Intel Corp. has quietly added a new “unlocked” microprocessor into its price-list, which means that the chip is available to customers worldwide. The Core i7-2700K "Sandy Bridge" chip will extend Intel’s leadership on the market of high-performance microprocessors designed for overclockers.

Intel Core i7-2700K central processing unit has four cores with Hyper-Threading technology, 8MB of cache, integrated dual-channel DDR3 memory controller. The default clock-speed of the processor is 3.50GHz and the Turbo Boost top speed is 3.90GHz. Since the chip belongs to Core i7 family, it fully supports all of Intel’s advanced technologies like virtualization, trusted execution and so on. The microprocessor costs $332 in 1000-unit quantities.

The new processor is only slightly (by 100MHz) faster compared to Intel’s own Core i7-2600K chip and since both chips sport unlocked multiplier and can be easily overclocked, actual performance difference between the models 2600K and 2700K is somewhat doubtful.

Intel’s Core i7-2700K was supposed to ensure that Intel has the fastest chip in the $300 - $400 segment after the company’s arch-rival Advanced Micro Devices unveils its highly-anticipated FX-series microprocessors powered by Bulldozer micro-architecture. As benchmark results by independent researchers revealed, even AMD’s top-of-the-range eight-core FX-8150 CPU can barely compete against Core i5-2500K and is unable to beat the model 2600K.

The launch of Core i7-2700K not only ensures Intel’s competitive abilities against AMD, but also closes the gap between Intel’s high-performance and Extreme-series central processing units.

Tags: Intel, 32nm, Sandy Bridge, Core, AMD, Bulldozer, Zambezi.