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                                         Intel Socket 2011: Today’s Top Consumer CPUs

Socket 2011 is Intel’s cost-no-object platform. Development of chips on this platform is a little behind the very leading edge, but the processors that work on Socket 2011 motherboards are brute-force crankers with prices to match. That said, Socket 2011 only makes sense for buyers seeking extreme multithreaded performance, or those looking for the maximum possible PCI Express bandwidth for an extreme gaming rig using more than two high-end video cards. (Socket 2011 allows for extra PCI lanes, in essence widening the highway for video-card throughput.)

Still, don’t discount it: This socket is home to the fastest raw-performance consumer processor you can buy today: the thousand-buck Intel Core i7-4960X Extreme Edition$1,048.99 at Amazon, which rolled out in summer 2013 under the family code-name “Ivy Bridge-E” (“E” for “Extreme”), along with a couple of cheaper six- and four-core variants (at around $550 and $350, respectively). The selection of consumer-grade CPUs (as opposed to server or Xeon parts) available for Socket 2011 isn’t large, but they are the beefiest consumer CPUs on the market. The Core i7-4960X is a six-core chip that supports Hyper-Threading, for up to 12 threads you can tap into for highly multithreaded tasks.

In no way will this chip disappoint mere mortals, but at $1,000-plus, it’s not for most buyers, and you'll only see its true power if you specifically need the maximum possible performance with multithreaded programs (example: everyday work with high-end video editors, rendering software, or Adobe Creative Suite apps). If you work in apps like these and any time you spend waiting for the PC to render is money lost, these chips are in your wheelhouse. Otherwise, it’s doubtful you’ll see your money’s worth. Also know that the Socket 2011 chips lack on-chip graphics, so you'll need a dedicated video card to use with these.