Pros:
- The price
- Great performance for all but the most CPU intensive tasks (video encoding, very large file compression, etc...)
- Max power dissipation of 55W leaves it running cool all day and all night
- Supports virtualization (VT-x), hyperthreading, and Intel Speedstep
Cons:
- The graphics aren't all that
- No overclocking
First, let me say that for a budget processer, the i3-3220 is, in my opinion, as good as it gets. I purchased it for a gaming and photoediting rig that I built recently and it has been performing splendidly. Hyperthreading allows two cores to act as four, increasing performance even further. The Intel Speedstep technology lets the clock rate dynamically adjust to the load being put on it and by doing so saves power and keeps your fan(s) quieter. My temperature typically idles around 30 degrees celsius, which is terrific, and will get no higher than 38 degrees celsius under load. I use the Rocketfish Universal CPU Cooler, linked to in my build info at the end. The virtualization technology can be helpful in a lot of situations, the most important to most users probably being that this allows you to run Mac OS X inside of a VM in Windows.
As for the graphics, they will work fine for anyone not playing games or viewing very high quality movies. That being said, anyone who will be playing games or watching high quality movies/film should invest in a graphics card, even if it is cheap it will likely outperform integrated graphics. This chip uses Intel HD 2500.
And the fact that this does not support overclocking is to be expected and absolutely no reason to deduct a star. Of course I wish it did support overclocking because I believe it would have a lot of headroom but it is in the lowest series of current desktop processors for Intel so if you are looking for overclocking get the i5-3570K, that thing can overclock!
All-in-all, this processor should be the go-to for anyone looking to build a budget PC. It can run anything I throw at it and handles internet browsing, emails, gaming, Photoshop, etc... with a breeze.
My build:
Computer Case - Rosewill Challenger Black Gaming
Power Supply - Raidmax Hybrid 2 RX-530SS 530W
Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD3H
RAM - Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB)
CPU - Intel Core i3-3220 3.3GHz
CPU Cooler - Rocketfish Universal CPU Cooler
Thermail Paste - Arctic 5 Silver
Hard drive - Hitachi Desk Star 500GB
Graphics - EVGA Nvidia GTX 460
I would highly recommend any or all of these products for a budget PC build.
Currently triple booting Windows 7, Mac OS X Mountain Lion, and Backtrack Linux.
Edit:
Amazon sells both the CPU cooler and thermal paste, and you can bundle them for even more savings!
http://www.amazon.com/Rocketfish-RF-UPCUWR-Universal-CPU-Cooler/dp/B0030U9ET0
http://www.amazon.com/Arctic-Silver-Polysynthetic-Thermal-Compound/dp/B0002VFXFE/ref=pd_sim_pc_1
| Processor | 3.3 GHz core_i3 |
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