I am achieving higher speeds on my I5-2500K with some optimizations. From 5HPM to 8HPM. It starts up slow [6.8HPM] but makes its way higher.
I am now running the YAM configuration upon startup to grab as much RAM as possible from my system. This slows down applications and runs them from the HDD but it is very well worth it. (I am using four threads w/ 4096MB on a 6GB PC Setup)
I have overclocked my CPU from 3.3GHz to 4.2GHz by reapplying premium Thermal Paste and sanding the Thermal Surface of the CPU Cooler (It only has two copper pipes).
Using Process Lasso, I have decreased priorities of the running miner to run as an idle process.