Intel Core i3-10100

DISCLAIMER: This review covers 3 main items (CPU, MOBO, RAM). Links to the other parts are included (all available at Amazon for good prices). You'll read this review on each of the other parts as well. WHY DID I BUY IT? I recently built and absolute beast of a computer and kept my older one as a backup. Unfortunately, it decided to take a dive this past week with the motherboard failing catastropically. Given that it was 10 years old, I decided to replace the "brains" with something a little more modern, but not overkill. Because I had spent a LOT of money on a computer recently, I was trying to keep the repair under about $400 and here's what I did... The BRAINS... Intel i3-10100 Processor ($100): www.amazon.com/gp/product/B086MMRW87 MSI Mag B460 Motherboard ($110): www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08GXVP1DM TeamGroup 16GB DDR4 ($60): www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07WNQVBZ6 *** These are the main parts that MUST be compatible.. and they are *** I was worried about my hard drive, so I went ahead and splurged on a TeamGroup 1TB SSD ($75 -- www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PX2KKHM) bringing my total to just under $400. I could have kept my old Seagate 500gb 5400 RPM drive but I had a little extra to spend and that greatly sped up boot and wait times. For what it's worth, I also kept my existing Antec Power Supply (550W) that was replaced about a year ago, my case, and my now very old graphics card (R9 380 - 4gb). I already had a good monitor, mouse, and keyboard so those carried over as well. So how did it go together? Pretty seamlessly with just 2 little hiccups. HICCUP #1 RAM: I did not realize the motherboard I purchased has a standard RAM speed of 2666. It can get up to a max of 2933. So the RAM I purchased (3200 speed, CL 16) is overkill and I could have saved another $20 or so. But, I didn't... and it's my first build with TeamGroup RAM and I'm happy with it. HICCUP #2 LAN/AUDIO: Once I got everything installed, the LAN would not connect to my network (wired, ethernet connection). A little troubleshooting found out YOU MUST TO UPGRADE THE LAN DRIVER for it to work. This means having another computer with internet and a flash drive. Likewise, I went ahead and updated the Audio driver and the sound was much crisper. So... take a moment and download all of the drivers in advance from the MSI website. FIRST POWER ON: The computer started up, then turned off immediately. It then restarted on it's own and said the motherboard had detected changes so I needed to configure the BIOS. Entering BIOS found that everything was recognized. So I changed the first boot device to USB flash drive and plugged in my Windows 10 install flash drive and restarted. Bottom Line: The Intel i3-10100 is a great little chip (not overclockable). The MSI 460 Torpedo is a decent motherboard (just update the LAN and Audio drivers) that boots quickly. In fact, it boots so quickly, I don't even see the POST screen. From cold to Windows is easily under 30 seconds. The RAM is stable at 2666 and fast enough that I probably won't even push the 2933 setting. The SSD is very fast (functionally almost as fast as the M2 drive I have in my beast at a savings of $20-25). Even with the aging R9 graphics card, I'm easily hitting 60 FPS on modern titles at 1080 in medium to high settings. Sometime next year when graphics card prices drop to a reasonable level, I'll update that and have a second gaming rig ready. Overall, I'm very happy with this setup.

Big Orange Wookie · 2020-12-02 · via amazon

Built a computer for the relative as a very early Christmas gift or a reverse birthday gift (my birthday, but I give you gifts), who honestly would probably be doing very little with it to justify a 4 core/8 thread current generation processor if it's web browsing, video conferencing, YouTube for music and the general emailing stuff. I put an RX 580 in it as well as 2x8GB 2666 DDR4 RAM and 2 500GB HDDs. I would definitely say the thing itself is quite the "sleeper"! It's gonna run your games at console and above performance with a simpler GPU at lower settings, and it'll destroy on a much more advanced GPU. It's a good email/web/very light gaming/YouTube browser alone thanks to this particular CPU's integrated GPU, turning it into an APU (Accelerated Processing Unit). It's not a workstation processor due to its four core and eight thread composition. It can take in eight tasks and work on them, but it can only digest four at a time. If you're looking for a desktop PC and know how to or someone who does know how to build it, This is all you need and more. If you're into gaming on a console but want to try it on a computer and have a sub $1000 budget, get this and do some research before building, spend a few weeks on PC building knowledge. I recommend if buying this a B460 Motherboard, 2x8GB RAM sticks, a new HDD/SSD/M.2 PCIe SSD of at least 1TB/500GB/500GB, HDD is slow but cheap, lasts a good few years without fail and large in storage, SSD is fast and usually lasts long with less storage space (do not buy DRAM-less SSDs, lack of SSD RAM will damage the drive much faster), M.2 PCIe SSD is very fast but most expensive, no SATA cables needed but does disable one SATA port on most motherboards due to it sharing the same data lane. If you want a workstation, try either Intel's Core i7 or i9 Series, or AMD's Ryzen 7 or Ryzen 9 Series processors.

Anonymous · 2020-12-16 · via amazon

Processor worked great

Roger Amoroso · 2026-02-07 · via amazon

Believe it or not this entry level 10100 is only 13% off from their flagship CPU the 10:900. For just over $120 this thing is absolutely a screamer. Hyper threading in this series has made a huge difference in my opinion. This thing seems to be holding performance with my 9600k, at least till I overclock it. I bought it for now since the other new intel's were to expensive or not available now. I use it with the new MSFS 2020 & am getting good FPS with 4K at High settings, amazing & with a GTX 1070 ! Idles at 28 degrees c and never goes above 40 degrees c under load with a 240mm AIO. Definitely the best deal in the lineup !

Bill McDonald · 2020-08-03 · via amazon

Works good.would recomend pairing it with somthing like a 1050ti

John Little · 2022-01-27 · via amazon

Best Buy

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MSI

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Newegg

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Newegg (Open Box)

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VALUE SCORE

FUTURE-PROOFING

Cores

4C/undefinedT

Boost

4.2GHz

Socket

LGA1151

TDP

65W

Cores

6C/12T

Boost

4.2GHz

Socket

AM4

TDP

65W