Intel Pentium G640T socket: LGA 1155

What the Pentium G640T is

Intel Pentium G640T is a dual core Sandy Bridge desktop processor that Intel released in June 2012 for low power office towers. It runs at a fixed 2.4 GHz with no turbo, with 3 MB Intel Smart Cache and 2 threads. Power is rated at 35 W on a 32 nm process. The T suffix marks the low power tune, with more cache than Celeron duals of the same period.

Graphics are Intel HD Graphics for 2nd Gen at 650 MHz to 1100 MHz. The higher ceiling helps video playback and dual display office work without a card. The memory controller takes DDR3 at 1066 MT/s in two channels.

The 35 W rating suits slim towers and small forms that struggle with 65 W heat. Boards pair it with H61, B75 or H77 and 4 GB of RAM for quiet service. The How to find your CPU socket type guide shows how to confirm the socket in a compact case.

Socket and motherboard compatibility

The Pentium G640T fits LGA 1155 in FCLGA1155 form. Both 6 series and 7 series boards boot Sandy Bridge directly, so H61, B75, H77, Z77 and business chipsets all work. No update is needed for Sandy parts.

At 35 W the chip fits slim and standard boards alike, which made T parts popular with office makers. Display outputs decide board choice for the HD Graphics block. The Socket vs chipset: what decides whether a CPU works guide covers pairing rules.

Memory, PCIe and cooling

Memory support is DDR3-1066, two channels, up to 32 GB. Two matched DIMMs help the shared graphics block, though dual core office loads rarely saturate the link. ECC is not supported.

PCI Express is 16 lanes from the CPU at PCIe 2.0. Most G640T builds stay on integrated graphics for office displays. A low profile card fits where extra outputs are needed.

Cooling follows the 35 W rating with a small stock heatsink. Low heat allows quiet fans in slim cases. The 75 × 75 mm mount matches standard LGA coolers.

Upgrade paths

On LGA 1155 the Pentium G640T can move to faster Pentium duals, Core i3 parts with Hyper-Threading, or quad i5 and i7 chips on the same board. Ivy models need a current BIOS, while Sandy models fit directly. Memory and storage carry over. A slower office reference is Intel Celeron G550.

A platform move to DDR4 boards such as LGA 1200 needs a new board and RAM. Keep the G640T board for quiet terminal duty where dual Sandy cores still work.