confusion about corei3

[sn16K]

my friend wants to buy a corei3 540 cpu, and asked me for some advice regarding good motherboard to go with it. when i went digging for it on the net, i found that the H57/P55 boards wont allow sli/crossfire with a corei3 range because of its inbuilt graphics.
my question is can just ONE single graphics card be used with a corei3+H57 combo? or does clarkdale igp on a H57 board means i cannot use any graphics cards at all? please help me out on this....

 

[dma0991]

Why is your friend contemplating on buying the previous generation Core processors? For the average user who won't be doing any overclocking getting a Core i3 2100 is a much better option. Way more performance compared to the Core i3 540 and definitely a better IGP.

All processors that I know of that has an IGP will still allow you to use a discrete GPU so you could definitely use a single GPU regardless of whether the CPU comes with an IGP. If you can convince your friend to get the Core i3 2100 instead of the Core i3 540, then pair it up with a H61 or H67 boards. The extra $10 for the Core i3 2100 is well worth the money.

 

[sn16K]

All processors that I know of that has an IGP will still allow you to use a discrete GPU so you could definitely use a single GPU regardless of whether the CPU comes with an IGP. If you can convince your friend to get the Core i3 2100 instead of the Core i3 540, then pair it up with a H61 or H67 boards. The extra $10 for the Core i3 2100 is well worth the money.

thanks a lot dma0991, i'll tell him about the core i3 2100..
and can u suggest a good H61/H67 board within $100?
thanks again

 

[IntelEnthusiast]

Yea I would be going with the 2nd generation Intel® Core i3-2100 over a 1st generation Intel Core processor and match it up with a nice H67 board. Looking over at newegg they have a couple good boards in that range Asus P8H67-M Le, a Gigabyte GA-H67M-D2-B3, or a MSI H67MA-E45.

Christian Wood
Intel Enthusiast Team