Intel's latest line of processors, the clarkdale based 32nm Core i5 and i3 were introduced just a few days back. The Core i5 6xx series comprises of dual core processors with hyper threading and also have the "turbo" boost technology, which boosts up the clock speeds and shuts down one core, hence better for single threaded applications. The Core i3 5xx series is also similar just that they do not have the turbo feature.

the i5 6xx series processors start off with the 3.20GHz core i5 650, which is a dual core processor with 4 threads and 4 MB of L3 cache and a price tag of $176. Whats interesting is that all of these processors have a GPU on the CPU (not on the same die though). This IGP is much faster than any of the previous GMA's from Intel but still lack raw power.

These require a board with LGA 1156 socket. There is a new chipset for these chips (so that you can utilize the IGP on the processor) called the H55 and H57. These should be available in the market soon.

There are many reviews out on the net and for performance numbers you can just google it and refer any. But what i feel about them is that they are not really very good value for money. Why will anyone pay $175+ for a core i5 6xx processor, which is a dual core, when you can get a $190 i5 750 which is a quad core. Worse still, there are even better deals from AMD's side. With the very unlockable Phenom 2 550 to the Phenom 2 965 and a much better onboard IGP on amd motherboards its really hard to see why someone will buy this for a budget build.

But hey, its overclocking potential is really awesome. People have gone up to 4.8Ghz on air cooling ! Now thats something !

What i feel is, its a good product but may not be a best seller at this price point. Hopefully in the near future, we will see a nice big price cut from Intel.