Hot? Microcenter Pentium G3258 + MSI Z97 PC Mate $99.99 In-store

I vote hot!
If it was anything besides MSI ..well..no i wouldn't.
Because i have no Microcenter in my state! :mad:
still would stay away from MSI though :p
 
If anyone is looking for a Gigabyte Z87 UD4H I would be more than happy to trade mine for this combo. I don't have a MC near me. PM me if you are interested.
 
I picked up a couple of these bundles to build a few Bartop Arcade Machines. For $100 a piece, you cannot beat the price.
 
I wanted to bite pretty bad. Had it in the cart a few times. Looking for a new linux box, but think I will hold out for a better board and an i3\i5\i7 setup.

I'd love to grab the G3258 and see how far to push it, but the performance I would like would still not be there. Might make a decent box for the kids to play on.
 
Guru said:
That said, even overclocked you should not be looking at this processor for a gaming rig. Overclocked it will get you very decent game performance, but two cores is not something we recommend for mainstream and better gaming, especially with minimum framerates in mid. For a low level to mid-range system however this remains aa fun processor to work with. No Pentium G3258 is really intended for low-level net-PCs and small server functionality like a NAS or HTPC. At 60 EURO the processor is a heck of a lot of fun if you like to tweak a little though. As such definitely recommended. And we do hope to see Intel release a few more SKUs like shown today in the future. It's all about the fun factor, and the fun factor is high with this one.
Click to expand...

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/pentium_20th_anniversary_series_g3258_processor_review,16.html

Sounds like entry level gamer and/or HTPC CPU. I would totally grab this if I needed for a HTPC build.
 
I bought this combo to push my 7680x1440 gaming machine it should be good right? J/K I really do use that res in my gaming machine and love it and it's being pushed by a 2500k overclocked to 4.5 and it works almost just as good as the 3770k at 4.5 that used to be in it. I picked this combo up because I needed a cheap board locally and this was cheaper then buying the board by itself. The board seems decent on paper other then not being sli certified but is crossfire certified. Hopefully I can play with it some today, as for the cpu it's an oddball 20th anniversary cpu and guess what it makes the board cheaper if you get it with it which makes it a great deal. If you build a machine out of it overclock it and it's not enough then guess what you still saved money if you end up getting a better cpu. So buy it see if it works for your needs and it also works if your budget does not allow for your higher end cpu yet but still allows you to have an up and running machine. Rant off games do benefit from lots of cores even if they are not all that multithreaded because your gpu drivers are but it's not that big a deal till your doing tri sli or some cases sli. Maybe I will try this cpu in my guest/spare gaming machine and see how it does at some 5760x1080 with a single 680 gtx.
 
I called tustin MC, they're oos of the mobo. he also said the promotion ends this weekend. Is this really confirmed though? I thought this will be pretty much the standard MC combo deal.
 
kirbyrj said:
Seems like it is about 60 off mb instead of normal 40 off.
Click to expand...

Actually $70 off.
Mobo is normally $110.
$100 combo - $60 CPU = $40 mobo.


Not sure when it ends exactly, but I guarantee this isn't going to be a standard Microcenter combo deal.
 
The B85 board combo with the G3258 sold out also on newegg. Picked it up for $75 AR, and it has confirmed overclocking features unlike the h81 combo.

Now I need some cheap ram...
 
aubsxc said:
Thanks. I was talking about the MSI B85-G43 GAMING.
Click to expand...

The chip I got with the MC combo does 4.5 but with a little higher voltage then I wanted. Picked up the MSI B85 combo to see how it does.
 
schmuckley said:
I vote hot!
If it was anything besides MSI ..well..no i wouldn't.
Because i have no Microcenter in my state! :mad:
still would stay away from MSI though :p
Click to expand...
I used to think that until I tried out a couple of their recent boards (P67A-G43, Z77A-GD45, Z87A-GD65).
 
The deal is back up, I knew this would be a regular MC deal. Nothing to be worried about.
 
It would've been hot if Intel had lowered the price of the i3-4150. Don't know how two Intel CPUs can be so similar such as 22nm, 2-core, etc. but be so far off in performance. Even overclocked some areas are disappointing so it's good idea to go through each benchmark and see what's important to you. For example, it doesn't support new AES instructions so anything encryption related will be molasses.

truecrypt_real.png


http://pclab.pl/art57691.html

http://ark.intel.com/products/82723/Intel-Pentium-Processor-G3258-3M-Cache-3_20-GHz
 
Just to update, the MSI B85-G43 Gaming does OC with the latest BIOS. Only limitation so far is ram tops at 1400Mhz with no BCLK adjustments.
 
Cecil said:
Just to update, the MSI B85-G43 Gaming does OC with the latest BIOS. Only limitation so far is ram tops at 1400Mhz with no BCLK adjustments.
Click to expand...

Great. Thanks for the update. Haven't played with mine yet.
 
thanks cecil! think we should make a thread to keep track of which boards support the G3258 out of the box, which ones can OC it, and other useful info like ram speeds and highest OC? i wanna see what how capable this chip really is in different boards!
 
The board shipped with a BIOS from December of last year, and worked fine with the G3258. No worries about getting it going.
Has a little more voltage variation then the PC Mate Z97, and doesn't lock vcore in place like the PC Mate Z97 does. But board runs cool, and seems alright for the price so far. Better LAN and Audio on this then the PC Mate Z97, so seems worth it to me.
 
I managed to pick this up as well (great deal, since I was picking up the board anyway).

That said, when I asked an associate how long the deal was running they said until close of business Sunday. Not sure if that's just my local store (PA, St. Davids), but you might want to try and get this deal before 7/13.
 
Deal is still up as of 5:50 a.m. EDT 7/16. Got email receipt to pick up this morning.
Edit: Picked it up at 7 pm 7/16, guy at the counter says they'll probably keep the deal going as long as it sells. You won't see the price discount until you check out though; when you click on the items you'll see the normal price. Just click through to the check out and it becomes $99. Great package, motherboard seems nice. Now I need a new case to put it in, I've been building everything into Silverstone SG01's for the past four years. Also got one of the Swiftech 320 water coolers to play with, if anyone knows a medium size case this monster fits in let me know.
 
Last edited:
Deal is still up as of 8/19. Picked up another set of cpu/mb for a build. You have to add both to your cart to see the $99 deal.
 
Anyone know how thick the PCB is? I want to get this and a NH-D14 but I'm afraid it may warp it or worse.Or maybe I shoudl just go U14s.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top