I3 2100

[bigbubba3]

Alright guys I need a bit of help here.

Just moved into dorms as a freshman in college, and space is so tight here. So I got rid of my full tower PC, and I'm doing a new micro atx build.

The only parts I kept were a 5850, ssd and 2 hard drives.

My new build has to be under $700 and I still want it to play games well. I have a single 1080p monitor.

I have been trying to decide between a i3 2100 or the i5 2500k. I have found plenty of benchmarks at 1600 x 900. Only problem is I can't find benchmarks for any 2nd gen i3s playing at 1080p. I realize that at lower res the difference between the i5, and i3 will be more apparent but that gap usually shinks with larger resolution.

Am I really going to suffer frame rates with an i3?

 

[DaveSimmons]

With the i3 you lose 2 cores and the Turbo Boost automatic overclocking of the 15.

Have you considered an H61 / H67 motherboard ($60-75) and an i5-2400 ($190)? That gets you the extra cores and turbo boost.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/289?vs=363

You'd be fine now with the i3-2100 but it might struggle with games in another year or two, probably before you're ready to replace it.

 

[pauldun170]

I have an i3-2100 in my HTPC paired up with an old HD4830 running 1080p.
I have no doubt that with the GTX570 in my gaming box or any other strong card that it will rock out most games at 1080p. Its a

If you are really concerned...split the difference between the two and get the i5-2400.
note: DO NOT cheap out on the motherboard if you are overclocking one of the k series unless you like short lifespans on your components.