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Is the G3258 still rated

tenpole

tenpole

Senior member
Last year I heard about the Intel Pentium Dual Core G3258 3.20GHz as a good chip for budget builds. I don't follow too much whats new and happening in the pc build world so I just thought I would run my cheap build passed you.

CPU - G3258 £53
Mobo - Gigabyte H81M £35 - I could get cheaper MSI but for the £3 more I would like to try gigabyte, I used to like this brand 10+ years ago.
RAm - 8GB DDR3 1600 sticks I have kicking around spare
SSD - 128gb Will pull from overheating laptop
Case - salvaged along with mice keyboard optical and monitor
Power supply - CIT Dual Rail 500W

The storage hd I will get a 1tb . The o/s not too sure if I have a windows 7 licence free or failing that I would have the expense of a windows 8 oem disk.

Any graphics card will not happen till the summer.
 
It's probably THE best budget cpu Intel currently makes for the price. I've built dozens of systems with them and even have one myself. Very capable chips for the money and overclockable to boot for those who want extra performance.
 
The only real problem with it is that [thread=2409634]a few games don't support just 2 cores anymore[/thread] - or didn't until people complained.

A nice thing about getting a Pentium is that you can upgrade to a true quad-core later. However, if you don't get a Z97 board, you probably won't be able to overclock a quad-core much.
 
Surely the most overhyped CPU in years, when we look at Anand review it seems that his main purpose iS to get people buying Intel CPU s while being forced to upgrade this part in a close future.
Indeed AT conclusion was : The CPU that you d want but not the CPU that you d need.
 
It's not future proof. Yes, most games still work fine on dual cores, but more and more don't even accept that as an option anymore. If you don't game, it's a great processor. If you do, look elsewhere.
 
tenpole said:
CPU - G3258 £53
Mobo - Gigabyte H81M £35 - I could get cheaper MSI but for the £3 more I would like to try gigabyte, I used to like this brand 10+ years ago.
Click to expand...

Which MSI board?

According to results posted in this thread, the MSI H81 boards are overclocking G3258 pretty good.
 
I only play selective games, not what you would classify as a gamer. Warcraft and Total War is about it. Not interested in FPS. So the lack of quad core would not be an issue.

Futureproof! At this price who gives a ****. I dont expect it to be it will last me enough years.
 
cbn said:
Which MSI board?

According to results posted in this thread, the MSI H81 boards are overclocking G3258 pretty good.
Click to expand...

I am going for gigabyte because of ease of use, the msi bios I found confusing on the H87 board I set up and I prefer the layout of the gigabyte.
 
its not a bad stop-gap processor, but you can pick up i5 2500k's so cheap now, its a hard sell for me to recommend. Also, I am not too familiar with "CIT" power supplies, maybe someone who knows a little more than me can chime in, but I personally wouldn't cheap out on the PSU, I consider that to be one of the most important parts of the build.
 
Ken g6 said:
The only real problem with it is that [thread=2409634]a few games don't support just 2 cores anymore[/thread] - or didn't until people complained.

A nice thing about getting a Pentium is that you can upgrade to a true quad-core later. However, if you don't get a Z97 board, you probably won't be able to overclock a quad-core much.
Click to expand...

Funny thing is, the reason why was due to being console ports. And Core 0 and 1 was reserved for OS. So the game had to start on core 2(third core). The "dualcore" fixes to the games also increased performance for quadcores.

I think most developers are quite aware not to make the same mistakes again.
 
ShintaiDK said:
Funny thing is, the reason why was due to being console ports. And Core 0 and 1 was reserved for OS.
Click to expand...

Funny thing is, no one here takes your words seriously.
You better have a solid source on this one. A better source, than the "there will be no apu in consoles" one.
 
Depends on the games you play. It can struggle on some games (Watch Dogs), and yet be a bargain (Bioshock Infinite, Skyrim, etc) on others. Some reviews:-

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2014/06/24/intel-pentium-g3258-review/5
http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/6...nniversary-cpu-gaming-performance/index6.html
http://www.anandtech.com/show/8232/...ary-edition-review-the-intel-pentium-g3258-ae
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2014-pentium-g3258-review
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/pentium-g3258-overclocking-performance,review-32974-4.html
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/pentium_20th_anniversary_series_g3258_processor_review,14.html
http://techreport.com/review/26735/overclocking-intel-pentium-g3258-anniversary-edition-processor/3
http://www.technologyx.com/pc-hardware/intels-pentium-g3258-budget-overclockers-dream-big-bust/3/
http://www.legitreviews.com/intel-pentium-g3258-dual-core-processor-gaming-performance_145873/5
http://www.techspot.com/review/849-intel-pentium-anniversary-edition-overclock/page12.html
 
ShintaiDK said:
Funny thing is, the reason why was due to being console ports. And Core 0 and 1 was reserved for OS. So the game had to start on core 2(third core). The "dualcore" fixes to the games also increased performance for quadcores.

I think most developers are quite aware not to make the same mistakes again.
Click to expand...

If that were the case then wouldn't 2 and 3 be the two cores in the half-utilized module that generally only get used last, so utilization would start with 4 through 7?

That really doesn't pass the smell test.
 
Abwx said:
Surely the most overhyped CPU in years, when we look at Anand review it seems that his main purpose iS to get people buying Intel CPU s while being forced to upgrade this part in a close future.
Indeed AT conclusion was : The CPU that you d want but not the CPU that you d need.
Click to expand...

Wow, you can't stop thread crapping no matter what.
 
Abwx said:
Surely the most overhyped CPU in years, when we look at Anand review it seems that his main purpose iS to get people buying Intel CPU s while being forced to upgrade this part in a close future.
Indeed AT conclusion was : The CPU that you d want but not the CPU that you d need.
Click to expand...

100% agree. It was released to get people go intel 1150 socket thinking about upgrading to i5 and i7 later.

But the later is actually now. Some games refuse to lunch with 2 threads only. Some show very poor performance where OCed pentium is bulldozed by bulldozer 😀.

Its good at one thing thou. Single threaded games. You want to boost your fps in starcraft2 from 100 to 250? This CPU is designed for you!
 
For games it will only be warcraft and maybe rome total war 2 if I fancy that again. I like turn based strategy games.
I used to play SWTOR but got fed up with how slow it was to load and play on my A8 laptop.
 
I view the G3258 is a brilliant marketing tool from Intel. It's not nearly powerful enough to compete with i5's, but it gets you to buy an Intel board and then they get you to buy an i5-4690k again later once they have gotten you excited about overclocking. It's pretty brilliant that they swooped in and took the low-end from AMD with all the crazy CPU+board deals and then the whet peoples' appetites with good overclocks to get them to buy their high end $240 unlocked i5's. The G3258 must have made Intel so much money.
 
So essentially Intel has gotten a lot of low-end buyers to pay $300 for their i5-4690k's with the G3258, as such a large percentage of people getting a Pentium AE seem to eventually upgrade to a 4690k or are waiting for a Broadwell i5-5670k. I know I went Intel because of a $75 Pentium + board combo, and then kept my board and upgraded to a $250 Xeon E3. Without the G3258 combos I would have probably just bought a cheap AMD CPU+board to replace my Athlon64x2 and then bought a PS4 to game on instead of building the gaming PC I use now (the Pentium got me excited about PC gaming again, despite the fact it's not very good for PC gaming haha).
 
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It'll be fine for your needs, OP, but if you don't figure on overclocking it, you can save a couple quid by getting a G3250 instead. (Not, like, a LOT, just, like, enough to buy a sandwich or something.)
 
it's a great CPU for PCSX2 and Dolphin, also some old heavy games like FSX... but for regular newer games I would buy something else.
 
I would get a core i3 and be done with it. A core i3 is clock for clock faster than a g3258 according to pclabs,and WoW can use up to three threads in newer expansions. But also ditch that crap PSU. The CiT PSUs are rubbish and I have seen enough systems taken out by them.
 
USER8000 said:
I would get a core i3 and be done with it. A core i3 is clock for clock faster than a g3258 according to pclabs,and WoW can use up to three threads in newer expansions. But also ditch that crap PSU. The CiT PSUs are rubbish and I have seen enough systems taken out by them.
Click to expand...

I think you misunderstand the budget part. An i3 would mean no computer so stick with my overheating A8 laptop.
Again the CIT is part of the budget build. If I got a more expensive power unit it would go in the wifes i5 set up and this new build would inherit her CIT which is still better than the power unit that came with her case. If CIT are so bad maybe I should just stick with the unbranded power supply.
 
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