i3 upgrade: Worth it?

L

lespaul50

n00b
Joined
Feb 1, 2008
Messages
52
I've got an e6400 (overclocked from 2.13ghz to 3ghz) that's starting to show it's age. I don't have much money, so I'm wondering if an upgrade to an i3 2100 or 2120 would be worth it for me. I can't find any direct comparisons on the internet, but people say the i3's are a formidable chip.

For about $210, I can get 8gb of ram, a 2100, and a not-so-great-but-does-the-job mini ATX mobo. I've got everything else I need.

I've also considered just buying an off-hand Q6600, but I'm not sure how much of an upgrade that would actually be. Plus, if I get an i3 system, I have the option of an i5 or i7 in the future.

If it makes a difference, my machine is running a GTX 460.
 
Yeah, that would be a good upgrade. I would see if you can go for the 2120 if you can, and if you're using the on-board video the 2105 is a good choice as it has the hd 3000. This plan also allows you to upgrade your cpu again later to an i5/i7. It would be a pretty good upgrade in my opinion. I'd say do it.
 
It's a decent upgrade. You are far better off getting an i3 530,540,550 and clocking it to 4.0-4.6ghz. Even better off than getting a q6600.

The only time I'd recommend the newer i3's are for basic situations, office computers, file servers, dedicated web browsing machines, little kids computers, regular users, grandmas cookbook. etc
 
I had a friend that paid $210 shipped for an Asus P6X58D-E and Core i7-950 combo.

Keep your eyes for good deals in FS/T and you might see something sprout up. You toss in 3 sticks of ram and a Hyper 212+ can have some good fun overclocking. Cheaper combos would probably have an i7-920 or 930, lesser X58 mobo, etc. Or do like rive22 suggested and go LGA1156.

If you don't feel like buying used and/or don't want to OC,
stick with a 2100/2120 + B75 mobo + 2x4GB of ram.
 
rive22 said:
It's a decent upgrade. You are far better off getting an i3 530,540,550 and clocking it to 4.0-4.6ghz. Even better off than getting a q6600.

The only time I'd recommend the newer i3's are for basic situations, office computers, file servers, dedicated web browsing machines, little kids computers, regular users, grandmas cookbook. etc
Click to expand...

I was under the impressions that the 2100/2120 beat out an overclocked 530,540,550, or at least is pretty similar. Plus, I'd have to add $30 for a cooler if I were to overclock a 540. Also, I'd be upgrading to a dead platform. Is the performance increase worth it? Would the price difference b/w a 2100 system and a 540 system really be big enough factoring in the cost of the cooler?
 
lespaul50 said:
I was under the impressions that the 2100/2120 beat out an overclocked 530,540,550, or at least is pretty similar. Plus, I'd have to add $30 for a cooler if I were to overclock a 540. Also, I'd be upgrading to a dead platform. Is the performance increase worth it? Would the price difference b/w a 2100 system and a 540 system really be big enough factoring in the cost of the cooler?
Click to expand...

Every platform becomes "dead" sooner or later. The only question is whether it'll be adequate for the service life you plan to use it for.
 
Skripka said:
Every platform becomes "dead" sooner or later. The only question is whether it'll be adequate for the service life you plan to use it for.
Click to expand...

There will be more life in the 1155 platform and in a couple/few years it may be easier to get a hold of a SB or IB i5 or i7 as another upgrade.
 
colinstu said:
I had a friend that paid $210 shipped for an Asus P6X58D-E and Core i7-950 combo.

Keep your eyes for good deals in FS/T and you might see something sprout up. You toss in 3 sticks of ram and a Hyper 212+ can have some good fun overclocking. Cheaper combos would probably have an i7-920 or 930, lesser X58 mobo, etc. Or do like rive22 suggested and go LGA1156.

If you don't feel like buying used and/or don't want to OC,
stick with a 2100/2120 + B75 mobo + 2x4GB of ram.
Click to expand...



I hadn't even considered going with an older socket i7. But according to this benchmark, there's not much much of a noticeable difference between the i7 920 and the i3 2120.
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/47?vs=289


But I guess if I could get an i7 for the right price, it might be a great deal.
 
Skripka said:
And by the time you can and need/want to, it'll make more sense in $$$/performance just to move to the next platform be it Haswell or Rockwell or whatever.
Click to expand...

Depends on the situation. Jumping from a dual core to a quad core can yield some beefy gains if the software can exploit it all. It would be a quick, cheap, and easy upgrade sticking to the same socket.

OTOH, with Haswell a year away, does it make more sense to wait it out while socking away money for such an overhaul?

I don't think either path would be a bad one to walk.
 
The change from the Intel® Core 2 Duo to the 1st generation Intel Core processor could yeild a performance increase of around 15% to 20% at the same speed. The move form the 1st generation to the 2nd generation Intel Core processors may yeild an additional 10% to 15%. So moving to the Intel Core i3-2100 you would be around 30% faster then the older Intel 2 Duo at 3.0GHz. Of course you may not see that level of performance increase if you are doing something like gaming.
 
DejaWiz said:
How often do you upgrade or do a full overhaul?
Click to expand...

Well with LGA1155 being dead with Ivy Bridge... if he wants to do any kind of processor upgrade he's gonna need to wait for Haswell and LGA1150 coming out next year.

Other then that, all the current and previous sockets are pretty much dead, or will be soon. (not including LGA2011, because that's expensive and out of the question for the OP)
 
IntelEnthusiast said:
The change from the Intel® Core 2 Duo to the 1st generation Intel Core processor could yeild a performance increase of around 15% to 20% at the same speed. The move form the 1st generation to the 2nd generation Intel Core processors may yeild an additional 10% to 15%. So moving to the Intel Core i3-2100 you would be around 30% faster then the older Intel 2 Duo at 3.0GHz. Of course you may not see that level of performance increase if you are doing something like gaming.
Click to expand...

You forget the boost you get from Hyperthreading. That adds %20-30 more in heavily-threaded benchmarks. You can see it's %75-100 faster in those types of loads.

And don't listen to people who say Hyperthreading does nothing for games. It makes quite the difference in Battlefield 3:

http://en.inpai.com.cn/doc/enshowcont.asp?id=7986&pageid=8156

And the platform is great because you can upgrade to more overclockable Sandy/Ivy quad cores at any time.

lespaul50: Go for the 2120, it's a %6 performance boost for $5 more!
 
extide said:
Yeah, that would be a good upgrade. I would see if you can go for the 2120 if you can, and if you're using the on-board video the 2105 (or the 2125 if you can find it) is a good choice as it has the hd 3000. This plan also allows you to upgrade your cpu again later to an i5/i7. It would be a pretty good upgrade in my opinion. I'd say do it.
Click to expand...

Go for the i3, it leaves the best upgrade path, and wont be much more expensive (if any) than upgrading to an older platform like these guys are saying. Go for a z77 setup with the i3, and get and i5/i7 later.
 
Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD3H
-solid choice mid-level enthusiast grade board
-all 4-pin fan headers
-VGA + DMI + HDMI + DP
-mSATA port (handy to have if you ever want to use SSD caching)

Throw in an i3-2100 (maybe find a used one?)

You'll have one hell of a solid foundation for your system and a very good MoBo when the time for an i5 or i7, including the K series, comes along.

Will put you over your $200 budget by about $70 if buying everything new, but well worth biting the bullet, IMO. There are some cheaper Z77 options out there, like the ASRock Z77 Pro4 or MSI G43.
 
What exactly are you doing with your computer? From your original post, it doesn't seem like you are running cutting edge stuff so if you think your E6400 is "starting" to show it's age, spending $50 on a Q6600, get a decent overclock, and you will instantly have (roughly) double your current standards.

As far as your budget, as long as you don't mind used, just post on the FS/FT forum that you have $200, and that you want the best bang for your buck. I can almost guarentee you that you'll have a half or full dozen offers by the end of the day.
 
I recently had the same dilemma, especially in BF3 running a C2D E7300 with my 6970 I noticed it would hammer the CPU at constant 100%, decided to upgrade to the i3-2120 and it made one hell of a difference, no more stuttering on the screen and a lot more responsive. Skyrim was another good example of showing the age of the C2D.

Go for the i3, upgrade again later. A cheap P67 board and some decent memory with an i3 actually goes a long way.
 
at work most people in development and web and design are using i3's with 16G of ram and not one has hit a performance issue the have told me about. so it should be a pretty big upgrade for you.
 
DejaWiz said:
Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD3H
-solid choice mid-level enthusiast grade board
-all 4-pin fan headers
-VGA + DMI + HDMI + DP
-mSATA port (handy to have if you ever want to use SSD caching)

Throw in an i3-2100 (maybe find a used one?)

You'll have one hell of a solid foundation for your system and a very good MoBo when the time for an i5 or i7, including the K series, comes along.

Will put you over your $200 budget by about $70 if buying everything new, but well worth biting the bullet, IMO. There are some cheaper Z77 options out there, like the ASRock Z77 Pro4 or MSI G43.
Click to expand...


I know what your saying. But if I'm splurging on a decent mobo, Hey, a 2500k is only $85 more than the 2120, so I might as well spend the money for that instead. Or do both. And better ram would cost only $15 more too. Heck, for 100 more I can sli my Getz 460
 
lespaul50 said:
I know what your saying. But if I'm splurging on a decent mobo, Hey, a 2500k is only $85 more than the 2120, so I might as well spend the money for that instead. Or do both. And better ram would cost only $15 more too. Heck, for 100 more I can sli my Getz 460
Click to expand...

errr, I meant to say, only $100 more and I can get another TTX 460 and sli that. I think my point was that talking myself out of a budget is a slippery slope.
 
Thanks for the input everyone. I think I'm going to try to either get a used-but-good i7 920 + motherboard combo off of here or r/hardwareswap. That way I get a pretty sizable upgrade for relatively cheap, and I can get a good SLI motherboard to sli my GTX 460 soon.

If that doesn't pan out, I'm going to go with the i3 2120 new. It just depends on which ever one makes the most sense for the money. They're both awesome upgrades for me. Neither one (with a z66 mobo) offer any room for upgrading, but by the time I want to upgrade my CPU I'll be looking at Haswell or newer anyways (a whole new socket).
 
Go for the i3, and make sure you get a board that will support a 2600k- that way down the road you can grab a 'cheap' 2600k. I have a feeling the 2600k will hold in there almost as long as the q6600 has stayed relevant, so you'll be good for several years
 
Mr34727 said:
Go for the i3, and make sure you get a board that will support a 2600k- that way down the road you can grab a 'cheap' 2600k. I have a feeling the 2600k will hold in there almost as long as the q6600 has stayed relevant, so you'll be good for several years
Click to expand...

That's a pretty good point. But I wouldn't be able to afford an SLI-capable motherboard if I went socket 1155 right now. Within the next year or so I'd like to be able to get another GTX 460. Then I think I would be set for a few years.


Having the option for a 2600k or even ivy bridge down the road would be nice, but that's about $100 more I'd have to spend up front now in addition to the GTX 460 down the road. And then by the time I want to upgrade my CPU in 4+ more years I'll be looking at buying another socket anyways.

I dunno what to do man.
 
Go for the Z77 UD3H.

Wait a bit while socking away a little extra cash and get any i3 or i5, be it a SB or IB, K or non-K.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top