Intel Core i7-4790K Processor (8M Cache, up to 4.40 GHz) BX80646I74790K

Have been looking forward to upgrading my i5 to an i7 and finally got the money together to do it. I had checked out possible upgrades including a better i5 but decided that I wanted an i7 and chose this one based on reviews and product information. I have a Dell Inspiron 3847 that came with a i5 4460 running at 3.2 gigs. I don't overclock so I wanted something that would run faster without having to overclock it. This seemed the best bet for me. I made up my mind when I brought a i3 system running at 3.7 gigs. This little system had a bit of zip to it and it, so far, has run most anything I could throw at it along with it's GTX-750 Ti SC graphics card. So I ordered the i7 and it came in right on time and I opened the shipping box to see what I had. The first thing I noted was the included heat sink fan combo that came with it. It was OK, but plastic push pins have failed me before as mounts on the case fans so that I didn't like. Also it was about half an inch thick and the heat sink fan combo on the existing i5 CPU was about an inch or over tall and had much larger fins. I did note that the heat sink combo that came with the i7 had a copper surfaced contact area where the heat sink seated on the CPU but the pins and size made me decide to stay with my i5's old heat sink cooler that came with the system. (I also noted that the i5 combo mounted to the MB with already mounted screws so if I needed to I could still switch combos a bit easier. (This didn't turn out to be the case, however.) So I got the Inspiron and brought it to the kitchen table where I do any inside-the-case computer work and removed the side panel and got busy. Laying it flat and grounding myself well, I proceeded to remove the heat sink fan combo with the only problem being it took a bit of force to get the screws holding down the heat sink to come loose as they were tightened down really well. After getting the screws loose, I checked out the mounting for the fan heat sink combo to see how it had been mounted so I could make sure and replace it properly. I like the way the heat sink was held down with four springs which push the heat sink down onto the top surface of the processor and provide a very firm fit after you've got the heat sink compound on. (I used Artic Silver which works for me.) The one thing that surprised me a bit was the amount of force that was needed to re-latch the hold down clip. It was a bit more than I felt it should be, but after checking how the i5 felt it wasn't all that much force to latch it. (Made sure to get the new chip in right too.) After I got the heat sink compound on and replaced the heat sink combo, and got it tightened down firmly. it was time to see what it would do. I normally leave the side panel off till I check out any new installation I do. In that way you can find any problems and correct them. The last thing I did was re-plug the heat sink fan back into the MB and then took the system to the Computer Room and hooked everything up. I turned the power on and went to the BIOS as a check to see if the CPU was seen correctly and it was with all functions showing OK. I then got the only glitch of the hold morning when I exited the BIOS and instead of booting to Windows10 Pro, it just shut down. Ops, I said to myself and pressed the power button again. This time the system started up with no problems and booted right into Windows. I noted it felt sort of like my i3 in that it seemed to zip into Windows instead of sort of "walking" in. I had been reading that these i7s were noted for running a bit hot, so I ran Speccy and checked the temps. At idle it ran at 35 to 36c and under load it topped out at 65c and that was lower than what I expected it to be. A very pleasant surprise indeed. I got another one when I checked the actual speed the i7 was running at. It settled in at 4.2 gigs. and I hadn't done anything but install it. I sat there and watched the temps for a bit and noted that they didn't get above 40c when idling and when I loaded it down it just stayed around 65c with only one time peaking out at 68c. It seems I might have done a fair job with the sink heat fan combo too. I then loaded up one of my favorite games (Remember Me) and got killed off right away as I failed to respond quickly enough as I was expecting the AI to be a bit slower. Nice! Overall the system "feels" solid and runs that way. I note it has the "zippy" feel the i3 has but more so. In my games, I'm finding myself having to react a bit sooner than I used to and that's really a pleasure. So far, the only thing that popped up was the shut down at the first boot up after installing the CPU. It's not given me any other problems at all and it's nice to have things actually load up when clicked on without any little pauses and have the game scene transition loads go by so fast that you can't even read the hints anymore. Very Nice! One other thing that I was happy to see was when I checked the activation status of Windows 10 Pro and found it was still activated! Another very good thing to see! Overall I think I got a real winner here!Update: 4/17/16: One thing I did notice with this CPU was that, at first, it was a bit unstable and ran a bit warm. I noted the first time it booted up a slight freeze then reboot and then Windows came up. The first set up was this way and then I started having freezes, lockups, and unannounced reboots running at 4.3 gigs. It seemed my first impressions were a bit high. I did a reset of the heat sink compound and tried again. Same thing at 4.3 gig. After placing my old i5 3.2 gig back in for a check and it running just fine, I decided to try once again. I removed the i5 and put in the i7. This time I cleared the BIOS as I had run into having old BIOS values mess me up at times. I also added a 120mm fan to the case's left side to set up a bit more air flow thru the case. I reseated my sound card and graphics card, and I made sure all cables were tight. This time when I booted up, the system did not hang but booted to the screen informing me a BIOS clear at been done. It was smooth and there wasn't a hang to it. I went into the BIOS and disabled the on board sound and that's it, I left everything else like it was and booted into Windows 10 Pro. Windows booted up without a problem and loaded fine. I cranked up the Intel Extreme Tuning Ulit, and checked things out. Turned out I was again running at 4.2 gig. The system seemed OK, but was some of the readings looked a bit off to me, so I decided to try a test and sure enough the system seemed to be a little shaky to me. I decided on another test before I ran any stress tests. I set the system at 4 gigs solid and observed the readings. Things seemed to setting down and the temps seemed to stabilize around 35 to 40c. Not as low as hoped but in range. Since I hadn't planned on an overclock anyway, this would be OK IF they didn't get much higher. I then ran 10 minutes worth of CPU stress and memory tests after a 5 minute benchmarking in Intel's uitil., and then a 10 minute stress test under OCCP and the system sailed thru them all with the temps never getting above 83c but just spiking to it and no locking up, freezing or reboots. I've noted it seems to run around 35-40c when idling and around 70-76c under load. The main thing now is it seems very stable at 4 gigs for me and that's what I wanted even if it took me a little while to get there.Update: 7/18/16: OK, so here's the finally setup I had to run with. First, turned Turbo-boost OFF in BIOS. Second, ran Intel Extreme Tuning Tool and set CPU core voltage on this system at 1.1005 volts, with Manual static setting only as that was the setting that got me the most stable running. (No Adaptive as, on my system, this causes lock ups and reboots when sudden voltage spikes up or down hit the CPU.) In this set up, the system is very stable, runs cool (Around 35-40c idle and 50-60c under load) and allows me to run my games and any thing else without any problems at all. The only problem that I run into every once in awhile is when somehow the static setting gets switched back to the adaptive set up and I don't spot it in time, I'll get the total system lock up and need to reboot by the power button on the system, otherwise no problems and system runs very solid without problems. (I've play one game 12 to 24 hours without a problem with the static setup.) (Think that Intel should allow the user to "set" the most stable profile ae the "default" profile for their system but they don't.) I maybe should have got the "locked" 4790 but I wanted the 4 gigs running speed and not 3.6. Still think it's a really good buy.

This is my review of the 4790k after 3 days of owning it. During the course of these 3 days, I have not had a boat load of time to play with it. But I did get a chance to OC it. And I definitely have felt its power. So, a lot has yet to be learned about this CPU, but for what its worth, heres my review.Notes:For this record, this is a osx build. Not gonna list all the specs. El Capitan. See the OC section of this review to learn more about OCing hackintosh with this chip.Performance OOB:My computing tasks are 85% raw image editing (photography),12% web browsing, and 3 % video editing anymore. But I needed a CPU that could crush raw HDR photography blending in Lightroom 6. Just for comparison, this 4790k is probably 4 times faster at creating raw HDR files from 5-7 exposures than my previously owned i5 4430 3.0Ghz. It exports edited images more than twice as fast... This thing is definitely fast. Truly, the fastest you are going to get for gaming, everyday computing, basic photo editing, etc. You can't get a faster chip. I know, I know, the 6700k is out. But its hardly any better than this chip. DDR4 does absolutely nothing for performance at this early stage... Most people will tell you to stick with the 4790k. The only chip i really contemplated having over this one is the x99 6-core 5820k.My Cooling:Using a Hyper212 Evo. Stock fan... 4 case fans (2 corsair SP120s, 2 NZXT 120mm). Stock CPU temps with my build are about 32-34C. I was going to go water cooling for this but when you TRULY research it, AIO water coolers are practically a joke when it comes to reliability. But I might make the jump to H2O just to reach better OC freq.Overclock:Ok, so I never overclocked before. I knew I wanted to OC this chip. This was my first chance... So, I decided to read up on it to prevent any idiotic impulse decisions... Little did I know there is basically no "beginner" info for getting into overclocking that is relatively simple to understand. In short: I went to the BIOS and set Vcore at 1.25V, Ram at 1333mhz (1866mhz rated), multiplier at 45x ... Monitored temps with Intel Power Gadget and stress tested with Prime95 (mac). Nothing too in-depth.OC Results:So, i think I have a decent chip for OC. Either that, or im doing something wrong that I dont know of haha. Hyper212 Evo - stock fan.4.6GHz @ 1.265V ~83C Max (P95 for 5 minutes) PASS4.6GHz @ 1.250V ~82C MAX (P95 for 5 minutes) FAIL4.6GHz @ 1.260V ~83C MAX (P95 for 10 minutes) PASSThe last OC, I sit "stable" at. For now. I know its only 10 minutes and 5+ hour tests are "the accepted standard" but P95 at 10 minutes stresses my CPU harder than I will ever use it. Heck, its so fast that even exporting a heavily edited 5 minute movie project will take less than that.. Im certain its stable. But will be testing more at this OC.Conclusion:I'll update this as needed. A few points... buy it. Its good. Its all you need. Crush the stock heatsink with a hydraulic press if you plan on stepping outside 4.0ghz base clock. If you're heavily gaming (i dont game), get a good cooler like the Cryorig H7 (i want that) or the Noctua big coolers. Hyper 212 is decent. Cryorig H7 is a better product... But anyway, if you're gaming, you wanna keep your CPU cooler as much as possible, not only for performance, but simply to keep the wear and tear down on it.------------- UPDATE 6/19/16 -----------------------So i've owned this chip for about 2 weeks now. Since then, I have decided to upgrade my cooling solution. I went with an h100i GTX. Stock thermal paste. Just slapped it on there (cleaned the old paste off first). Using stock fans and added 2 more nzxt case fans on the other side of the rad to keep it cooler.Temps with the h100i are better. Not as good as I expected, but they are good. I can now keep temps stable clear up to probably 4.8GHz. I only stress test with p95 for a few minutes. Anything past that is just unecessary. I don't push my CPU as hard as p95 ever, so theres no sense it wasting time (im sorry if you disagree).Now, I was able to OC to 4.6 GHZ with no issues on temps. About ~80C with my h100i and everything running. and 1.247VI am trying to get to 4.7 but this chip is causing me to crank the voltage at 4.7 to nearly 1.30V which i dont like because my Vcore spikes during P95 past the Vcore set value.Im not a great overclocker, so im curious to see if someone else could do better on this chip. But honestly, I think my chip is decent for OC, but its definitely not a golden chip like some seem to get.