Intel Core i3 2100 Sandy Bridge
Starting with x264, the Core i3 2100 performance pulls in front of the previous-generation Core i3 530 "Clarkdale" system by about 17%. The Core i3 530 is a dual-core 2.93GHz CPU with Hyper Threading and has just 4MB of Smart Cache.
The Core i5 2500K still obviously is much more powerful than the Core i3 2100, but the performance of this low-end Sandy Bridge isn't too shabby considering it costs around $100 USD less.
Most of these test results are as expected.