Clarkdale i3 540 vs Sandy Bridge Pentium/i3

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rishiswaz

rishiswaz

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Mar 10, 2012
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I recently built a budget gaming PC based on advice from here so I am back again. My friend saw my computer and liked it, now he has given me $650(USD) to build him one (not including OS). He is hellbent on having an Intel processor and he wants to but doesn't need to overclock it. I have OCed a Clarkdale 540 before from its stock to 3.9 stable not pushing it too much so I know it's performance on that front. But the problem comes down to: Should I stick with the 1rst gen i3 and push the budget on the graphics card, or should I take the newer processors and have a more tame GFX. Also I have no idea on if the 2nd gen i3/Pentiums can OC at all as far as I know there are none with the "k" suffix to denote unlocked. Any other builds 650 and below good for single monitor, moderate res, med-high settings gaming also welcome :D
 
Solution
deadjon
The Clarkdale i3s were undervalued and they were overshadowed by AMDs £100 Overclockable Quads on the 8xx platform (Which to be honest, was an AWESOME platform)

Whack a Hyper 212 on an i3 540, clock it to ~4Ghz and it will trounce the i3 2100

The unfortunate issue is that the P55 chipset is old and outdated. Its pretty much redundant and has no chance of upgrade past the i5 760.

Although you cant OC the i3 2100 and performance of the i3 540 when OC'd may seem better (benches, some games etc etc) you lose out on features on such a level that an extra 5 FPS will mean jack S**t.

Go for the i3 2100 and a Z68 Chipset (you can get good SLI/Xfire capable Gigabyte Z68s for ~£80)

I'll whack something together for you though...
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deadjon

deadjon

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Oct 21, 2009
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The Clarkdale i3s were undervalued and they were overshadowed by AMDs £100 Overclockable Quads on the 8xx platform (Which to be honest, was an AWESOME platform)

Whack a Hyper 212 on an i3 540, clock it to ~4Ghz and it will trounce the i3 2100

The unfortunate issue is that the P55 chipset is old and outdated. Its pretty much redundant and has no chance of upgrade past the i5 760.

Although you cant OC the i3 2100 and performance of the i3 540 when OC'd may seem better (benches, some games etc etc) you lose out on features on such a level that an extra 5 FPS will mean jack S**t.

Go for the i3 2100 and a Z68 Chipset (you can get good SLI/Xfire capable Gigabyte Z68s for ~£80)

I'll whack something together for you though.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147060 - Rosewill Challenger Case

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500190 - Zotac GTX560ti 1GB

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139028 - Corsair Builder Series 600W V2

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147096 - 8GB (2x2) SAMSUNG Green DDR3 1600Mhz (Best OCing RAM EVER, runs at DDR3 2400Mhz CL11 @1.45v)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188097 - EVGA Z68 SLI Mobo - (This Mobo was reduced from $209.99 to $149.99 and $109.99 with rebates o_O)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115077 - i3 2120 3.3Ghz

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145565 - Hitachi Deskstar 640GB Refurb

Grand Total - $645.93 - AFTER ALL MAIL IN REBATES.
 
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rishiswaz

rishiswaz

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Mar 10, 2012
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11,060

Yeah that is pretty close to the build I had set up; but I had a different hard drive in mind because there is already an extra 1TB 7200rpm SATA 3Gb/s drive so I was thinking some small SSD boot drive maybe put 2 small ones in RAID 0
 
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