[precompute]

> I understand that an i5 is better than an i3 and worse than an i7.

That isn't always true. It's pushed by intel as a "handy reference" for specifications, when it's actually just a price bracket. Many noobs will see it as a three-level hierarchy and conclude that they need an i7 for their mundane office work, when a pentium would have sufficed.

You gotta read and understand the specifications.

AMD has an actually useful naming spec for their processors, unlike intel.

[tadfisher]

I have a Core i3 that supports ECC memory, for example. The contemporary i5 and i7 models did not. Baffling, somewhat.