Core i3 vs. Athlon II

Core i3 vs. Athlon II @ Tech Report

“What happens when you test the Core i3-530 against the Athlon II X4 in a broad suite of benchmarks, while considering power efficiency, overclocking headroom, value, and historical perspective? Repetitive strain injury, if you’re us. For you, though, we have a massive, comprehensive CPU roundup.”

AMD Athlon II X2 255

AMD Athlon II X2 255 @ Legit Reviews

“The AMD Athlon II X2 255 had a more than solid performance when putting through the paces today. It may not have performed as well as the Quad Core processors did, but keep in mind it is a dual core processor. When I ran the benchmarks on 1 core of each processor I was astonished to see the performance. The AMD Athlon II X2 255 was at or near the top of the list in those benchmarks.”

Intel Core i7 860 OC’ing Guide

Intel Core i7 860 OC’ing Guide @ Hardware Overclock

“Hardwareoverclock.com has posted another Core i7 Overclocking Guide. Last week they has take a look at the Core i7 860 LGA 1156 processor and  its Overclocking properties. There have been experiments with air, water and dice cooling. We also have a real try for everyday documented with pictures.”

Intel Core i3-530 and i3-540

Intel Core i3-530 and i3-540 @ TechPowerUp!

“After the imbalanced and overpriced Core i5 600 series Intel is making yet another step to deliver their Westmere architecture to the average user via Core i3 processors. Packed with Hyper Threading with lower frequencies and no Turbo Boost compared to i5 600 models, Core i3 530 and 540 got a tough task replacing Core 2 E7x00/E8x00 and put some pressure on AMD’s cheap quad and triple core processors.”

AMD Athlon II X4 635

AMD Athlon II X4 635 @ Techware Labs

“In 2009 AMD released the AMD Athlon ™ II X4 630 which has done pretty well and also priced at about $20 less than the new AMD Athlon ™ II X4 635. The main difference between the two is the processor speeds of 2.8Ghz and 2.9Ghz respectively. Outside of the processor speed difference (though so small that it is), we really don’t see any other difference.”

ECS A785GM-AD3 Black Series

ECS A785GM-AD3 Black Series @ OCIA

“Unlike most other 780G chipset boards at the time, which were micro-ATX “mainstream” units designed for home theater or general all-purpose home use, The ECS A780GM-A Ultra Black Series was geared towards the enthusiast, with a full size ATX PCB featuring the new SB750 Southbridge, VRM heatsink, 8-pin EPS +12v connector and solid caps for more stable power with a whopping 160W TDP processor handling capability.”

Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD6 & GA-P55A-UD4P

Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD6 & GA-P55A-UD4P @ OC Club

“As always, let’s start with the packaging. Both Gigabyte boards came in very similar boxes. The UD4P used a green theme, while the UD6 used a Blue theme and was slightly bigger. Other than that, the boxes appeared to be pretty much identical. The front featured the motherboards name, and a picture of ‘333 Onboard Acceleration’.”

ASUS P7H57D-V EVO

ASUS P7H57D-V EVO @ OC3D

“So it seems as though the Asus P7H57D-V EVO has fared rather well across the board (pun not intended). To summarise, it allowed us to push our Core i3 530 CPU to 4.1GHz, carries a number of interesting and (for some) useful features. It has proven to be a very stable motherboard and sports more SATA/USB ports than Octopus’ have legs.”

ECS H55H-M

ECS H55H-M @ Phoronix

“The ECS Elitegroup H55H-M motherboard is even lighter on accessories than the recently reviewed Intel P55-based ECS P55H-A, with the included items just being two Serial ATA data cables, I/O panel, Windows driver CD, hardware installation guide, and the Elitegroup user’s guide.”

EVGA H55

EVGA H55 @ OCIA

“Aside from being a full size board, EVGA’s offering brings some innovative features to the table, such as dual heatsink mounting support which allows you to mount either a Socket 775 or Socket 1156 heatsink and EZ voltage read points which allow you to quickly and easily check the voltages of your system with a voltmeter directly from the motherboard.”