CPU And Motherboard
CPU: Intel Core i5-2400
We already know that overclockability is severely limited by Intel's Core i5-2400, but saving $30 on Intel's Core i5-2500K helps keep us closer to our already-tight $1000 budget.
For some folks, the prospect of pushing Sandy Bridge to 4.6 or 4.7 GHz justifies the extra splurge, and if you're not operating within a strict budget like we are, spending a little more is likely worthwhile.
Read Customer Reviews of Intel's Core i5-2400
What, exactly, do you give up by saving those $30 dollars, though? Because dual-channel memory support was broken on the retail motherboard we ordered for our last build, we wanted to give this CPU a second chance. We also wanted to try using it on a motherboard that lets us manually set a 38x multiplier.
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-P67X-UD3-B3
Read Customer Reviews of Gigabyte's GA-P67X-UD3-B3
Gigabyte does an admirable job of naming its motherboards in such a way that you can tell what chipset it's using and where it falls in the company's stack. Nomenclature aside, though, the P67X-UD3's guts are what interest us.
With a solid reputation for overclocking headroom and granular BIOS controls, we’re hoping to squeeze as much performance as possible from our multiplier-locked Core i5-2400 using this budget-oriented P67 Express-based board. Although we like that it supposed SLI and CrossFire, Newegg's $120 price tag is what closes the deal for us.