Is a 1st Gen Intel Core i3 still good enough for HTPC use?

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bingaloman

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I found some 1st Gen Core i3's for cheap and was wondering if they are still fast and efficient enough for HTPC uses?

Such as watching movies and streaming movies online etc stuff like that.

Would 1st Gen be able to handle all of that without issues?


Thanks!
 
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inzone
Good choice, you'll be able to do a lot with that CPU , match it with an inexpensive video card and you'll be able to do some moderate gaming along with the streaming and web surfing. The Intel HD 2500 graphics that is on chip will do very well with movies and light gaming, you won't be sorry with that selection.

Good luck.
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bingaloman

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Yeah, I plan to just use it for watching movies and probably web browsing, no gaming, and I am planning on using the Intel graphics on it with no video card.

How does it compare to a sandy bridge CPU? Is is alot slower?
 
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bingaloman

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I considered that but eveywhere I look it's at least $100 still and the first gen i3 is like $50 and so is the Celeron
 
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inzone

inzone

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Well you know what they say, you get what you pay for and there's a reason for the prices to be low on first gen and Celeron CPUs and that is performance compared to other generation componenets.
I can understand why you are trying to go with inexpensive parts if your budget is low, not everyone has the money to buy current high performing parts. The thing you want to be careful with is that by going with these components the supply is not going to be as good as newer parts.
By going with the G540 your looking for a 1155 socket motherboard which you should have no trouble finding.
The other thing is the intergrated graphics on the Celeron may not be that good and you may end up having to buy a video card which you can do at any time.
 
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bingaloman

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Oh ok understood, so do you think I should maybe just get an AMD A6 5400K CPU? , or should I try to find a cheap AMD A10 5800K? I ask because I know AMD is usually the cheaper side of things
 
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bingaloman

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Ah I figured whatever, if I'm gonna spend my money, might as well buy something I know is good. I went ahead and bought an Intel Core i3-3220 for $100 lol.

Thanks for all the help to both!
 
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Vacka

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A 1st gen intel is an amazing cpu for the money typically the i3-540 which is in my home pc. You can even play games like league of legends and minecraft on it( light gaming )The 540 also features hyper-threading allowing windows to see it as a quad core and it is clocked at 3.07ghz which is amazing for the price. Definitely go with the i3-540.
 
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inzone

inzone

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Good choice, you'll be able to do a lot with that CPU , match it with an inexpensive video card and you'll be able to do some moderate gaming along with the streaming and web surfing. The Intel HD 2500 graphics that is on chip will do very well with movies and light gaming, you won't be sorry with that selection.

Good luck.
 
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pell380

pell380

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my friend has 1st gen core i3 530 which is 2.9ghz with 6gb ram and 9800gtx 1gb
his pc run's very smooth and he is able to play games on 1080p ""but not on ultra"" with lowering the graphics he get some good fps
 
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