If you were concerned that Intel's Sandy Bridge architecture would ultimately be found wanting in the overclocking department, go ahead and put your mind at ease. Granted not all Sandy Bridge parts will have the moxie to kick it up several gears, but it's a good sign than an overclocker on Chinese-language Coolaler.com's forum managed to push an Intel Core i7 2600K to 5GHz...on air!

Let's break this down. The major concern right now is that Intel's Sandy Bridge chips won't be much fun in the hands of overclockers. However, at the very least it would appear the unlocked K-series hold some promise. The 2600K boasts a 3.4GHz clockspeed at stock, and that 1600MHz boost to 5GHz is almost a 50 percent overclock. Not earth shattering, but certainly not shabby, especially when you consider the dude didn't have to resort to water or even phase change cooling to inject some adrenaline into his Sandy Bridge chip. And from the looks of thing, it's at least Super Pi stable.


We've posted a screenie above, but that's just one of many. You can view them all right here.