Intel® Core™ i3 2100 LGA 1155 3.1GHz Boxed Processor for $99 with mobo at microcenter

Thats what I'm thinking...

The 2100 is better by far, the weird thing is a compeditor site says for gaming the 2100 is better than a
1100T
PII X4 970
Q9550
Q6600

and equal to a
qx9775
i5-760
i7-950 or 875K
or Black edition 975

:eek: :confused: :eek:

So what to do...

I think this deal has been dead for a while though hasn't it?
 
If all you do is gaming, 2100 is pretty much a better buy than even the 2500k and over.

How is the 2100 better than the 2500K at gaming

the 2100 vs 2500K
2 core with HT 4 thread vs 4 core 4 thread
3.1 Ghz vs 3.3ghz with 3.7Ghz turbo
3mb vs 6mb turbo
HD graphics are slower with i3 than i5...

If you mean cheaper the 2100 is cheaper but how is it better?
 
How is the 2100 better than the 2500K at gaming

the 2100 vs 2500K
2 core with HT 4 thread vs 4 core 4 thread
3.1 Ghz vs 3.3ghz with 3.7Ghz turbo
3mb vs 6mb turbo
HD graphics are slower with i3 than i5...

If you mean cheaper the 2100 is cheaper but how is it better?

"better buy."
 
"better buy."

Agreed, it may be better deal in terms of current games for some. But the 2500k has higher benchmarks than the 2100. Though, when you look at frame rates, the 2100 does it good enough for most games and does far better than most of the AMD gaming chips.

That being said, some games favor more cores, (Dragon Age comes to mind, maybe SC2). Also, given the current state of chips/cores, you may as well get a 4C chip if you're investing in a new platform or gaming machine you intend to keep around.
 
The 2100 is the go-to processor for any new budget build if you can get the $99 combo. Period.
 
Agreed. For most uses if doesn't make any sense to pay 2x or more to upgrade CPUs.
 
I tried to do some searching on the 2100 for gaming...

I just don't see any decent reviews with the 2100 vs "better / more expensive" processors.
Especially using a decent card.

Also anyone know how far or if you can overclock the 2100 with the H or P board, also does it turbo boost or whatever it's called.
 
Also anyone know how far or if you can overclock the 2100 with the H or P board, also does it turbo boost or whatever it's called.

The 2100 doesn't have Turbo and is completely locked, no overclocking. From the anandtech benches you found (I use that review as a reference too), you can see for $99 you can't go wrong.
 
Yeah, it's an incredible little proc. I paired one with a 5870 and it could play any game flawlessly. Now it's in my htpc, and it rocks.
 
Thanks zerodeefex for reviving this thread. I was able to pick up a combo for my wife's computer at the MC in Richardson, TX.

She's coming from my old Athlon 64 FX-51 to the i3 2100 paired with an SSD so the difference will be like night and day performance wise. :D
 
Just picked two of these deals up (mobo+proc) at the microcenter in St. Davis, PA. One will be running a little NAS at the house here and another for mom's personal computer that will end up costing $240 to build ($35 case, $35 psu, $99 proc, $20 mobo, $35 ram). Not too shabby for a 3.1ghz 2+2 core sandy build.
 
Thanks zerodeefex for reviving this thread. I was able to pick up a combo for my wife's computer at the MC in Richardson, TX.

She's coming from my old Athlon 64 FX-51 to the i3 2100 paired with an SSD so the difference will be like night and day performance wise. :D

Definitely welcome! Building a new computer for my parents with this and will be up early tomorrow to pick up the processor by itself at fry's for $80 to upgrade my htpc!
 
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Which would be a great mATX mobo with the 2100? The biostar or Gigabyte or MSI
 
Look at the specs on these particular boards, the MSI board is quite a bit better than the Biostar if you don't care that it doesn't have DVI (d-sub only).
 
How is the 2100 better than the 2500K at gaming

the 2100 vs 2500K
2 core with HT 4 thread vs 4 core 4 thread
3.1 Ghz vs 3.3ghz with 3.7Ghz turbo
3mb vs 6mb turbo
HD graphics are slower with i3 than i5...

If you mean cheaper the 2100 is cheaper but how is it better?

Depends on the app/gaming mix.

If you're not a heavy multitasker and/or run mostly older applications/games, two cores may well be enough. Also, while some applications and games benefit from the larger cache, not all do - in some cases, the bogdown may well be elsewhere.

Normally, I would be looking at i3, not i5; however, i3's problem is that it's priced too close to i5 for its own good. The other issue (unique to MicroCenter) is that i3 is their cheapest LGA1155 CPU they have; unlike Newegg or other e-tailers they don't stock Pentium-G. The spread between i3-2100 and i5-2500K is $80 at MC; Gigabyte's GA-Z68MA-D2H-B3 is priced *within that gap* ($79.99 before MIR with the current deal) - basically, if you were looking at i3 due to cost issues before the deal, you can move to an unlocked i5, and spend no more. (The same is naturally true if you would rather get i7-K but were looking at i5 as a cost-cutting measure before the deal - it basically puts i7-K back into consideration.)

Even though the deal is on motherboards, not CPUs, it's almost a replay of MicroCenter's Q6600/Q9300/Q9550 deals of LGA775 days. While I still think that I3s will sell, I expect more folks will grab the opportunity to basically move up to i5-K for the i3 price (or i7-K for the i5-K price). Yeeks.
 
Didn't want to start a separate thread for this, but thought people with no access to a MC that wanted a SB type combo might be interested in a similar deal. Superbiiz has some decent deals once in a while when they have code discounts. Picked this up to replace an aging Pentium D S775 box.

Pentium G620 + MSI H61 -15% off ($15 MAX) code 'FIREWORKS' = ~$120 shipped, more (tax) if you're in CA.

It's the same core as the 2100 3MB cache, but some main differences are slower clock speed, no HT and lower onboard video (Intel HD vs. 2000). Surprisingly supports VT-x I believe.

Although NE pops deals once in a while, they usually lump it with crappy parts in a combo deal, otherwise the CPU by itself is normally $75+ there.

For comparison to a 2100: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/pentium-g850-g840-g620.html
 
Didn't want to start a separate thread for this, but thought people with no access to a MC that wanted a SB type combo might be interested in a similar deal. Superbiiz has some decent deals once in a while when they have code discounts. Picked this up to replace an aging Pentium D S775 box.

Pentium G620 + MSI H61 -15% off ($15 MAX) code 'FIREWORKS' = ~$120 shipped, more (tax) if you're in CA.

It's the same core as the 2100 3MB cache, but some main differences are slower clock speed, no HT and lower onboard video (Intel HD vs. 2000). Surprisingly supports VT-x I believe.

Although NE pops deals once in a while, they usually lump it with crappy parts in a combo deal, otherwise the CPU by itself is normally $75+ there.

For comparison to a 2100: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/pentium-g850-g840-g620.html

Is there a thread talking about this code in the regular HotDeals section I missed? Because this makes an i3 2100 by itself $101.99 with FS. Not bad.

Edit: Also, I would grab the Asrock H61M over the MSI for $5 more DVI, HDMI, more USB ports, and 8-pin CPU power.
 
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that link for the combo says the deal ends june 12 2011.

unless you guys got another email, which i also get, the deal is OVER!

anyways, im waiting for zotac to come out with a z68 mini itx board, i believe they'll be on sale starting in july.
anyone think its worth it for a z68 mobo m-itx to be over $150 (current zotac p67 m-itx is $150)?
 
Is there a thread talking about this code in the regular HotDeals section I missed? Because this makes an i3 2100 by itself $101.99 with FS. Not bad.

I didn't see one, but I've been keeping an eye on Superbiiz since I wanted to pick up a SB setup on the cheap. They usually have codes every once in a while but they're generally $5 off or 10% with $10 max. With the code, the 2100 comes close to $99 bare CPU MC price.

Yeah, I missed the Asrock one, definitely a better buy for $5 more.

that link for the combo says the deal ends june 12 2011.
unless you guys got another email, which i also get, the deal is OVER!

Yeah the main OP deal is over, but a few posts above the mention they brought it back at Microcenter. A tad more pricier but still reasonable - it comes to $99 for the 2100 + $19.99 for the mobo + tax. Just add this MSI H61 to your cart and then the 2100, and it auto adjusts the prices.
 
They just sent me an email with $40 off Intels and AMDs so its still on.

Funny thing was I took the x2 560 BE + free mobo buy and when I returned my defective ASUS, I went to get a replacement and walked past a whole wall of open boxed asuses and promptly decided to grab a Biostar which has worked wonderfully. Easily overclocked my processor by 10% to match the i3 in non-hyper thread.

Funny thing about companies that focus on doing cheap mass production boards is that they tend to work out of the box a little more for me. :\

Anyway, if you are in KC, they got 7 i3 2100's in finally after about 2 weeks of out of stock so get then while you can.
 
They have it again with a Gigabyte board for $125 looks like a really sweet board.
 
thoughts on which boards are wroth picking up for a 2100 and a 2500k? no sli needed, but PCI-E ports are always good for HD raid controllers.

^ aka: i'm too tired to really look into all these boards tonight and im wondering for what other people have bought/would buy.
 
For the 2100 and the money it's a fantastic board...

GA-H61M-D2P-B3 LGA 1155 H61
2- 16x PCI-e athlough only one is really 16x since the i3 or i5's only support 20 lanes
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0359804

For the 2500K it's a little tougher there are a bunch of them

This one stands out b/c it's cheap and a z68
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0364087

However I like the biostar for 60 bucks a P68 for the 2500k with a seperate video of course.
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0356578

The other boards are better but I don't think they are twice as good.
I'm sure some fanboy is going to recommend a ASSus crud OR assROCKed for twice to 4x the money.

Let me beat them to it...
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0358056
this board rocks and is by far better. :rolleyes:

Also when your shopping for an ASUS board don't forget to check for open box specials those are the ones that are returned by other customers due to some sort of defect. Thats another advantage to buying asus, usually gigabyte and MSI board are not returned so you don't get those deep "deals".
 
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