Intel Pentium Processor G3220 3.0 GHz LGA 1150 BX80646G3220

I got this processor because it was the cheapest Haswell (socket 1150) available for purchase. It was initially $62, then it jumped up to $69.99. At this price, it's probably better to go for the G3420 3.2 Ghz if it's a similar price; the G3420 supports 1600 RAM.Anyways, I expected this processor to struggle with basic tasks having memories of the Pentium 4 processors of old. Much to my surprise, this little guy is more than capable of web browsing and video streaming. Impressed by the performance it was giving in low demand tasks, I decided to give a few games a go.Minecraft is playable getting a semi-reliable 60FPS at 1080p on maximum settings without optifine. Single player will have some stuttering and pauses when the world is generating new chunks especially with a new world, but after a bit it's a smooth and playable ride. If you're playing on a multiplayer server, there are no stuttering or pausing issues as world generation is handled server side.Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed is playable at lower resolutions with minimum settings. Performance is a bit rough, but you can still race.Left 4 Dead 2 was a smooth 60 FPS at 1920x1080 and minimum settings.Saints row 2 is playable, although a bit rough. At 720P and minimum settings, it still runs a bit choppy around 45 FPS.Saints row 3 is playable at lower resolutions and minimum settings achieving 30+ FPS depending on resolution.Dark Souls is playable, with noticeably choppy performance. It was the same at 1080p and 720p.Technically, you can do video editing, but it will not render very fast. I loaded up the GoPro editing software and did a test video. It did take some time to import and render the video (5 minutes for a 1 minute clip at 1080p), but it had no problem editing the video.I tested some Emulators as well:NullDC (Dreamcast)Toy Commander and Dynamite cop are play at full speed. Any oddities are due to the emulator.Sonic Adventure is also playable, but I didn't fully test it.Sonic Adventure 2 has jittery audio and rendering errors that make it unplayable.PPSSPP (PlayStation portable)Dissidia Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep are fully playable. These are fairly recent high graphics games, so I imagine all PSP games are playable.PCSX2 (PlayStation 2)Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts 2 are playable at moderate settings with some stutter and reduction to 45 FPS. Tweaking the settings, I was able to stabilize them a bit more. Shadow the Hedgehog is also playable if you further tweak settings and enable speedhacks.Bottom line, this processor is capable of 80% of most computing tasks including older games. With the right combination of parts, you can build a computer for $270-$400 depending on your needs. For comparison, the Dell Inspiron small desktop 3000, uses this processor and costs about $330.

This CPU went into a custom server for a client of mine. The server is strictly providing file, print, and domain services. With approximately 70 users connected to it, it's average CPU load was around 10%, and that's scaled way down on speed (speedstep). While this CPU doesn't support ECC, a server standard, it's plenty sufficient for the needs of this company and will provide a long reliable life for the next many years.For fun, I disabled the fan on the CPU and ran a CPU stress-test. The temps maxed at 71C under full load after 2 hours with no fan running on the stock cooler. The CPU never scaled under 2.95Ghz. Without the stress test and with the fan off, the CPU ran along at 45-55C. Not bad at all. Without any real overclocking potential in this chip, it makes no sense to use anything but the stock Intel cooler running on low.

I built a PC for my mom using this processor. Excellent buy! It works great! Very fast! The only problem I has was the CPU fan that came with it was faulty so I had to buy a new one... doesn't matter, the new fan gave me better air-flow anyway.

Not working anymore, I have no time to give it back though, not interested on getting a replacement as well.

So, I put together a server system (yeah, most everyone reading this is building a standard desktop--sorry, this won't be the most useful review for you) that featured a SuperMicro X10SLM+-F-O motherboard. That board is intended for one of the more hardcore Xeon's, but I thought I'd try this anyway, since it was less than half the price, and my needs were modest.Holy cow! When I totally saturate my FreeNAS system on 1Gbps ethernet, this thing doesn't even break a sweat. I think the most CPU usage I've read so far on my file server was something like 25% on the two cores, each. This seems like an exceptionally potent CPU on a per dollar basis. This is a slam dunk for any kind of light to moderate usage. For a HTPC box, or a web browsing/word processing box, this is ***MORE*** than enough. I doubt you'll want to rip .mp4 videos from .vobs using this, or play games on max settings, but other than that, I think you're getting a tremendous bang per buck.I'd buy this without hesitation for any kind of routine usage computer. Looks to be about the same as one of the new AMD A6 Richlands, roughly.

Using only for HTPC. Little slow especially on startup but for movies or streaming works fine just don't ask it to do multiply things at once as it will dog down then. But I knew that going in.

This is a smoking little chip for what it costs. It has two fast Haswell cores, and many of the recent features, and really has pretty good throughput. Spending more money will get you a faster chip, but this little guy offers about 80% of the big chips, in terms of running most software, for about 30% of the price.Now, it won't do as well with widely multithreaded things, like video encoding, because it has only two cores. But not much consumer software, and only a few games, take advantage of more than two cores at the moment. For normal software that most people run, this thing will kick butt. It's fairly close to the speed of the much more expensive i3, with the major difference being that the onboard video on this chip is much weaker.But, if you actually want 3D performance, the stronger video in the i3 still isn't strong enough, so it's just wasted. Buying this instead will free up a bunch of money toward a separate graphic card, which will improve your gaming quality much, much more than the i3 ever could.If you're a value shopper, this is an outstanding choice.