Most 600 Watt or bigger ATX or ITX power supplies should probably work. Often the two plugs have a connection to plug them together side-by-side before plugging into the motherboard. Don't try to use the other connector intended for a video card. 3. Make sure you have the correct firmware installed BEFORE you try to install the new processor. Otherwise, you'll waste time and thermal paste and will have to reinstall your old processor, install the firmware update, test it, and then reinstall the new processor. 4. Recalibrate your fans if needed afterwards. My computer boots faster, plays Minecraft at a higher frame rate, and doesn't run significantly hotter. I don't overclock it. It was just so close in price to the next model down a the time, that I decided to get it.

Joeyslaptop · 2021-06-18 · via amazon

I upgraded from a 10600kf to the 11600k. Its an almost entirely pointless upgrade and I don't recommend anybody else take this route. If you do, here's some more info... Pros: *Pcie gen 4, babyyyy *Performance is pretty solid so far *Definitely has overclock potential. I got it to 4.9ghz all core with just a 2-fan water cooler. I couldn't run it as a daily driver with that cooling setup, but it DID work. Lol. Cons: *Gave me a hard time with setting ram speeds for some reason. 10600 allowed me to set ram at 3600 but the 11600 gets grumpy if I go over 3400 *Price to performance didn't make any sense for me to upgrade...but I did it anyway. I guess this is kinda a neutral thing? If you're like me and you just want to have the highest gen you can get for your board, it's a nice chip. It doesn't come with any thermal paste anywhere in-box so just make sure you have some laying around. I recommend Noctua NT-H. It doesn't include a fan. If you're upgrading from 10th gen, you can use the same fan. If you're doing a new build just make sure you've got a fan. CoolerMaster makes good budget fans

billie · 2023-03-16 · via amazon

Excellent mid-range processor with a reasonable price. My budget did not allow me to go 12th generation, nor could I afford and i7. Paired this baby with an MSI Z590 WIFI Pro Series motherboard and I have not been disappointed. I pushed it to 5.0 Ghz on the turbo boost setting and it blew away my previous 9th gen i7. Stress test after 10 minutes and everything was still rock solid. I backed it down to stock settings and it still performed very respectably. I don't do any gaming on my PC so I can't give an honest rating for it, but it had no problem with the Passmark benchmark. Besides, the graphics adaptor is the key in that realm. Highly recommend this if you are on a tight budget and looking for a good all around choice. Update - I wrote this review back in April but for some reason it never got posted. The only thing I can figure is they didn't like me mentioning overclocking it to 5.0 Ghz. Anyway, I have bee running it for nearly 3 months and I still could not be more pleased with it. All I can say is if you looking for a decent CPU for a reasonable price, then this one is for you.

Robert L. Schlessman · 2022-05-24 · via amazon

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VALUE SCORE

FUTURE-PROOFING

Cores

14C/14T

Boost

5.2GHz

Socket

LGA1851

TDP

125W

Cores

14C/14T

Boost

5.2GHz

Socket

LGA1851

TDP

125W