Intel Core I Gen 3 is named Ivy Bridge which is launched in April.
In the beginning, there were only mid to high end models, Core i5 and Core i7.
For lower price Ivy Bridge Core i3 was launched in Sep.
Now you can save some budget for Ivy Bridge CPU to buy Core i3 instead of Core i3.
There are three models for new Core i3, Core i3-3220, i3-3225 and i3-3240 from low to high.
Each is 100MHz difference. i3-3225 built-in Intel max performance HD4000 GPU.
i3-3220 and i3-3240 are HD2500. This is the simplest way to distinguish.
This guide is using Intel Core i3-3220, the cheapest one of three models.
The clock is 3.3GHz. It?s physical 2 Cores and none Hyper-Threading. It can run 4 threads, called 2C4T.
It?s 22nm manufacturing and TDP is 55W. L3 Cache is 3MB. It?s most entry Ivy Bridge CPU.
The bottom of original cooler is none cooper for own 2 Cores CPU.
If you add some better quality thermal paste, it?s helpful for temperature control.
CPU back, it?s Revision E1.
There are 4 chipsets in the market. The cheapest is H61 since Sandy Bridge.
H61 doesn?t support SATA3 and USB 3.0. It?s quite a pity.
The higher level is B75. Intel set it at Small Business Advantage.
The picture is GIGABYTE B75M-D3V.
B75support native SATA3 and USB 3.0. The price is higher than H61.
If B75M-D3V got 4 DIMMs, the expandability would be better.
LGA 1155 most high-end chipset is Z77. The price is even higher.
Since this year the MB competition is very tough. Z77 entry model MB is much cheaper the former structures.
The picture is FOXCONN Z77A-S.
Z77 owns highest specs, expandability and adjustable CPU ratio for OC in LGA 1155.
K sku CPU can adjust higher ratio and none K sku CPU can rise 200~600MHz clock.
The mid-end uses H77 chipset - GIGABYTE H77-DS3H
H77 can OC the built-in GPU, but not CPU. The other features are the same with Z77.
GIGABYTE recently builds in mSATA slot from mid-end ATX MB.
Windwithme just got mSATA SSD and will share Intel Smart Response Technology.
![]()