Hardware Intel Core i5-661 & Core i3-530 CPU Review

Intel's latest 32nm processors, codenamed Clarkdale, are the first to integrate a GPU. We take the new budget-sensitive Core i3-530 and Core i5-661 for a spin to see how they compare to previous CPUs - will a Core 2 Quad Q6600 still cut it, and has AMD got anything to fight back with? Read on to find out...



http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cpus/2010/01/04/intel-core-i5-661-core-i3-530-cpu-review/1

 

As interesting as this article is, I got soo lost in that guys eyebrows.............wow, just wow.

 

Anand seems to have been able to OC much faster with an Asus board: 4,8GHz on the 661!
So there's enough room to play with these to make them the next big thing for cheap gaming rigs

 

AMD should have a big price drop soon, i wouldn't mine an intel i3-530 without the gpu

 

I am all for the naming scheme of the chips being related to their relative performance levels.

However, the "Core" brand name followed by a number is confusing to the average high street consumer. Due to the fact that it can sound as if it implies a relation with the CPUs number of Cores. Example: Core i7 can mislead one to believe it may have 7 cores.

 

So it seems to me that the i3-530 is the neww E5200 in terms of price/performance. i5-750 retains the mid-range crown. Interesting reading and will be very interesting to see what happens to the market this week...

 

Yea we've seen special things from other 32nm products, but we're waiting on BIOS bugs on a few boards right now.

 

one thing not covered in the article is Mediacentre performance, are these capable of running a media centre (hardware playback etc.) i very much presume they are

 

Shush Bindi, shush

 

Wow, the i3-530 is just... wow. That said, i'd love to see a GPU-less version of it... that would drop the power draw, and probably make if cooler (or does the GMA get no power at all when a dedicated GPU is used?)...

 

I've dropped in some extra information on page 2 about this and a few other details

 

Thanks for including the Q6600
I can see now that he's going the way of the dodo I'll just O'c mine to 3.0ghz and let it stay there until Sandybridge, or Bulldozer.

 

Interesting article - but I noticed the i7-720QM/820QM mobile processors had been omitted from the comparison table?! Any reason??

 

It would be nice to see the Q9550 in the benchmarks, the Q6600 is getting a little old now and alot of people are thinking of getting the a faster S775 cpu instead of changing to a new mobo right now

 

I'm still quite happy with my E6600 @ 3.6GHz on air.

Yet, a nice i5-750 wouldn't be too bad. Hmmmm... birthday on Feb 4. Where's my girlfriend again? Gotta call her.

 

+1

couldnt clarkdale i5's be all quads?
AMD needs another price cut. so does MSI's 790FX-GD70

 

thank s bindi

very interesting to see the q6600 dropping down the charts but i think its going to be the staple of many of the systems here for a while yet

 

Not omitted, just don't have a direct comparative. Mobile products don't really compare to desktops - it's an entirely different usage model because mobile CPUs come packaged within a full laptop.

 

So the i3-530 totally beats an E8400 on performance, for 1/3 less in price yet only gets 6/10 for performance and 8/10 for value? Both seem way off to me.

Also ... for tests with integrated GPUs please do a second set of power consumption tests without the additional GPU and with a much smaller (450W?) PSU to reflect the scenario that those of us not into gaming face. I've been using integrated GPUs since the Athlon 64 + ATI days and have never needed more - it's hard to judge the power figures when much of the reading is down to PSU inefficiency at tiny partial loads and GPU overhead.

Otherwise, great write-up. Thanks

 

@perplekks45

Just read your comment and giggled ... i've got mine trained too. It's a while since mine bought me a Intel 80GB G2 SSD so I think I deserve another toy...