Anybody know a retailer who sells the core i5 2500T?

[djc6535]

I'm looking to buy the 45 watt core i5 2500T and while Intel promises it exists (http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=52212) I can't seem to find anybody who sells it.

Anybody know who might sell the 2500T?

 

[Zap]

According to Anand's review:

There are also T and S series parts for desktop. These are mostly aimed at OEMs building small form factor or power optimized boxes. The S stands for “performance optimized lifestyle” and the T for “power optimized lifestyle”. In actual terms the Ses are lower clocked 65W parts while the Ts are lower clocked 35W or 45W parts. Intel hasn’t disclosed pricing on either of these lines but expect them to carry noticeable premiums over the standard chips.

They may not be available as a PIB.

 

[tweakboy]

Fry's or MicroCenter in time.

 

[Concillian]

These low speed / low power chips are generally not beneficial to end users.

ALL of the 2xxx chips idle at about the same power. They all have power gating to bring idle consumption for the CPU itself to close to 5W.

The low power versions of these CPUs are really only using less power due to lower clocks and voltage when they're being fully utilized. Pretty much every time I've seen these kinds of low power processors tested, they LOSE in a benchmark that tests total power usage for a given task to the higher power processor. That's because the higher power processor spikes the power consumption, gets the task done, then essentially shuts down to using a tiny trickle of power, while the 'low power' version will take longer to finish, thus is wasting more leakage heat.

The low power versions still have a use, co-location facilities sometimes have contracts that impose fines if you exceed a certain current draw. Integrators for small form factor machines, or industrial applications can potentially use smaller, more integrated power supplies with lower TDPs.

For the average home user, since power gating has become prevalent, and power supplies are generally much larger than people actually need, most are as well off, or sometimes even better off with the full power version if looking to save power.

 

[djc6535]

These low speed / low power chips are generally not beneficial to end users.

ALL of the 2xxx chips idle at about the same power. They all have power gating to bring idle consumption for the CPU itself to close to 5W.

The low power versions of these CPUs are really only using less power due to lower clocks and voltage when they're being fully utilized. Pretty much every time I've seen these kinds of low power processors tested, they LOSE in a benchmark that tests total power usage for a given task to the higher power processor. That's because the higher power processor spikes the power consumption, gets the task done, then essentially shuts down to using a tiny trickle of power, while the 'low power' version will take longer to finish, thus is wasting more leakage heat.

The low power versions still have a use, co-location facilities sometimes have contracts that impose fines if you exceed a certain current draw. Integrators for small form factor machines, or industrial applications can potentially use smaller, more integrated power supplies with lower TDPs.

For the average home user, since power gating has become prevalent, and power supplies are generally much larger than people actually need, most are as well off, or sometimes even better off with the full power version if looking to save power.

I'm using it in a Home Theater PC box where heat generation is more important than benchmarks (within reason)

 

[mnewsham]

I'm using it in a Home Theater PC box where heat generation is more important than benchmarks (within reason)

The i5-2500 already runs very cool. You can down clock and undervolt if you really want. to my knowledge the 2500T and the 2500S are OEM parts and cant be bought by the individual (easily)

 

[djc6535]

The i5-2500 already runs very cool. You can down clock and undervolt if you really want. to my knowledge the 2500T and the 2500S are OEM parts and cant be bought by the individual (easily)

Yeah? I'm a little concerned jumping up to a 95W processor. I'm currently using a 705e and have had overheating problems.

 

[mnewsham]

Yeah? I'm a little concerned jumping up to a 95W processor. I'm currently using a 705e and have had overheating problems.

Well undervolt it and clock it lower. The 2500T is clocked at 2.3Ghz. and is 45w if you want to go lower then 95w you can get this it is 65w max.

 

[djc6535]

Well undervolt it and clock it lower. The 2500T is clocked at 2.3Ghz. and is 45w if you want to go lower then 95w you can get this it is 65w max.

Yeah I was looking at the 2400S... I'd prefer the 2500T, passmark scores are higher with lower voltages, and failing that the 2500S, but it seems the 2500 series (aside from the 95 W TDP) are impossible to find.

The bottom line, according to this thread, it seems like I'm not likely to find a 2500T (or S)

 

[mnewsham]

Yes i believe they are OEM only parts for SFF PC's.

 

[Concillian]

I'm using it in a Home Theater PC box where heat generation is more important than benchmarks (within reason)

buy 2400, turn off turbo, save money and pain.

Undervolt if you need to. 2400 by itself uses 55W at full power in this review:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core-i5-2500-2400-2300_10.html

705e also is using right around the same total power, maybe 5W less:
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1056-page2.html

Keep in mind the 2400 also includes the GPU, while the 705e does not. Most likely at default its' using less juice than the 705e + onboard video, at idle and low usage it definitely is since the SB CPUs have much better power gating to minimize low and medium power.

A 2500s is maybe 10W less at max load. These are all pretty marginal differences, and I doubt your primary issue will be resolved with these.

Most people don't actually run max load much. You can see the SCPR review shows the 703e using less than 20w during x264 playback. If you have an overheating issue, it's likely not going to be solved by saving 5W on the CPU. Most likely it's inadequate heatsink / airflow issues.

Most I've talked to who try to do HTPC quiet, but fail, either try to do too much fanless. Or buy stuff not designed to be quiet, then try to make it quiet (which usually makes it perform the original task poorly).

Fanless is really difficult & expensive to do correctly. It's much easier to have a fan on the CPU, but make sure you have a quality heatsink and the fan is QUIET. The fans designed to be super quiet, like the Nexus silent fans and the Scythe Kama low speed fans are basically inaudible, but still have decent pressure differential from front to back.

Get your airflow / heatsinking right and your CPU choice 2400 / 2500 S / T versions don't matter.

If you're overheating a 50W CPU now, a 40W CPU may be low enough that you fix your overheating problem, but it may not be too. I would look real hard at other places in your case to add some airflow quietly.

Again, if you've never used a fan designed from the beginning to be quiet, you should at least try them. They are on the expensive side, usually close to $15 each, but they do work well.

 

[mnewsham]

You can always buy the Hyper 212+ and put some quite 20dBa fans on it.

 

[djc6535]

If you're overheating a 50W CPU now, a 40W CPU may be low enough that you fix your overheating problem, but it may not be too. I would look real hard at other places in your case to add some airflow quietly.

Again, if you've never used a fan designed from the beginning to be quiet, you should at least try them. They are on the expensive side, usually close to $15 each, but they do work well.

Let's be fair, 705e is a 65W processor, not 50. I'm by no means going fanless, but the case itself is limiting. 20mm fans. Got the best I could find but there's only so much those can do, so I went with a highly rated rather expensive cpu cooler that still isn't quite doing the job. Playback is typically okay, but I like to use the box for encoding and that does result in hours at load.

As far as undervolting and underclocking there are issues there that don't resolve things as well as I'd like.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/296850-28-2500t-underclock-2500k

I'm not the only one asking this question, and the T really seems to be the answer.

Look, I appreciate the intent, but the point of this thread wasn't to get alternatives. I've done that legwork and having done so, made a decision as to what I'd prefer to run with. The point of the thread was to locate a retailer. No offense intended, but unless you know a retailer, and it sounds like there aren't any, I'm not really interested. I promise you I looked to fix the $15 dollar fan issue before I looked at throwing hundreds on a new CPU and Mobo.

 

[mnewsham]

Are you worried about power consumption or heat? If heat then that is a non issue with sandy bridge.

 

[Dadofamunky]

You can always buy the Hyper 212+ and put some quite 20dBa fans on it.

Wouldn't work too well with SFF tho. Heck, with true SFF the Intel stock cooler (gasp!) should be fine.

 

[VirtualLarry]

20mm fans.

20mm? My HTPC has two 40mm, plus the CPU fan (four-heatpipe AMD jobbie), plus the PSU fan (which never seems to spin fast enough, the PSU sure heats up).

It sounds a bit like a white-noise generator in a psychiatrists office.

 

[Broheim]

I haven't seen the 2500T anywhere, but I have seen the core i3 2100T, so I don't see why the 2500T shouldn't be out there as well...

 

[Zap]

Just used a price search engine to find:

Core i5 2500S 65W supposedly in stock

Core i5 2500T 45W for preorder, also here for preorder

Looks like the S might be available while the T is not yet available. They are all pretty expensive at around $270. Personally I would get a Core i5 2500K, limit the Turbo multiplier to match the S or T, and then lower the voltage offset to match. While this would require an overclockable motherboard (available in micro ATX) it would put the TDP at the same as the more expensive chips.

 

[PlasmaBomb]

Just used a price search engine to find:

Core i5 2500S 65W supposedly in stock

Core i5 2500T 45W for preorder, also here for preorder

Looks like the S might be available while the T is not yet available. They are all pretty expensive at around $270. Personally I would get a Core i5 2500K, limit the Turbo multiplier to match the S or T, and then lower the voltage offset to match. While this would require an overclockable motherboard (available in micro ATX) it would put the TDP at the same as the more expensive chips.

+1 for Zap :thumbsup:

 

[Vette73]

Yea newegg.com has the 2400s
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115075

You could always get a regular 2400/2500 and just underclock it.

 

[Dadofamunky]

Yea newegg.com has the 2400s
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115075

You could always get a regular 2400/2500 and just underclock it.

that's kinda what I was thnking too.

Most real SFF systems don't use MicroATX - too big by half. MiniITX is the norm.

 

[IntelEnthusiast]

Ok right now just to give a little information on these processors; the Intel® Core™ I3 2100T is available at our distributor ASI and then through the resellers who buy from them. You can find a list of resellers in your area from www.Inteltechpros.com. If they don’t have it in stock, ask if they buy from ASI and they should be able to order it. Now the Intel® Core™ I5 2500T and 2500S both have only been released as OEM or Tray processors; one of them might show up somewhere but I wouldn’t count on it yet. Now you can see the difference between the Intel Core I5 2500T and 2500S at http://ark.intel.com/Compare.aspx?ids=52212,52211,. The big difference is the heatsink that comes with the 2500T. It is a small form factor heatsink that is designed for thin HTPC or very small cases on mini-ITX.

Christian Wood
Intel Enthusiast Team

 

[Zap]

Christian,

Does Intel have any plans for the 2500T/2500S as a PIB in the future? SFF seems to be really taking off and these can be popular CPUs given the right price and availability.