Upgrade To Sandy Bridge CPU And Motherboard At 200$ Budget.

djabhi003

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I Am upgrading from a core 2 duo E4500, i have a budget of tight 200$(+~40$). I am from india and the budget is converted from indian rupees into dollars, so no newegg deals for me. i already have:-

Ram: 4gb stick of corsair ddr3 1333 mhz
PSU: Corsair GS600 600W 80+ Certified
Gpu: ATi 6750
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 1 TB 7200.12
Cd/Dvd: Sony With Bluray Support
Display: Acer 15.6 At 1280 x 1024

I want a motherboard and sandy bridge cpu for an exact 200 - 240$, store price. i am not looking to overclock,require only 2 DIMM slots, have interest in crossfire(but if no motherboards with 2 pci-e slots are available for this budget, then its fine).
i have no idea on the motherboard , but for the cpu i was looking at the i3-2100 and i5-2300. the i3 is well within my budget, haven't checked the local price of the i5 yet.

Edit: Budget Is Between 200 And 240$ Exact. Thats the best i could scramble together. Purchase within 2 weeks
 
Solution
The Intel® Core™ i5-2500K is a great processor but it isnt a must have processor. With your budget the Intel Core i3-2100 or the Intel Core i5-2400 is really where I would be focusing on. The Intel Core i3-2100 is a good processor that should work well for you as you go to college. So unless you are looking for a world class gaming machine or high end audio/video work you should be happy with a Intel Core i3-2100, H61/H67 board and 4GB of DDR 3 memory and that should be right at your budget.

Christian Wood
Intel Enthusiast Team
i3-2100 and H61/H67 motherboard. H61 starts at $60 and goes up to about $80. H67 start at about $70 and go to about $100.

I'd recommend Asus, Asrock, Gigabyte and MSI.

Your not going to find a crossfire motherboard for under $75. I've seen one H61 with 2 pci-e for $79 after rebate (newegg) but it's only 16x/4x
 

djabhi003

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Its ok, lets leave the 2 pci-e slot requirement. i think single slot solutions are a lot better than dual.

now with the i3, it has two cores with 4 threads. wouldn 4 real cores make a difference? i mean, specially with games which use 4 cores are going to be released a lot in the coming times.
also, i am looking to upgrade my display within the next 6 months to a 1600x900, so will get a better card then as well, however will the 4 real cores be an advantage at that resolution?

now about the motherboard, i think i would get an h67 mobo, it supports SSD's right? and also has upgrade options to ivy bridge? usb 3.0?
 
Of course 4 cores would be better than 2, LOL, but a 4 core Sandy Bridge is not in your budget....did you already forget your budget of $200??

The cheapest 4 core is $185 and it's only 2.8ghz, so I wouldn't recommend that one.

If I were you I'd upgrade the monitor first, then worry about a new system. H61/H67 supports ssd's, usb 3.0 and Ivy Bridge, depending on which model you get though. Not all of them support sata6 or usb3.
 

djabhi003

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Ok. thanks. i didnt know the price of the lowest i5, thats why.
will look at a good model and get.

Edit: i could borrow another 40$ from a friend, could i get the i5-2300 then? how much of a performance difference is there between i3-2100 and i5-2300. i am heading to college in a few weeks and have to upgrade it befor that.
 
I would only recommend getting the i5-2400/2500, the i5-2300 has too low a clock speed to recommend.

There's a big performance difference between i3-2100 and i5-2300, because the i3 has 2 less cores. But it does have hyperthreading. The i5 does not. But then again the i5 has turbo and the i3 does not.
 

djabhi003

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Let me check the price of the i5-2300, and 2400 tmrw. will post here, the 2500K is way off my budget and i would need a p67/z68 mobo for that. plus, i really don't have no need for such processing power. i just play games, that too a low res, do some compression, video conversion, audio editing and mixing etc.
 
The Intel® Core™ i5-2500K is a great processor but it isnt a must have processor. With your budget the Intel Core i3-2100 or the Intel Core i5-2400 is really where I would be focusing on. The Intel Core i3-2100 is a good processor that should work well for you as you go to college. So unless you are looking for a world class gaming machine or high end audio/video work you should be happy with a Intel Core i3-2100, H61/H67 board and 4GB of DDR 3 memory and that should be right at your budget.

Christian Wood
Intel Enthusiast Team
 
Solution

jadedmonkey

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here is easy comparison chart of the sandy bridge cpus
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4083/the-sandy-bridge-review-intel-core-i7-2600k-i5-2500k-core-i3-2100-tested/2
The most powerful dual core is the i3-2120 for $139
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115077
The cheapest quad core is the i5-2300 for $177
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115076

a difference of $37 for 2 more physical cores is totally worth it to me. Someone else said something like 'the clock speeds of the i5-2300 are too slow'. I imagine that person is comparing the i3-2120 stock speed of 3.3Ghz to the i5-2300 stock clock of 2.8Ghz, totally forgetting about the fact that the i5 has turbo boost that allows max boost of 3.1Ghz, and even with h67 chipset you still get "limited overclocking" which will allow up to four bins over stock speeds, yielding a 3.4Ghz turbo mode
 

008Rohit

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@ OP

I've bought i3 2100 plus a Intel DH61WW board a month and half ago.
I was impressed by the performance of the i3. However, the MoBo died after 15 days and I've RMA'ed it back to Intel. So, beware of intel products. There were lots of complains that some Intel Motherboards which were made in China are defective. Like, they'll show you false temp. for your processor, or stop working once.
I recommend a Gigabyte/Asus H61 Motherboard. ASRock has one with USB 3.0 and SATA 6.0GB/s support.
 

djabhi003

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@Delroymonjo:
The i3-2100 price here is Rs.5,500 = 110$
Intel DH61WW Price Is 3,500 = 70$
Total 180$ With 20$ Left. Which is well within my budget. however, i would spend the extra 20$ to get a better motherboard.
 

djabhi003

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Ok, so talked with the shop dealers today and the i5-2400 is a lot off my budget. However, i can get,
i5-2310 For Rs.9600 = 192$
Asus P8H61-M LX PLUS For Rs.2500 = 50$

Total Rs.12,100 = 242$.

However, The i3-2100 = Rs 5,500 = 110$
Intel DH67BL = Rs 4000 = 80$
Which Spares me 30$! (From 240$)

A Better Motherboard With SSD Support, Or a better processor for future proofness???? HELPPP!!!
 
I have the Asrock H61m-vs, and it's a great board, but beware, it does NOT have usb3 or sata6.

If you need these I would suggest a Asrock or Asus H61/H67 that does have these features.

I think you should just go with the i3-2100, it fit's your budget and you can upgrade to Ivy Bridge next year.
 

djabhi003

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i am also thinking of getting the asus p8h61 and i3-2100. Which would mean i would not have to borrow any money. plus, i really don't have stuff that use usb 3.0 yet, neither do i have an ssd now(was planning to buy one, but you could get another 1 tb 7200 rpm for the same :D)
 


I agree with GeekApproved on this. You are heading off to college which is going to throw all kinds of unexpected things at you better to stay within your budget now and leave yourself room to upgrade in the future.

Christian Wood
Intel Enthusiast Team