i3 for Me
by George Posted on: 5/11/2023
Build Description
This build was 100% motivated by a random impulse purchase at my local Microcenter. I noticed that the newest gen from Intel (13th gen) now had an i3 quad core (4 cores, 8 threads) available and the price at Microcenter was only $99. I decided to grab it and see how much it would bottleneck an older RX 5600 XT that I had going unused. Turns out, the answer is "not at all!"
Favorite Feature
The perfomance of the Intel i3 1300 cpu is actually better than I had hoped. In most benchmarks I've run, it performs very closely to the Intel i5 11600k, but with significantly less power draw and heat production. Intel also (finally!) updated their stock cooler with this line, so that cooler included with the retail purchase is also getting some good use. I like how the new intel cooler is all black to match most of my other components.
Intel Core i3-13100 Raptor Lake 3.4GHz Quad-Core LGA 1700 Boxed Processor - Heat Sink Included
Qty: 1
$99.99
MSI B660M-A Pro WiFi DDR4 Intel LGA 1700 microATX Motherboard
Qty: 1
$149.99
MSI RX 5600 XT 6GB
Qty: 1
$149.99
G.Skill Ripjaws V 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 PC4-25600 CL16 Dual Channel Desktop Memory Kit F4-3200C16D-16GVKB - Black
Qty: 1
$43.99
Thermaltake Versa H18 Tempered Glass microATX Mini-Tower Computer Case - Black
Qty: 1
$49.99
Evga GQ 650 W
Qty: 1
$49.99
Intel stock cooler
Qty: 1
$0.00
Inland Professional 1TB SSD 3D NAND SATA 3.0 6 GBps 2.5 Inch 7mm Internal Solid State Drive
Qty: 1
$49.99