Need help understanding the CPU market

I

IsaacMM

Gawd
Joined
Jun 9, 2008
Messages
646
Last time I built a system was 3+ years ago, at that time the Quad Cores were the best you could get. I bought myself a Qx9650.

My motherboard just died tho and I am looking to build a new desktop. But I am overwhelmed by everything that has come out since then, i3, i5, i7, Sandy Bridge, Ivy Bridge? There are also so many different types of sockets for motherboards, it is crazy.

Could anyone give me a brief summary of what these processors are like?

Thanks a lot
 
You have a socket 775 chip. They were superseded by the LGA1156 and LGA1366 chips, which were branded i5 and i7 (i5-750, i7-920, etc). The newest technology is the Sandy Bridge CPUs, which use the LGA1155 socket and are branded i5 and i7, but which have 4 digit model numbers (i5-2500, i7-2600). There are also K series chips (i7-2600K) - that indicates a chip that has an unlocked multiplier.

If you are buying now, your best bet is to go with a Sandy Bridge chip - probably the i5-2500K, depending on your planned usage, paired with either a P67 or Z68 motherboard.
 
I'd be using it for games mostly. Do you recommend any particular motherboard if I were to get a Sandy Bridge chip? I don't plan on doing heavy overclocking so I do not need those fancy and expensive motherboards.
 
Could you also elaborate on what are P67 and Z68 motherboards? Like their differences?

Thanks for you help
 
P67 was the initial chipset for SB, and Z68 is the newer chipset that was just released. Z68 is basically everything that P67 is, plus it adds support for the integrated graphics and the ability to use a small SSD as a cache for a mechanical drive (seems like there is one more thing, but I'm drawing a blank right now). [H] just tested a new Z68 motherboard, I didn't read the review but I would assume they go over some of the differences between Z68 and P67 in that review.

As for which motherboard - it really depends on what features you are looking for. On the P67 front, the Asus P8P67 PRO (the non-PRO has similar features, but is a little cheaper) was a common choice, but there are good boards from Gigabyte, MSI, and ASRock as well. I haven't really been following Z68, so I don't know what is available now for that chipset.

Z68 is a more expensive, so you'll have to decide whether the additional features it adds are worth it to you. Personally, the SSD cache seems useless to me, but the ability to use the integrated graphics in a pinch might be worthwhile.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top