Is the i3 2100 worth it?

[mitchgixer6]

Hi all,

So I'm nearly finished my new build, just need a CPU and RAM now to finish it off. Will mainly be using it for day to day stuff, office, web etc but with the occasional gaming too. I'm not much of a gamer but my son has all of a sudden discovered Crysis so it might have to run some relatively new games. Current spec as follows -:

Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3
1Tb Samsung F3
Samsung DVD RW
XFX 1Gb 5770
Coolermaster Haf 912 plus case
Coolermaster GX-750 PSU

So the question is, would the i3 2100 be good enough for this rig? I must say that I will also be doing some HD video encoding/editing too as the wife has recently bought an HD camcorder. Am I better off getting an older Pentium model and overclocking?

To be honest the i3 2100 is pretty much at the top of my budget. Would love to drop in an i5 2500k but fear this would be too much in terms of £.

Thanks guys

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I have one with an HD5850 1GB and it will be fine for most uses. Regarding video encoding,there is Quick Sync but the image quality is poorer than HandBrake.

If you are using HandBrake this table will give you a rough indication of its speed relative to other CPUs:

http://forums.hexus.net/pc-hardware/...ml#post2097828

What video encoding software do you use??

Edit!!

I think you went overboard with the PSU IMHO. A decent 500W PSU would have been around £50 and you could have put the money towards the CPU. On top of this the current PSU is going to be quite inefficient at such a low load.

Are you intending to overclock?? If not a cheaper motherboard and cheaper PSU would have meant you could have got a Core i5. The Core i3 2100 cannot be overclocked. Only K series processors can and you can alter Turbo Boost on Core i5 and Core i7 non-K series processors.

[mitchgixer6]

Hi Cat,

Not got any encoding software yet, need to get the build finished first. What do you suggest? Really just looking to burn our home movies (no laughing at the back!) onto DVD for prosperity.

I didn't choose the PSU tbh, I bought it along with the case and GPU on eBay that was an unfinished build. As for the mobo i wanted to get a board that could allow overclocking in the future once the price of the sandybridge cup's came down a bit. Hopefully I'll be able to afford that 2500k next year at some point. Plus I wanted a USB 3.0 header as well.

Do you think it's be worth selling my PSU and downgrading? Wouldn't have thought I'd come away with much profit though that's the only thing.

[kalniel]

The i3 2100 is a good gaming chip, and quicksync encoding is very fast with very little quality degradation (compared to other GPU encoded methods at least). You will eventually be limited, but it's a good match for the rest of your components.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Hi Cat,

Not got any encoding software yet, need to get the build finished first. What do you suggest? Really just looking to burn our home movies (no laughing at the back!) onto DVD for prosperity.

I didn't choose the PSU tbh, I bought it along with the case and GPU on eBay that was an unfinished build. As for the mobo i wanted to get a board that could allow overclocking in the future once the price of the sandybridge cup's came down a bit. Hopefully I'll be able to afford that 2500k next year at some point. Plus I wanted a USB 3.0 header as well.

Do you think it's be worth selling my PSU and downgrading? Wouldn't have thought I'd come away with much profit though that's the only thing.

I was assuming you paid full retail price from a retailer but if you got it for a decent discount then stick with what you have. If it was from a retailer I would probably adviced you to return it under DSR and exchange it for a smaller wattage PSU.

I was asking about the software as an i3 2100 does quite well in Sony Vegas 10 but you need to buy it:

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1501/15/

You can download a free trail:

http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/...rials/vegaspro

Version 11 costs around £34 from Amazon:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0051M6I9...SIN=B0051M6I9O

HandBrake is more an encoding only software.

However,HandBrake is free unlike Quick Sync enabled software which is not free. Quick Sync is similar in quality to AMD GPU assisted encodes but much faster. OTH, I still prefer CPU encodes due to their better quality and if I need to leave longer its not such an issue for me ATM.

The Core i3 2100 also does well in Windows Movie Maker:

http://techreport.com/articles.x/20188/13

This is free and it would be a good start.

When it comes to gaming,the Core i3 2100 is a decent CPU. Like I said I have one with a HD5850 1GB.

[mitchgixer6]

Thanks guys, very informative info there.

I'd seen the Sony software on Amazon for cheap, so yeah I think I'll probably go down that route. The camcorder records as AVCHD which I know can be a bit of a pain for some programmes, but I think Vegas handles it OK.

Really looking forward to getting my build finished now! Just need to scrape the £ together. God damn that increase in the $!!