Is there an Intel price/performance equivalent to the AMD 960t?

[justash420]

I currently have the 960t in my build(Newegg shopping cart), and I'm afraid I may be limited in the future when it coms to upgrading my CPU. From what I hear, AMD is the sweet spot for budget builds, while Intel is the way to go for enthusiast builds. I'm sure I will be happy with the 960t, but I really want to end up with the i5 2500k. So if I choose the 960t right now, then in the future I will have to upgrade CPU and mobo at the same time. But if I can find maybe an i3 right now and upgrade to the i5 2500k, I can keep the same mobo. So I'm lookng for something with similar performance when it comes to games. I would prefer it to be in the same price range and also to be overclockable. The 2nd part isn't a must if I end up with the 2500k anyway. It needs to be a LGA1155 socket as well.

Thank you

 

[016ive]

the i3 2100 is good at games but it's locked multiplier is the problem for you i guess
when do you plan to upgrade? you know by the time you want to upgrade there will be new tech available and the 2500k won't be the gamers sweet spot anymore

 

[iam2thecrowe]

^+1, the i3 21xx series are good for gaming, better in many cases than even an overclocked 960t. You also have good upgradeability to i5/i7 in the future, where AMD has no real upgrade, only a downgrade to a crappy FX cpu. http://www.anandtech.com/show/4083/the-sandy-bridge-review-intel-core-i7-2600k-i5-2500k-core-i3-2100-tested/20 read some reviews, the i3 2100 outperforms higher clocked and even 6 core AMD cpu's in most games, even ones that are multithreaded.