Need help picking budget CPU for OCing

Panzerknacker · Jul 14, 2012

Hello dear OCF members, been a while since I last came here, lost my interest in computers and stuff, but now something's got me back.

I'm looking to build a nice small and cheap mini-Itx based system for office stuff, internet, you know the deal. I already decided to go with Intel because socket 1155 mini-Itx boards are widely available, on the AMD side there are only way too expensive AM3 boards.

The problem I'm running into now is deciding on the CPU, I was looking at the Celeron G530 which seems very nice performance for the money, but then I heard that it cannot be OC'ed.

I just decided that I really want something with some nice OC potential, just for the fun of playing around with it, maxing it out, you know. So my question is, what is the cheapest CPU I can buy that will OC as good as possible? And will it matter what kinda mobo and ram I use?

Archer0915 · Jul 14, 2012

Panzerknacker said:
Hello dear OCF members, been a while since I last came here, lost my interest in computers and stuff, but now something's got me back.

I'm looking to build a nice small and cheap mini-Itx based system for office stuff, internet, you know the deal. I already decided to go with Intel because socket 1155 mini-Itx boards are widely available, on the AMD side there are only way too expensive AM3 boards.

The problem I'm running into now is deciding on the CPU, I was looking at the Celeron G530 which seems very nice performance for the money, but then I heard that it cannot be OC'ed.

I just decided that I really want something with some nice OC potential, just for the fun of playing around with it, maxing it out, you know. So my question is, what is the cheapest CPU I can buy that will OC as good as possible? And will it matter what kinda mobo and ram I use?

At the moment 2500K unless you want to go back to 1156. The dual i5 6xx series were very fun.

Knufire · Jul 14, 2012

Panzerknacker said:
Hello dear OCF members, been a while since I last came here, lost my interest in computers and stuff, but now something's got me back.

I'm looking to build a nice small and cheap mini-Itx based system for office stuff, internet, you know the deal. I already decided to go with Intel because socket 1155 mini-Itx boards are widely available, on the AMD side there are only way too expensive AM3 boards.

The problem I'm running into now is deciding on the CPU, I was looking at the Celeron G530 which seems very nice performance for the money, but then I heard that it cannot be OC'ed.

I just decided that I really want something with some nice OC potential, just for the fun of playing around with it, maxing it out, you know. So my question is, what is the cheapest CPU I can buy that will OC as good as possible? And will it matter what kinda mobo and ram I use?

Have you looked at the AMD APUs? They use the FM1 socket. Should be cheap miniITX boards aplenty. All APUs can OC via FSB, but there are two with unlocked multipliers as well for added fun.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157273

Panzerknacker · Jul 14, 2012

Thanks for the replies so far. A 2500k would be awesome but it's seriously out of my budget, 1156 is not an option since there are no mini-itx boards for it.

As for the APU's, they're quite expensive for what they offer in raw cpu power, I really don't care about the graphics capabilities.

I'm really just looking for something cheap, say below $100, but with decent OC potential in terms of %, I don't mean that it needs to outperform the latest i7 after OC lmao

Janus67 · Jul 14, 2012

Unfortunately the newest Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge processors are only overclockable via the -k series processors (2500k/2600k/3570k/3770k are the mainstream ones), lowest around $200. Other than that you can get a cheaper one but it will only be mildly overclockable via Bclk adjustment (generally possible to raise from around 100[stock] to maybe 105, so not much of an increase (couple hundred mhz maybe while at the same time running everything else higher). I would say you need to look into an APU as well for the price level you are looking at, or look at an older system.

Panzerknacker · Jul 15, 2012

hmm sucks to hear that, no way to unlock these darn sandy bridges? Kinda takes the reward away from OCing if you need to buy a $200 cpu to start with. Been looking at AMD but according to almost all benchmarks they fall so far behind that it's not even worth looking at. For example a dual core Celeron G530 at $40 will outperform a quadcore Athlon II X4 651 at $80 at stock speeds. You can argue about the double amount of cores but you only need 1 to start Firefox so the Cely will prolly feel quicker in everyday use.

Or am I completely wrong here?

Knufire · Jul 15, 2012

No, you're right.

Panzerknacker · Jul 15, 2012

Alright then, I will wait a while with buying, maybe the future will bring cheap OC'able hardware

I just don't need a monster CPU but I'm not buying something that can't be OC'd, it's against my principle.

Knufire · Jul 15, 2012

Hope that Haswell (Q2 2013) can be OCed by FSB. That's the next Intel series, AMD isn't catching up in straight CPU power any time (their advantage is intergrated graphics right now).

Need help picking budget CPU for OCing

Panzerknacker

Disabled

Archer0915

"The Expert"

Knufire

Senior Member

Panzerknacker

Disabled

Janus67

Benching Team Leader

Panzerknacker

Disabled

Knufire

Senior Member

Panzerknacker

Disabled

Knufire

Senior Member

Similar threads