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Just set up an i3 2100 rig

Arachnotronic

Arachnotronic

Lifer
Whoah! This thing is absolutely beastly for the price. I had no idea that a dual core could still shred in this day and age. I guess HT helps, but still...

My client's gonna be very happy with this build! 🙂
 
Intel17 said:
Whoah! This thing is absolutely beastly for the price. I had no idea that a dual core could still shred in this day and age. I guess HT helps, but still...

My client's gonna be very happy with this build! 🙂
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i just reviewed Core i3-2105 versus Phenom II 975. Hyper threading makes a definite difference in gaming for a dual-core. Yes, it is a nice CPU that really doesn't need to overclock to have good performance.

GameBench-1.jpg
 
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Yeah my buddy built one of these recently too. Nice budget build, especially if you use a h61 motherboard such as the biostar. He doesn't game much, but he uses the hdmi out, and streams to his tv in another room with a long cable, while his wife or kids use it to surf the web, etc. It multitasks very well for a dual core. For 400 bucks or so you could have a very fast system with ssd boot drive etc, pretty good times for the consumer, even with the hike in hd prices.
 
Intel17 said:
Whoah! This thing is absolutely beastly for the price. I had no idea that a dual core could still shred in this day and age. I guess HT helps, but still...
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No 'I guess HT helps, but still...' here... It means EVERYTHING. Hyperthreading makes it work like a quad-core. Without it... You'd have a Celeron...

I run an i3-2100 as well in my gaming machine. I just built a smaller PC with a Intel G530 Celeron without Hyperthreading, and holy cow what a difference in games. Battlefield 3 is 50FPS in my main rig, and 18FPS in the G530... And there's only .7GHZ difference between them.

Hyperthreading FTW!
 
It really surprised me when i did my evaluation of 20 games. But evidently HT is not so effective for a quad-core processor in gaming. At least that is what i found so far, but i am going to explore that next with my i7-920 at 4.0GHz when i bench with GTX 580 SLI and HD 6970 TriFire.
 
86waterpumper said:
Yeah my buddy built one of these recently too. Nice budget build, especially if you use a h61 motherboard such as the biostar.
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Absolutely, I upgraded a mom pc using a i3 2100 and h61 MSI motherboard that microcenter basically gave away. It's nice to have a decent PC available when I visit (heh).
 
Yeah, that's been my experience, too. Just a great, great processor for the price. Has anyone done any comparisons between the 2100 and 2105? I'd be interested in that face off.
 
apoppin said:
It really surprised me when i did my evaluation of 20 games. But evidently HT is not so effective for a quad-core processor in gaming. At least that is what i found so far, but i am going to explore that next with my i7-920 at 4.0GHz when i bench with GTX 580 SLI and HD 6970 TriFire.
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Curious to know sir, what games did you find HT'ing to under-perform in?

Sent from my SPH-M910 using Tapatalk
 
mmaestro said:
Yeah, that's been my experience, too. Just a great, great processor for the price. Has anyone done any comparisons between the 2100 and 2105? I'd be interested in that face off.
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I saw a benchmark chart on (I forget the site) between the 2100 and the 2120, where there was a difference it was only about 5%.

Sent from my SPH-M910 using Tapatalk
 
janas19 said:
Curious to know sir, what games did you find HT'ing to under-perform in?

Sent from my SPH-M910 using Tapatalk
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Note he is talking about quads with HT not duals. A better question would be find the few games that do benefit from having 4c8t vs 4c4t. Hence the reason a lot of gamers pick the i5 including myself. We don't see the point of spending extra money on a 2600k compared to the 2500k
 
Puppies04 said:
Note he is talking about quads with HT not duals. A better question would be find the few games that do benefit from having 4c8t vs 4c4t. Hence the reason a lot of gamers pick the i5 including myself. We don't see the point of spending extra money on a 2600k compared to the 2500k
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Thanks for the clarification.
 
Yeah, 2C/4T performs a lot better than 2C/2T for gaming with modern titles, which was the point, while 4C/4T and 4C/8T perform so close that the 2600k is really just a luxury for a gamer, though some apps do get a boost.
 
Just imagine a $130 2100k @ 4.5GHz+

Intel is scared to make this, because right now they have people willing to spend on the 2500k, but an unlocked dual would be adequate for many while saving a few bucks.

Most games that "make use" of quads only have 1-2 cores heavily loaded, with the other 2 cores at light to medium loading. Pretty much the ideal usage scenario for a 2C / 4T HT product. I doubt you'll see too many games that have 4 heavily loaded threads, because aside from enthusiasts, few people have quads... they'd cut out a large portion of their potential customer base. The exception, of course, being games like GTA IV... poor code quality console ports from companies that don't really care about PC user experience, as they're primary customer base is consoles.

Aside from gamers who needs more than 2C / 4T? People doing heavy video editing or compiling?
 
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I just set up a I3 2100 machine myself and so far I'm impressed. I measured power draw during setup and etc, and the total rig never topped 48w and the Intel Atom it ultimately replaced would typically hit 38w so overall I call it a HUGE success. MUCH more processing power and similar power draw, it's a win/win!!
 
Same here, just built a mini-ITX system with the I3-2105 and H61 motherboard.
The HD3000 is more than the wife and kids needed. I was personally blown away with the horse power behind this thing. Not to mention my surprise when my son's "Lego" games (Indiana Jones, Batman, Harry Potter,etc) ran very very well on the HD3000.
 
Concillian said:
Just imagine a $130 2100k @ 4.5GHz+

Intel is scared to make this, because right now they have people willing to spend on the 2500k, but an unlocked dual would be adequate for many while saving a few bucks.

Most games that "make use" of quads only have 1-2 cores heavily loaded, with the other 2 cores at light to medium loading. Pretty much the ideal usage scenario for a 2C / 4T HT product. I doubt you'll see too many games that have 4 heavily loaded threads, because aside from enthusiasts, few people have quads... they'd cut out a large portion of their potential customer base. The exception, of course, being games like GTA IV... poor code quality console ports from companies that don't really care about PC user experience, as they're primary customer base is consoles.

Aside from gamers who needs more than 2C / 4T? People doing heavy video editing or compiling?
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Pretty much. Smart move on Intel's part to keep the 2/4 processors locked, otherwise they're losing a hell of a lot more money.
 
cpu always matters to an extent. its just that at a higher res you need more gpu power too. a slow cpu at 1080 just means not so great overall performance at higher res instead of lower res. a game that requires a good cpu to be playable or keep the framerates up does not lower that requirement at higher resolution.
 
toyota said:
cpu always matters to an extent. its just that at a higher res you need more gpu power too. a slow cpu at 1080 just means not so great overall performance at higher res instead of lower res. a game that requires a good cpu to be playable or keep the framerates up does not lower that requirement at higher resolution.
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btw you were the otherday correct. When on look fro, the point you showed me. I3 more economical and a better path than the X4 was. So I followed your advice and bought my son a I3 2100 as well. Its a zippy little chip and run as cool as a cucumber. So Thx

What I mean is that the performance difference you would get with a 100usd chip or a 300usd chip will be a couple of fps on a high resolution like 1080p. So that's where a person can save by buying a cheaper cpu and use that extra money for a better gpu.
 
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LiuKangBakinPie said:
btw you were the otherday correct. When on look fro, the point you showed me. I3 more economical and a better path than the X4 was. So I followed your advice and bought my son a I3 2100 as well. Its a zippy little chip and run as cool as a cucumber. So Thx

What I mean is that the performance difference you would get with a 100usd chip or a 300usd chip will be a couple of fps on a high resolution like 1080p. So that's where a person can save by buying a cheaper cpu and use that extra money for a better gpu.
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yeah I almost went that route too but decided 2500k would be better for my needs. a 2100 is good compromise for most people but if it at least had turbo then it would be much more appealing.

EDIT: I still say 2500k is what is needed if you plan on running higher end gpus though. even at 1080, I need to oc my 2500k to help make up for some sloppily done ports that seem to need all the cpu power you can give in spots.
 
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The full rig is:

CPU: i3 2100
Mobo: ASRock H61M-VS
GPU: HIS Radeon 6790
Memory: 8GB G.Skill DDR3-1333
HDD: 500GB (oof, hard-disk prices!)

This is being used as someone's primary PC, including heavy gaming usage. Got reports from him last night that it is the, "most amazing computer [he's] ever owned" and that he can "run all of his games maxed out".

Win.
 
Intel17 said:
The full rig is:

CPU: i3 2100
Mobo: ASRock H61M-VS
GPU: HIS Radeon 6790
Memory: 8GB G.Skill DDR3-1333
HDD: 500GB (oof, hard-disk prices!)

This is being used as someone's primary PC, including heavy gaming usage. Got reports from him last night that it is the, "most amazing computer [he's] ever owned" and that he can "run all of his games maxed out".

Win.
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lol, sounds like a youtube comment. I have a faster machine and even I cant comfortably run every single game I own maxed out.
 
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