Intel Pentium G3420 improvement

A couple of posts ago, I complained that the Intel Pentium G2020 CPU was a poor performer and I preferred the Core i3. Well I gave the Pentium another chance in a low-cost build that I configured with the latest 'Haswell' Pentium G3420 processor in an MSi Socket 1150 motherboard. The processor was still cheap at £47 and the motherboard as well at just £32. The result was a considerable improvement over the previous version.

The system seemed responsive enough even without an SSD. It used 1600MHz DDR memory instead of 1300Mhz and that appeared to help the graphics performance as well as the additional 300MHz CPU clock speed increase. Benchmarks typically showed a 25% or greater performance improvement. Not bad for just £9 more. The only problem was finding the correct graphics drivers as after loading the one from the MSi CD, I couldn't update it giving an 'unrecognised device' error. Removing the original driver and installing the Windows Update version solved the problem.

So this new processor is worthy of the Pentium name and gives good bang-for-the-buck in a value engineered system.

UPDATE: Computer Shopper has confirmed my findings with the Pentium G2020 getting a benchmark score of 43 for £38 compared to the Pentium G3420 getting 52 for £47.