Thoughts on the Intel Celeron G1610?

[Bryf50]

I have an G3220 and a mini-itx motherboard on the way for an HTPC. I'll try to confirm the instruction set and eu count. I'll be running it with a gpu anyway so it wasn't very important to me.

 

[UaVaj]

i was going by mc prices. G1610 is $35. I3-3245 is $130. 3770k is $250.

g3220 $65.

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

When it comes to price/performance ratios, MC practically needs its own forum.

Best part of moving to Dallas (other than employment / paychecks) is living ~15 minutes away from a MicroCenter and maybe ~20 minutes away from Frys

 

[OGOC]

There's really no other choice for a bottom of the barrel build.

That's pretty much it right there.

G1610 is a solid CPU capable of solid things. It just won't be great at them. It's solid in most games, but falls flat on its face in certain ones. They sure are a nice price when on sale, though.

One thing about the nice gaming numbers the Pentiums and Celerons often put up is the benchmarks for those are only running the one thing. Add something as simple as playing a video on your second monitor while playing a game, and suddenly things can start stuttering a bit. Still playable, but not exactly smooth. Do something crazy like encode a video while playing a game, and the dual-cores without hyperthreading can feel some pain. But, what do you expect out of a low-end CPU.

I think if the friend is trying to put together a lower-end gaming PC, then a G1610 for the price is hard to beat, assuming the benches for DOTA2 look good to him. Like the OP said, if the friend wants more, he can always upgrade the CPU later. Ivy has only been "old" and "a dead socket" for three months.

One problem with Haswell is the boards are pricey compared to 1155. And if you want to go even cheaper and buy used, that's not a big market.

A used 1156 i5 is an interesting idea that was mentioned, but I haven't paid attention to those prices to have an opinion much more than "should be the cheapest way to get into an i5, uses about 25% more watts than Sandy."

A lot of the above goes out the window if you have a Microcenter nearby.

 

[Blue_Max]

From Newegg Canada:
MSI FM2-A55M-E33 FM2 AMD A55 (Hudson D2) HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard with UEFI BIOS $59.99

AMD Athlon X4 750K Trinity 3.4GHz Socket FM2 100W Quad-Core Desktop Processor - Black Edition AD750KWOHJBOX $84.99
$145
------------------

Intel Celeron G1610 Ivy Bridge 2.6GHz LGA 1155 55W Dual-Core Desktop Processor BX80637G1610 $49.99

ECS H61H2-MV LGA 1155 Intel H61 HDMI Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
Item #: N82E16813135343 $43.99
$94

Cheap but half-decent picks. The Intel combo is $50 cheaper... only the user can decide if the performance is worth the extra. I'd give it the chance, though... $50 is worth the longevity unless you consider the possibility of snagging a used i5 on the cheap next year.

 

[SPBHM]

From Newegg Canada:
MSI FM2-A55M-E33 FM2 AMD A55 (Hudson D2) HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard with UEFI BIOS $59.99

AMD Athlon X4 750K Trinity 3.4GHz Socket FM2 100W Quad-Core Desktop Processor - Black Edition AD750KWOHJBOX $84.99
$145
------------------

Intel Celeron G1610 Ivy Bridge 2.6GHz LGA 1155 55W Dual-Core Desktop Processor BX80637G1610 $49.99

ECS H61H2-MV LGA 1155 Intel H61 HDMI Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
Item #: N82E16813135343 $43.99
$94

Cheap but half-decent picks. The Intel combo is $50 cheaper... only the user can decide if the performance is worth the extra. I'd give it the chance, though... $50 is worth the longevity unless you consider the possibility of snagging a used i5 on the cheap next year.

the X4 also requires a VGA to work (at least $30 for a new 6450 or something), for basic usage the IGP from the Celeron is probably good enough, and can be considered an advantage for low cost PCs with no gaming.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

the X4 also requires a VGA to work (at least $30 for a new 6450 or something), for basic usage the IGP from the Celeron is probably good enough, and can be considered an advantage for low cost PCs with no gaming.

I can confirm its good enough for basic use. Have one myself...

(just don't expect anything other then flash games on it)

 

[Blue_Max]

I agree on the video side, too. I have an 1155 Celeron, Pentium and i5 - the video is perfectly acceptable for anything but 3D games.