Intel Pentium G3220 - Pentium Dual-Core Haswell Dual-Core 3.0 GHz LGA 1150 54W Intel HD Graphics Desktop Processor - BX80646G3220

Pros: *Price
*Performance
*Low Energy Consumption
*Impressive Gaming Performance

Cons: OC'ing is out of the question

Overall Review: I purchased this for a friends build on a budget and needless to say I am surprised on how well it performs. Its not a Core i3 or Core i5 and while it doesn't perform as well in intensive programs like Cinebench R15 and the x264 HD Video encoding its an amazing value for average daily use. Where it really shines and blew me away was in gaming. As I said I purchased this for a friends budget build with the intention of later upgrading to a Core i5 when he could afford a Core i5. Its paired with a EVGA GTX 760 and the truth is I thought it would bottleneck a little but I don't notice any difference between this and my personal Core i5-2500 and GTX 760. I actually went back and benchmarked a couple of games like Bioshock Infinite, Sleeping Dogs and Tomb Raider. I was expecting a much bigger gap but instead was pleasantly surprised to see that my system and his are within 7fps of each other on those games.

I can't say enough about how impressed I am with this chip. It stays cool and the stock cooler is actually pretty quiet this time around. I am assuming the fact this CPU doesn't get hot sort of negates the need for a large heatsink. I was going to go with an AMD APU but decided to go this route instead last minute and I am glad I did. This is a solid choice for an everyday family PC, office PC and an exceptional budget gaming CPU that could last you for a while until you decide to upgrade...if that upgrade is even needed.

My build: Core i5-2500 (non K), 8GB Gskill 1600, EVGA GTX 760, 1TB Hitachi HDD.

His build: Intel G3220, 8 GB Team Elite 1333, EVGA GTX 760, 1TB Seagate HDD

Pros: Low-power, good performance, inexpensive, onboard graphics

Cons: 3 of 4 units I bought were faulty, from two different batches (3342B396 and 3335B981). Never had such a high failure rate on CPUs before. Very surprising and disappointing.

Overall Review: None