MICRO CENTER 245KB860MEAGLEPL

The Core Ultra 5 245K posts a 4,710 single-core PassMark score, good for the 98th percentile, and a 42,973 multi-core score around the 90th percentile. But the platform and feature scores sit in the bottom quarter of our database, and affordability is at the 19th percentile. Fast chip, mediocre bundle, questionable price.

The single-core score of 4,710 is the headline here. That's 98th percentile territory, meaning this processor trades blows with the absolute best on the market for tasks that lean on one or two threads. Boot times, app launches, light photo editing, that kind of thing. The multi-core score of 42,973 is also strong, around the 90th percentile, so heavier productivity workloads like video encoding or code compilation will chew through work quickly. The 6 P-cores and 8 E-cores give Windows plenty of scheduling flexibility, and the 5.2 GHz boost clock keeps bursty workloads feeling instant.

Gaming is a bit of a mixed bag. The gaming score of 56.2 out of 100 is solid but not exciting, and the AI score sits at the 75th percentile, which is impressive for a mid-range chip but not going to blow anyone away. Efficiency lands at the 52nd percentile, so this thing is about average when it comes to performance per watt. It runs cooler and quieter than older Intel desktop parts, sure, but it's not some efficiency miracle. The motherboard's 8+1+2+1 phase VRM with 50A stages and MOSFET heatsinks should keep power delivery stable under sustained loads, though.

Against the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D, this Core Ultra 5 245K loses the multi-core battle but wins on single-core speed. The 7950X3D is a gaming monster with its 3D V-Cache, while the 245K's gaming score of 56.2 suggests it's more of a productivity chip that happens to game okay. The Intel Core Ultra 9 285K is the bigger sibling, with more cores and higher multi-core scores, but you'll pay more for it. The Empowered PC Ryzen 7 5700X build is a budget alternative that gives up single-core performance but might win on value. And the Dell Inspiron 7700 and HP Celeron 14-dq3000dx aren't really in the same conversation, those are prebuilt systems aimed at completely different buyers. The 245K's real competition is the 7950X3D for mixed workloads and the 285K for anyone who wants more cores.

Pricing is where this bundle gets tricky. The only listing we have is 82,909 JPY in Japan, and we can't compare that directly to other currencies without doing conversions we don't trust. What we can say is that the affordability percentile sits at 19th, which means this combo is priced worse than most products in our database. You're paying for that 98th percentile single-core performance, but the feature set and platform scores in the bottom quarter suggest you're not getting a lot of extras for the money. If you can find this at a discount, the raw CPU performance starts to look more reasonable.

The Core Ultra 5 245K posts a PassMark multi-core score of 42,973 and a single-core score of 4,710. That single-core number lands in the 98th percentile of our database, which means this chip is basically top of the charts for everyday snappiness. The multi-core score is no slouch either, sitting around the 90th percentile. You get 14 cores split into 6 performance cores and 8 efficiency cores, with boost clocks up to 5.2 GHz and 26MB of cache. No thermal solution in the box, so budget for a decent cooler.

But here's the thing. The overall score of 56.5 out of 100 tells a more complicated story. Productivity comes in at 66.4, gaming at 56.2, and server workloads drag things down to 45.6. The efficiency percentile is dead middle at 52nd, which is fine but not the efficiency revolution Intel's marketing copy wants you to believe. Feature set, affordability, and platform all rank in the bottom quarter of our database. This is a fast CPU bolted to a motherboard bundle that cuts some corners.

Skip this if you're building a server or running heavily multi-threaded workloads around the clock. The server score of 45.6 out of 100 is the weakest area here, and the efficiency percentile is dead middle at 52nd, so you're not getting great performance per watt for 24/7 operation. Also skip it if you care about platform longevity or features. The 18th percentile platform score and 21st percentile feature score mean you're getting a basic board with limited extras. And if you're on a tight budget, the 19th percentile affordability ranking says this bundle is priced above most of its peers.

The Core Ultra 5 245K is a genuinely fast processor held back by a mediocre platform and questionable pricing. If your workload is single-thread heavy, like office productivity, web development, or older games that don't scale across cores, this chip is one of the best on the market right now. But the 19th percentile affordability score and 18th percentile platform score mean you're paying a premium for that speed without getting much else. The B860M EAGLE PLUS board is fine, with DDR5 support and PCIe 5.0, but it's not a feature-rich foundation. Buy this for the CPU performance, not the bundle.