MICRO CENTER 225FB860MEAGLEPL

The Core Ultra 5 225F bundle delivers excellent single-thread performance, landing in the 95th percentile of our database, but the 10-thread limit and mediocre efficiency hold it back for heavy workloads. At $320 in the US, it's a reasonable entry point to Intel's new platform, though pricing varies wildly by region. Grab it for general productivity and light gaming, but skip it if you need serious multi-core muscle.

The single-thread score of 4398 in PassMark is the star of the show. That puts this chip in the 95th percentile of all desktop processors in our database, which means it's up there with chips that cost twice as much for bursty, lightly-threaded workloads. Things like web browsing, office apps, older games, and general OS snappiness will feel excellent. The 4.9 GHz boost clock does a lot of heavy lifting here.

Multi-thread lands at 30912, which is strong but not earth-shattering. The 86th percentile ranking sounds great until you remember that the 10-thread limit caps how far this chip can stretch on heavily parallel tasks. Video encoding, 3D rendering, and heavy compilation will finish faster than on older 6-core parts, but a Ryzen 7 with 16 threads or a Core Ultra 7 will walk away from it. The efficiency score is the real sore spot, sitting at the 42nd percentile. Intel's marketing talks a big game about cooler and quieter, but the numbers suggest this chip is about average at turning watts into work. You'll want a decent cooler, not the stock one if you can avoid it.

The obvious rival is the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D, which is a gaming monster with its 3D V-Cache. The 9800X3D will crush the 225F in games that love cache, and it has more threads for productivity too. But it also costs significantly more, so it's not a fair fight on price. If you're building a gaming-first rig and can stretch the budget, the 9800X3D is the better call. The 225F is for people who want Intel's platform and don't need the absolute best gaming frame rates.

Then there's the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, which is the big brother in the same family. It has way more cores, way more threads, and a much higher multi-thread ceiling. But it also draws more power and costs a lot more. The 225F gives you a taste of the Arrow Lake platform without the flagship price tag. The other listed competitors, like the G.Skill memory kit and the Lenovo spare part, aren't really direct CPU comparisons, so we'll skip those. The real question is whether you want to pay the early-adopter tax on Intel's new socket or grab a discounted last-gen chip instead.

Pricing is all over the map depending on where you shop. The US listing shows $320 for the bundle, which is actually pretty reasonable for a current-gen CPU and a B860 board. But the Japanese listing at ¥77,174 and the Mexican listing at MXN 7,615 tell a different story, and those amounts don't translate cleanly across currencies. What we can say is that the affordability percentile sits at 28th, meaning this bundle is priced above most comparable options in our database.

For $320 in the US, you're getting a modern platform with DDR5 and PCIe 5.0, plus a CPU that punches above its weight in single-threaded tasks. That's not a bad deal. But if you're paying a premium in other markets, the value proposition gets shaky fast. A last-gen Ryzen 7000 series chip on a B650 board will often deliver similar multi-thread performance for less money, especially if you don't need the latest socket.

Intel's Core Ultra lineup is a weird beast. On paper, it's a big swing at efficiency and AI, but the desktop versions have been a mixed bag since launch. The Core Ultra 5 225F sits at the budget end of that stack, and this Micro Center bundle pairs it with a Gigabyte B860M Eagle Plus WIFI6E board. It's aimed at people who want a modern platform without selling a kidney, and honestly, the single-thread numbers are the headline here.

This chip runs 10 cores, split into 6 P-cores and 4 E-cores, with 10 threads and a boost clock up to 4.9 GHz. You get 22MB of cache and DDR5 support across four DIMM slots on this board. The VRM design is an 8+1+2+1 setup with 50A power stages, which is more than enough for a 225F. There's also PCIe 5.0, two M.2 slots, and USB-C. Nothing flashy, but it covers the bases.

Who's this for? Someone building a mid-range productivity rig or a light gaming box who wants Intel's latest socket and doesn't care about chasing maximum core counts. The single-thread performance is genuinely top-tier, sitting in the 95th percentile of everything we've tested. Multi-thread is no slouch either at the 86th percentile. But the platform features and efficiency story are where things get murkier, and we'll dig into that below.

Skip this if you're building a dedicated gaming rig on a budget. The gaming score of 55.5 out of 100 is fine, but a Ryzen 5 7600 or even a last-gen i5-13600K will often deliver better frame rates for less money once you factor in motherboard costs. The 225F's lack of integrated graphics also means you can't even boot without a GPU, which is annoying for troubleshooting.

Also skip it if you do heavy multi-threaded work. Video editors, 3D artists, and streamers will hit the 10-thread ceiling quickly. The efficiency percentile of 42nd means you're not even getting great power draw in exchange for that lower thread count. Look at a Ryzen 7 7700X, a Core i7-14700K, or if you can stretch, a Core Ultra 7 265K instead.

If you're building a general-purpose PC for office work, school, light content creation, and some gaming on the side, the 225F bundle is a solid pick. The single-thread speed will make everyday tasks feel snappy, and the B860 board gives you room to upgrade to a beefier Core Ultra chip later. Just make sure you have a discrete GPU, because the 225F has no integrated graphics.

But if you're doing serious multi-threaded work like video editing, 3D rendering, or streaming while gaming, look elsewhere. The 10-thread limit will frustrate you, and the efficiency numbers suggest you're not getting Intel's best silicon here. A Ryzen 7 7700X or a discounted Core i7-14700K would serve you better for similar money in many markets.