Intel Pentium and Intel I5 Compatibility

[juniortsf]

I plan to buy a motherboard that will be able to support a Pentium CPU (G4400) $50 and later down the road as i have more funds upgrade to an I3 or I5 will i be able to upgrade to a better CPU down the road? im not a heavy pc user so i have no intention of getting anything better than an i5. I have seen some information saying the MOBO will only support the same generation of processor i have is this correct?

 

[Tolis_GR]

It is correct, almost. Each gen has various models, like Pentium, i3, i5 and i7. G4400 is a 6th gen 1151 socket based also known as H4 socket. 1151 sockets also support 7th gen, but this depends on each motherboard. If it matters that much, find a motherboard that supports 7th gen processors, however the gain between 6th gen i5s and 7th gen i5s is marginal.

 

[k1114]

6th-8th gen are all the same arch/ipc. If you have not bought the g4400, do not buy it. They changed socket already to 1151v2 which is not compatible with older gens. The 8th gen added more threads and cores across the product line. Go with a g4900 if you have to get a cheap cpu for now. Intel typically uses the same socket for 2 gens. Most mobos get a bios update to support both gens. 9th gen will be out this year. There's no reason to buy 6th gen and be stuck up to 4 cores when you can get a modern socket and get more cores/threads for the same price when you upgrade to an i3 or i5.

 

[juniortsf]

6th-8th gen are all the same arch/ipc. If you have not bought the g4400, do not buy it. They changed socket already to 1151v2 which is not compatible with older gens. The 8th gen added more threads and cores across the product line. Go with a g4900 if you have to get a cheap cpu for now. Intel typically uses the same socket for 2 gens. Most mobos get a bios update to support both gens. 9th gen will be out this year. There's no reason to buy 6th gen and be stuck up to 4 cores when you can get a modern socket and get more cores/threads for the same price when you upgrade to an i3 or i5.

So you're saying get the latest edition of Pentium to make it compatible with a newer I5 generation later and what do you mean they updated to 1151v2 you mean the latest CPUs need a 1151v2 MOBO?

 

[k1114]

That's actually a celeron which is equivalent to the old pentiums (because they added more cores/threads on 8th gen as mentioned) but yes stick with a coffee lake cpu. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffee_Lake The later upgrade doesn't have to be the newer (9th) gen of i5 because even the current gen of i5 is 6 core vs the previous 4 core. The current socket that intel is using is 1151v2 but places still call it 1151. It can confuse people but the mobos are the 300 series, b360, h370, z370, etc. You can always check the cpu support list. Cpu and mobo will be the same socket or else it won't fit.