what does the intel processor do in your computer

In general, we would recommend against considering these for new builds or purchases unless you can get a really good deal-Haswell is at the end of its life and Intel won’t be making new chips for its socket in the future. The desktop chips use socket 1150 motherboards. The old chips, codenamed Haswell, are generally identifiable by their 4000-series model numbers or the “4 th generation Core” label.

Right this second we’re in a sort of transitional phase where some old CPUs are still filtering out as new ones filter in. We’ll run down the basics for both desktops and laptops to help you make some sense of things whether you’re building a computer or buying one from someone else. But Intel has introduced and retired a few CPU architectures and brands since then. In broad strokes, the rules are the same. It's been a few years since the last time we demystified Intel’s CPU lineup, and in truth things haven’t changed too much. Now there are three separate Core brands, Pentium and Celeron brands, and a long series of letters that you need to know to figure out what CPU you’re getting. Things got a little more confusing in the Core and Core 2 days (the Core branding continues to survive alongside the Celeron and Pentium brands), but you could at least use names like “Core Solo” and “Core 2 Quad” to guess which architecture and how many cores you were getting. One name meant “cut-down low-end” and one meant “high-end, more features,” and you just bought the fastest one you could reasonably afford. Around the turn of the millennium you just had Celeron and Pentium. Not because he didn’t know what he needed, but because he was having trouble matching what he needed (the cheapest quad-core CPU that meets the recommended requirements for Street Fighter V) with what Intel was offering (five different obfuscated brands spread out over multiple sockets and architectures).Īnd if you’re building a PC now after having been out of the game for a few years, it can be exceptionally confusing.

Our creative director Aurich Lawson is building a PC to power a custom arcade cabinet, and he was having trouble picking a processor.

What does the intel processor do in your computer