Need a new CPU (and motherboard) for my PC.

Im looking at the new Intel Core i3/5/7 series processors.

Is there much of a difference between the 1366, 1156 and 1155 processors or is it all pretty much the same?

The 1366 chips seem to go cheaply on eBay (being the oldest) so is it worth looking at these or just avoiding them?

I would be VERY careful of buying CPUs from eBay as there’s a lot of junk on there; stuff that is either counterfeit or that failed QA. If you’re saving enough money, then it might be worth a punt though.

Socket 1155 is “Sandy Bridge” which is quite an advance over 1156 and 1366. Grab the new issue of PC Pro – it has benchmarks of the lot (and AMD).

I’d go with something 1155 based – it’s new, so 1156 will probably be phased out.

the sandybridge cpus are significantly better than the previous generation intel stuff so go with that if you can afford it. If you let us know what you will be using the computer for it would be easier to recommend you a cpu. remember there is amd stuff as well…

Something to note is:

The Asus P7H55m Pro’s ‘onboard video’ is actually just support for the GPU that comes built in to Intel Core i3’s and some Core i5’s (these are the ‘Clarkdale’ line of processors). Higher end i5’s and Core i7’s are Lynnfield processors, and have no built in graphics processor. So the motherboards graphics will only work with Clarkdale processors.
So, for the original poster, there’s nothing wrong with the motherboard – your processor just isn’t a version that has a built in graphics processor. Also, with a Lynnfield processor on this motherboard, if you are only using 2 DIMMS of RAM (rather than 4) they MUST be in the blue slots. With Clarkdale processors they can be in the blue or the black. My motherboard came with a slip of paper making note of that fact.

Which I found out when my graffix card stopped working and I couldnt get bios post from the mobo video output and posted on an earlier thread.

I have an i5 750 (1156) and it’s been pretty good.

Have a look on something like Novatech for really good mobo and CPU deals.

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/bundles.html