G3258... anyone still running one? Overclocked?

[VirtualLarry]

Yeah, I'm starting another G3258 thread. Am I the only one with a few of these rigs floating around?

They were kind of a flash-in-the-pan sort of fad, a newbie overclocker's delight.

I liked them, for their strong single-core performance, for web browsing (before Firefox got multi-threaded heavily), and that overclocking them, didn't disable their video output features.

Sadly, they are (officially) limited to DDR3-1333 speeds, and 1080P display outputs, which limits them quite a bit, IMHO. (But they do support VGA-out, which is not officially supported on Skylake and up.)

I'm thinking of deploying a pair for browser / video boxes, with some GT 730 2GB GDDR5 cards.

Comments? I should probably be deploying G4560 boxes instead. (I have several in the "warehouse".) In that case, I woudn't even need the GT 730 cards, for the most part, unless they want to lightly game on the systems too.

In this day and age, when even an entry-level i3 CPU from Intel, is a quad-core, I know it makes little sense to use a dual-core, even overclocked, without DDR4 and a powerful iGPU. But I had them around, and I'm not charging much for them.

(Offered to build some 2200G rigs, for $400 ea., but got comments like "That's TOO MUCH money." Well, compared to your current FM1 PC, that cost $0, yeah. But you complained that you couldn't watch videos online with it.)

The other alternative for my purposes, is an ebay special on a used/refurb HP slimline, with a Celeron G3930 (Kaby Lake, dual-core), 4GB and 500GB, for $125 or so complete with Windows. How can you go wrong with a rig that cheap, that's only one year old technologically?

 

[escrow4]

$400 isn't too much money for a box that is in use daily. I spent $200 on PS Vita fat OLED with a 16GB card just to play Persona 4 Golden. That isn't a necessity. I wouldn't drop down to a dual core for anything anymore. Phones have moved on, $50 Android boxes have moved on, everyone has moved on except bargain basement tech. An i3 8100 is mature and stable matched to a half decent B360 mobo. You don't need to worry about RAM compatibility or BIOS updates or fiddling about with it and it will last until it falls apart for standard office duties.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I went looking on ebay, and there are volume sellers with i7-4790 CPUs, for $150 ea. Thinking what I could do with one of those. The Biostar H81 boards in these rigs DO support the i7-4790 CPUs (84W).

Wondering if it would be worth it to bump up the rig, with one of those, for another $100-120 over the cost of the original parts.

How's the non-K i7-4790 for gaming these days? I assume it's no slouch, still.

 

[VirtualLarry]

There's a few left, of i3-7100 / 8GB DDR4 / 1TB / Windows 10, "used", for a little under $200, on ebay. Was thinking about that one too. But those would need an SSD. (Supposedly the mobo has an M.2 PCI-E socket.)

 

[DominionSeraph]

The other alternative for my purposes, is an ebay special on a used/refurb HP slimline, with a Celeron G3930 (Kaby Lake, dual-core), 4GB and 500GB, for $125 or so complete with Windows. How can you go wrong with a rig that cheap, that's only one year old technologically?

That processor seems pretty gimped. I'm used to new dual-cores coming at least somewhat close to Sandy quads due to the higher IPC, but that one doesn't even equal Sandy single-core, and a G3258 runs rings around it. Probably the 3MB cache vs 2MB.

Upgrading a G3258 to an i5 or i7 seems like a waste of a good little system, considering Haswell processors are generally overpriced and they aren't really any faster than Ivy or Sandy. For the price of an i7 4770 or 4790 processor you can get an entire i5 3470 system that would only be a couple percent slower in most things.

 

[VirtualLarry]

That processor seems pretty gimped. I'm used to new dual-cores coming at least somewhat close to Sandy quads due to the higher IPC, but that one doesn't even equal Sandy single-core, and a G3258 runs rings around it. Probably the 3MB cache vs 2MB.

Upgrading a G3258 to an i5 or i7 seems like a waste of a good little system, considering Haswell processors are generally overpriced and they aren't really any faster than Ivy or Sandy. For the price of an i7 4770 or 4790 processor you can get an entire i5 3470 system that would only be a couple percent slower in most things.

Thanks for your input, you probably are more familiar with these off-lease older quad-cores than I am. I was mostly dabbling in building custom lower-end (Pentium / Celeron) rigs back then. Which, with an SSD, I thought were fast for browsing, but probably no longer so, given the modern web these days, and probably no go for games.

How do you feel about the i3-7100 (not 'U' model) desktops, with 8GB of RAM and a 1TB HDD (replace with SSD, at first opportunity)?


You think that the G3258 (@ 4.0Ghz) runs rings around the Kaby Lake Celeron? I mean, I was thinking along the lines of inexpensive rigs with really good hardware decoding (codec support, not "accuracy", I'll give you that).

Kaby Lake has 4K HW decode for virtually every major CODEC format on the market. G3258 does not. Hence the idea of adding a GT 730 2GB dGPU. Which might not even be enough.

I looked at off-lease Haswell quad-core refurbs, and Skylake and Kaby Lake quad-core refurbs, and they are way too high in pricing on ebay, to make it make sense. (Like $350-500) You'd almost be better off shopping sales of new PCs, like that Acer with the 8th-Gen Core i5-8400 six-core, 16GB Optane, and 1TB HDD, and Windows 10, for $450-470 when Newegg runs a sale. (Plus, it has front-panel 10Gbit USB3.1 Gen2.)

So that's a dead-end. The only "cheap" quad-cores, on ebay, it seems, are Sandy / Ivy, of which, aren't that powerful anymore (IPC-wise, for gaming), and more importantly (to me), they are less / not supported iGPUs in Windows 10, and lack the necessary hardware-decoding features. Not to mention, vulnerable to Spectre / Meltdown, and probably never going to get "fixed".

I mean, I understand, you think that the hardware decoders are some sort of shlock quality. I don't think that they are. On my 780G (or was it 785G) mobo, the HD 3000 chipset iGPU, played back 1080P HD-DVD rip MKVs smooth like butter, once I got the hardware-decode working. It looked ABSOLUTELY AMAZING.

Software decoding, even when it works and can keep up with the frame-rate, seems to always be slightly laggy, or stuttery, or whatnot. There's a latency penalty to pay, it seems from my limited experience, with fully-software decoding of video files. That's if the CPU onboard is even fast enough to keep up. With 4K and a dual-core, good freaking luck.

OTOH, there's just something "magically-smooth" with the experience of watching video using hardware-decoding, that you just "don't get" with software decoding. That's something that you seem to discount / ignore. Regardless of whether every pixel is painted accurately or not.

 

[TidusZ]

Not sure if you've overclocked a G3258 recently but you may run into an issue where any overclock (even 100 mhz) wont let you get into windows, in which case you need to take ownership of this file: C:\Windows\System32\mcupdate_GenuineIntel.dll and then delete it. This was a hassle I dealt with today.

Also, 4 ghz is not guaranteed. Mine only gets to 3.9 ghz on 1.2 volts, which is the max voltage with my cheap b85m board.. and that's with a really low uncore.

 

[VirtualLarry]

That was the problem (not being able to overclock in Windows 10) with early versions, but later updates seemed to fix the issue.

As far as 4Ghz not guaranteed, well, I had these at 4.20Ghz @ 1.350V, and they were (mostly) stable, with a rare and intermittent BSOD (so they weren't quite stable).

So I cranked them down to 4.0Ghz @ 1.280V, which should be much more stable.

If that B85M board that you're using, is limited to 1.2V, and is a Gigabyte, check for an updated BIOS version. There was an update for my H81M-DS2R board, I think 1.6, that added extended voltage support for OCing. Before that update, it would only go to 1.20V as well.

 

[LTC8K6]

I have a barely used G3258 and a new H81 board just laying around. Not sure what to do with either of them.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I have a barely used G3258 and a new H81 board just laying around. Not sure what to do with either of them.

I might want them. PM me at the beginning of next month to remind me. We can probably work out a deal. Or heck, just put them on FS/FT here, someone might want them... for the right price.

Not such a great gaming platform, but good for emulators, if it can be overclocked on that board, and good for web browsing.

Edit: If only the Athlon 200GE could be overclocked. It would have been like the "second coming of the G3258", all over again, for gaming. Here's hoping that AMD comes out with an "Athlon Black Edition" 2C/4T Ryzen / Raven Ridge APU derivative, significantly cheaper than the 2200G (like $80 or below), with at least enough Vega CUs to make low-end 720P gaming viable on it. (5-6 CUs would be nice.)

 

[Insert_Nickname]

Sadly, they are (officially) limited to DDR3-1333 speeds, and 1080P display outputs, which limits them quite a bit, IMHO. (But they do support VGA-out, which is not officially supported on Skylake and up.)

Unless you use a Z-series board. That'll let you overclock memory on all Intel chips. (Disclaimer; I don't know if it still applies post-Haswell)

But that kind of kills the budget OC part...

(Offered to build some 2200G rigs, for $400 ea., but got comments like "That's TOO MUCH money." Well, compared to your current FM1 PC, that cost $0, yeah. But you complained that you couldn't watch videos online with it.)

Know the type all too well...

The other alternative for my purposes, is an ebay special on a used/refurb HP slimline, with a Celeron G3930 (Kaby Lake, dual-core), 4GB and 500GB, for $125 or so complete with Windows. How can you go wrong with a rig that cheap, that's only one year old technologically?

KBL Celerons aren't that bad. But set your expectations accordingly. They're only 2C/2T after all. With a very competent IGP for non-gaming use.

Edit: If only the Athlon 200GE could be overclocked. It would have been like the "second coming of the G3258", all over again, for gaming. Here's hoping that AMD comes out with an "Athlon Black Edition" 2C/4T Ryzen / Raven Ridge APU derivative, significantly cheaper than the 2200G (like $80 or below), with at least enough Vega CUs to make low-end 720P gaming viable on it. (5-6 CUs would be nice.)

The 200GE isn't bad at stock. I don't notice any difference from my 1700non-X in general web browsing. I think AMD's SMT has a big part in that. But yeah, a speed bump to 3.6GHz would be nice.

 

[mxnerd]

Running at 1.3V 4.3G. Motherboard ECS Z97-PK.

G3258 is OK for general purpose usage, but serious crippled at multitasking, especially if not overclocked.

 

[mopardude87]

I went looking on ebay, and there are volume sellers with i7-4790 CPUs, for $150 ea. Thinking what I could do with one of those. The Biostar H81 boards in these rigs DO support the i7-4790 CPUs (84W).

Wondering if it would be worth it to bump up the rig, with one of those, for another $100-120 over the cost of the original parts.

How's the non-K i7-4790 for gaming these days? I assume it's no slouch, still.

I almost upgraded my i5 4670 with its H81 motherboard to one of those but decided for once i will go with the latest and greatest so i jumped on a i5 8400. From what i saw on game videos like BF1 the 4790 held up very well but the i5 8400 seems to pull more fps and well having a 144hz monitor its kind of what i wanted in the first place.

You got any idea how limited my H81 motherboard is? Its locked at pci express 2.0 speeds,no front header for usb 3.0 which my Antec has so every time i hook up anything usb i got to move the tower about just to get behind it and it has only 2 ram slots so even with a 4790 upgrade i would need to drop my 2x4gb kit for a 2x8gb kit just so i could enjoy BF1 and upcoming BF5. Lots of trouble right?

Oh btw the tower was originally a budget gamer looking like a sleeper in a older Emachines case with a G1820,8gb of ram and a 1050ti. Has a 120gb ssd and wow my spare 250gb is so bad its a 2008 era based lap top mechanical ugh the humanity. Getting a 500gb evo soon though!

 

[cbn]

Running at 1.3V 4.3G. Motherboard ECS Z97-PK.

Is that using the "one key" overclock? Or is that OC done manually?

 

[mxnerd]

Is that using the "one key" overclock? Or is that OC done manually?

Manually via BIOS.

 

[tenpole]

My G3258 rig that I set up in 2015 and nay sayers said it would not be any good because of the two cores. Yes still running it now. Run it constantly at 4.0Ghz. Still loving it. Never regretted getting this budget cpu.

 

[whm1974]

My G3258 rig that I set up in 2015 and nay sayers said it would not be any good because of the two cores. Yes still running it now. Run it constantly at 4.0Ghz. Still loving it. Never regretted getting this budget cpu.

What are you using it for?

 

[tenpole]

What are you using it for?

It is my sole computer, I dont do a great deal, the only heavy task may be Warhammer total war.

 

[whm1974]

It is my sole computer, I dont do a great deal, the only heavy task may be Warhammer total war.

Well if it still does what you need it to do, then that is just fine. I can assume you have an SSD and a nice video card?

 

[tenpole]

Well if it still does what you need it to do, then that is just fine. I can assume you have an SSD and a nice video card?

It was a budget build but I do have a 128gb ssd and I pulled the 2.5" hd from my defunct laptop for storage. The card is a GTX960ssc.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Well, re-visiting this topic again, figured this was the most recent thread I made about it. (I made like 5-6 threads, over the years, sorry mods.)

Anyways, I pulled out one of my G3258 rigs that I wanted to sell, it had a 160GB WD HDD in it, with Windows 10 64-bit Home 1809 on it. No dGPU.

Did some Windows Updates to keep it up to date, pretty painful, actually. What's worse, is re-booting, or from a fresh power-on, you get the BIOS logo, the spinning circle (UEFI installation), and then... a screen that says "Please Wait", for like what seems like 2 minutes (probably more like 40-50 seconds), after that, the Windows 10 Lock Screen, where you can put in your password, and then it loads the desktop, and the bottom row of icons, doesn't show up for like another 20-30 seconds.

I finally understand "click constipation" - where your PC is running so slowly (off a HDD, most likely), that when you double-click something to launch it, and it doesn't launch immediately, then you go and double-click some other icon / program, hoping that you'll have better luck there, and eventually, you get so behind, you have to just let it "catch up", and then all of these programs open.

So I said, yeah, this is a budget build, but .... this CPU, overclocked to 4.0Ghz, deserves an SSD, to experience the proper performance of the CPU.

So I put in a 120GB BX500 Crucial SATA 2.5" SSD that I got the other day. ($22.99 @ Newegg, a relative bargain.) It performs well. 530MB/sec seq. read, 490MB/sec seq. write, and 37MB/sec 4KQD1 read, that's all I remember of the benchmarks. But it didn't seem in any way laggy, like prior-gen 2D TLC SSDs did that were DRAM-less (as I believe this one is as well, DRAM-less).

So, it's running pretty decently, for all of two cores. Unfortunately, the Windows iGPU driver only allows 1080P max output, and I have 4K UHD screens. PITA.

I also found ANOTHER G3258 CPU, last night, BNIB, that I had forgotten that I had. I have a Z97 PC Mate ATX board, that I could have used with it, but I orderd a "new" Gigabyte H81 board off of ebay from a smaller vendor, for a fair price ($60), that will hopefully let me OC the G3258 CPU in it.

Have to dig out some DDR3 RAM to go with it.

I'm kind of curious, how well these slower dual-core Pentiums, even overclocked, pair up with say, an RX 560 or RX 570 GPU? I might try that with one or both of these rigs. (But I have a pair of G4560 CPU-based rigs that need dGPUs too, if they're going to be used as gaming PCs.)

 

[DrMrLordX]

Even with an SSD, any kind of modern game that wants a quad core will chug like a slug. Your 1% and .1% framerates will be bad. Unless it's like . . . StarCraft2. Then maybe you'll be okay.

Also Spectre/Meltdown patching can't have been kind to these things.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I wasn't suggesting using a dual-core for gaming these days. These would be strictly browser boxes. A dGPU would be for 4K UHD display capability.

As far as Spectre/Meltdown, these boards had to be back-flashed, to the initial BIOS release file, in order to allow overclocking. So, no BIOS patches. Are the Windows' patches enough to protect?

 

[DrMrLordX]

. Are the Windows' patches enough to protect?

No, sadly.

 

[cbn]

Still sad I let mine go.

I really liked that chip.