Is the BCLK OC on LGA 1155 a good investment?
Is the BCLK OC on LGA 1155 a good investment?
You're planning to set up a budget system for your parents and have already purchased an i3 2100 and a 2x2 kit with 1600mhz CL9 RAM for $15. You're considering whether to use 70 series motherboards for the BIOS OC setting. The i3's IO is linked to the base clock, which limits OC options, but the exact range isn't clear. A 110 base clock should be feasible, though a 103 OC is available at a lower price but offers minimal performance gains.
you should anticipate a range from 101-105mhz for daily use, definitely not exceeding 106mhz. I wouldn't recommend it since it causes performance issues—data corruption or strange behavior might happen. It's better to invest in a faster motherboard than risk a slow dual-core setup from 2011 with just 4GB RAM (hope you have an SSD). Think about getting a better board for your i3 2100 if you want real gains, like a 31x multiplier. That would push clockspeed to around 3162mhz or more, but even then it's pushing limits. For daily stability, it's not worth the hassle. I only heard about this while trying to boost my 2500k clock speed for better benchmark results.
Oh believe me, coming from an e6600 pentium, this i3 is a godsent. Also I'm looking forward to expand to 8gb, but 4gb is enough to get it running.