Intel Pentium G3420 Haswell Dual-Core 3.2 GHz LGA 1150 54W BX80646G3420 Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics

Pros: Cheap but still VERY capable, even for Gaming DDR3 1600MHZ vs 1333MHZ

Cons: Heatsink is a joke and the temps back it up Retail Price isn't justified vs the Pentium G3220

Overall Review: I was considering a budget CPU and was 99% sure I was going to get the Pentium G3220 but then this lil guy went on sale and only cost $3 more over the G3220. For the price difference you get 200Mhz faster clock speed and 1600MHZ RAM support which gives you a slight bump in Max Memory bandwidth. (25.6GB/s vs 21.3GB/s). The Max GPU clock is 50MHZ faster too. Is that worth the price difference vs the G3220? Not in my opinion, at retail price anyway. To be honest I dont even understand why this SKU exists... But like I said, if it weren't for the sale I would have went with the G3220. Bearing in mind they are same CPU (die wise) and the reviews for the G3220 were so solid it was a no brainer to "upgrade" to this one for the sale price. Know that the heat sink is a absolute joke! No copper core. just a 1" thin extruded aluminum finned heatsink. It will get the job done, but at the expense of noise. If you plan on actually putting this CPU to work with any real Loads (Gaming etc) then get ready for some real fan noise. Even with good ventilation, At idle the temp sits at 40-50c, any load at all and the temps spike up past 60c in a hurry. The bottom of the heatsink is barley flat and probability 1/2 the problem. A good Lapping might help. Also..... I actually had to remove the stock Paste and use some 3rd party TIM due to several cardboard fibers being stuck on the surface of the paste from the factory. Its Not from touching the box but from loose cardboard material tumbling around in the box during handling. This might be a problem for less experienced builders as the thickness of the fibers would definitely prevent direct metal to metal contact and cause even worse temps. I'm not trying to come off as negative. Maybe im being super picky but to be honest I expect more from Intel even at with Budget tier products. so i have to knock off one star for that. the CPU itself is solid and pretty much blows away anything from AMD at the same price point regardless of clock speed or core count. Bottom line, get the G3200 if you are looking for a solid budget CPU. Consider this one if its on sale and don't expect much from the included cooling solution.

Pros: Bought this to review a real nice motherboard. Works flawlessly. These new Haswell chips are much better then the old Pentiums. I had been using AMD until now. I have to save some cash to upgrade to Quad core. Im getting another for my other PC

Cons: Intel should describe better the differences between these chips

Pros: The integrated graphics are noticeably improved from Ivy bridge/ Sandy Bridge. The memory controller on this one supports DDR3 1600, which for an HTPC with integrated graphics is worth the extra few bucks over the G3220. Stays cool. Low power. Will in fact pair well with the newest Graphics chips without bottlenecking your games. I put this with my GTX 660 for kicks and giggles, and compared FRAPS to my i7-2600K on the witcher 2 with Uber-sampling... The framerates only dipped 2-3 frames per second during demanding areas. No doubt the faster memory controller is great for a budget gaming PC.

Cons: I bought this cheaper somewhere else. That is a con because I love Newegg so much that i feel guilty for abandoning them for a better bargain. The 3220 is a better deal than this CPU when you buy it from Newegg, but the 3420's faster memory controller is a bigger deal than the modest benchmark boost will tell you, and you can find it for only a few dollars more than Newegg is selling the 3220.

Overall Review: I built an HTPC using OLD DDR3 dimms (2x1GB) in a budget H81 chipset board. The DDR3 Dimms were made by OCZ and probably cost me $150 way back when, but they were DDR3 2000 (OC) with 11-11-11-28 timings at 1.65v... I wasn't sure how tight I could get the timings at DDR3 1600, and even then, I wasn't sure how fast it would be with only 2 GB of Ram in my HTPC... I was blown away. I ran these modules stable on MEMTest at 1.6v, 1600mhz, with 8-8-8-21 timings. This system FLIES. It is more responsive than my core i7-2600K system with 16GB of DDR3 1333 with ultra-low 7-7-7-21 timings. With only 2GB of memory, this is ALWAYS showing running between 1GB-1.5GB and maxes out when playing older games, but never stutters or lags. The processor basically just picks up the slack when the memory runs at max and keeps on trucking. I have come to empirically believe that buying more than 4 GB of Ram for a gaming PC is senseless. My PC now has 16GB and it is MAJOR overkill. During intensive games, I sometimes hit 6GB... 4 would do just fine. Here is the smartest gaming build EVER for those who are reading the reviews to find out what to do for your new gaming build: -THIS CPU -4 GB (2 x 2GB) of 1.5v (7 or 8 latency) DDR31600 ram -120GB SSD for an OS drive. 1TB storage drive for games. -inexpensive mATX motherboard -Nvidia GTX 760 The above will play EVERY game that exists today at very high graphics levels on 1080p.. I guarantee it. The above mentioned rig will FEEL the same as PC's that cost several hundred more. The responsiveness, boot-times, and program loading, will be instantaneous, and it will play every game. for under $500.

Pros: Low TDP, Dual Core, 4th Gen CPU Very happy with the performance of this Dual Core.

Cons: Not great for HD video playback in my HTPC. Boxed cooler a little on the loud side but you don't notice it unless you have the TV turned off.

Overall Review: Chose this CPU over an AMD APU just because of the TDP. This is being used in a HTPC Lian Li case that has no fans. I wasn't able to get away with the on die GPU that the chip has and had to add a HD 6450 to get quality HD video playback.

Pros: Nice efficient little CPU. It is not an I7 by any means but it performs adequately for the mainstream usage as intended.

Cons: Do not expect this CPU to perform much better than its sibling the G3220. My testing showed minute improvements and it's price is $10 more. In my mind a 15% increase in cost should yield 15% increase in performance.....but it does not.

Overall Review: Having real world usage on both the G3220 and the G3420 makes me wonder what Intel had in mind with this CPU. I find no difference in performance but an increase in price.

Pros: Fast for the price. Stock cooler cools well and runs quiet.

Cons: none.

Overall Review: Used in a budget gaming Mini-ITX rig. Paired with a decent GPU, this processor can handle games like L4D1, TF2, and Dota 2 very easily. I was originally going to get an i3 intel CPU, but opted for this one instead because hyper-threading has no impact on the games that I play. i3 just costs more, too. Also, I opted for this dual-core CPU because none of the games that I play can utilize a quad-core.

Pros: Got for the 1600Mhz memory controller. Waiting it out for the I7 to drop (hopefully) in price. can run most games (not the newest) on at least medium settings smooth. Thats with the IGPU in the chip itself. Around 45c full load on a Xigmatek dark knight night hawk cooler. 28-30c idle.

Cons: none

Pros: I hear peeps constantly talking about how you need atleast an Icore5 to game with and atleast a quad-core, truth is that's a bunch of mollarky, this CPU does great in my itx build with 8gb of g.skill ram win7 pro, and an nvidia 560 well worth the cost and performance isn't bad at all 12 seconds start up on a 1tb 3.5 drive

Cons: heatsink could be a little more robust instead of just an aluminum finned design,