There's a pecking order when it comes to Intel's CPU lineup.  At the top of the totem pole is Intel's new 6-core gulftown Core i7 980X.  Below it, we have 2008's Core i7 900 series.  Move down another notch and it's all about Lynnfield.  And in January, Intel completed the integrated memory controller festival with its Clarkdale CPUs – otherwise known as the dual core LGA-1156 Core i3/i5/Pentiums.

We found them to be priced a little too high for their worth, but got mostly warm and fuzzy feelings from the more rationally priced Core i3 530 and 540.  The one chip we weren't so sure about was the $87 Pentium G6950.  A cut down Core i3, lacking even Hyper Threading (among other things), is the G6950 enough to compete with AMD's latest round of Athlon IIs?