Intel Core i3-530 - Core i3 Clarkdale Dual-Core 2.93 GHz LGA 1156 73W Intel HD Graphics Desktop Processor - BX80616I3530

Pros: Overclocking monster.

For a little comparison on performance my old E8200 c2d at 3.8 Ghz did super pi 1 million in about ~12.8 seconds This chip at 3.81 Ghz (13mhz faster) does the same thing at ~11.3 seconds. Except for benchmarking brag rights there is no need to push this chip faster.

If you feel the need 5 Ghz can be had with a decent water loop. Surprisingly enough people have done it with cheap mATX motherboards as well...*Cough*Gigabyte*Cough*

Cons: To much voltage will kill this chip in the blink of an eye. It is not a super durable chip that will take your abuse without consequence. Don't get greedy and you should be fine.

You pretty much have to disable Hyper-threading for stability at higher (at about the 4.2-4.4 Ghz mark, might go higher with quality mobo) overclocks which kinda sucks.

Overall Review: Get a GOOD CPU cooler if you want more than 4Ghz on a 24/7 overclock.

This chip heats up in mere seconds under heavy load with the stock cooler. It will keep heating up until you get the dreaded blue screen of death at about 80 celsius which won't take more than 5 minutes at 100% load. If you don't have air conditioning I recommend something like a corsair H50 liquid unit with an extra fan for a push/pull configuration on the radiator. If you plan on using the stock cooler 4 Ghz is going to be your safe max. for heavy usage.

Also, H55 chipset motherboards seem to do better with overclockign this chip than P55. If you want to do heavy overclocking do yourself a favor and get a H55 chipset.

Unless you plan to F@H with your processor this is probably the best bang for the buck CPU in existence. It's scary what this thing is capable of, Intel has a real winner with this one.

Pros: I really liked the first one I got for a home office build (see that review) so I got another, with an ASRock H55M/USB3 R2.0 and memory (all newegg) for another home office build.

Cons: I had never had a CPU bad out of the box before, but I put the thing together and it wouldn't post. Tried an older i5-750 (had to add a video card) and it worked. Downloaded and installed the latest BIOS, i5 worked, i3 didn't. RMAed the i3. Just got the replacement i3. Same issue.

Overall Review: Newegg no hastle RMA is good, but shipping back 2 bad CPUs will come to about $18. Hope third time is the charm.