Reasonable cpu now. upgrade to ib in future?

Yes, I would get either the i3-2100 and use your saved money for the i7-3770k, or get an i5-2500k and use the saved money on a higher end graphics card.

so the i3-2100 will run bf3 with reasonable f/s?

yes, i3 will not bottleneck any gpu.

any single gpu... if its just for gaming and you want to keep cost down the the 2100 will work well enough as a short term cpu...

If you're shopping from newegg they currently have the 2120 for 119.99 vs the 124.99 of the 2100. Might as well take the extra 200mhz as well as the savings.

unfortunately i live in au. so no newegg for me; have to shop pccasegear (as far as i know they're the best aussie site) thanks for all the help  . don't think 200mhz is worth the $15 extra it would cost me

I would pay $15 for the extra 200mhz on a CPU that you cant overclock -

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core-i3-21...

Id say theres an average of around 4fps increase over those benchmarks - thats $3.75 per 1fps  

Either way they are bloody brilliant little chips - I will always wonder what we could do with a K version - if there was one Intel wouldnt be able to manufacture enough of em, every single PC Enthusiast with half a mind for value would grab one - or 10 xD

Yeah the 2120 is pretty strong in that segment. There's a sub-200 cpu review here on Toms where they benchmark 8-10 different chips. Short of the i5-2400 (189.99) it pretty much destroyed everything else that was thrown at it including the 970 and 955BE. I feel for amd users when even the budget chips from Intel are dominating.

hello. wait and buy ivy bridge bcz they will have pci 3.0 and some new features then you will have a long term rig i have buyed i5 2500k 2 months later and i am fine with it bcz i am not upgrading for at least 4 years so when you buy ivy then you will be also safe for next 4 years main point is GPU dont compromise on it

and yes if u buy that board which suport ivy then u can buy a i3 2100 for it now but make sure they have support for high mhz of ram like 1600mhz or more and it must have usb 3.0,pci 3.0,sata 6 and optional sli or croosfire

I know - its sad isnt it  

The only hope AMD has is in its multi-threaded budget chips. Basically all AMD has right now are customers who know for Price/perfomance/longevity an 1100T overclocked to 4ghz + will be shown when games start using more than 4 threads, and those already understanding its outstanding value in the Highly Threaded Applications market (Cloud/VM/Video Encoding etc)

The Phenom Quads are impossible to recommend over an i3 2120
The Phenom Duals are simply impossible to recommend (The Sandy bridge pentiums thrash them and Dual cores without HT are becoming obselete)
The Athlon Quads no longer sport the rediculous Price/Perf ratio they used to
The Athlon Duals are pretty much doomed for gaming

The Triple cores dont make any sense to me.

And Bulldozer...no comment.

Fortunatly the APUs are bloody brilliant - I want one for windows 8, having a big touch screen TV/PC running windows 8 with Flawless Bluray playback would be VERY nice. Id even be able to plug an xbox controller in there and play some Racing games  

Poor AMD. I miss the Athlon 64 days. Good old Clawhammer.

Or just get a motherboard that supports ivybridge and has pci 3.0 support. For an example the gigabyte z68x-ud3h.

i went for the $199 MSI z68 (GD55?) (G3?) i think that's it. only one on my site clearly labeled with pcie 3.0 support. don't all z68 boards support ivy bridge? They won't support any architectures after Ivy Bridge will they?

Go with the i5 2500k and a 560 ti 1gb. that should handle Bf3 well.

temporary and cheap is what I'm after not lga1155's top of the line processor minus ht. why spend >$200 if it's purpose is to be replaced. I've been looking at the 2500k for a long time but have decided to wait so that i can get pcie 3.0 support for a relatively future proofed build

Get the i3, and a gigabyte z68x-ud3h.