IntelBoxed Core i3-6100 Processor FC-LGA14C 3.7 3 LGA 1155 BX80662I36100

Just completed 2 Mini ITX HTPC builds/rebuilds with these new Skylake chips. Wow! these units edge out the performance of my nearly 3 year old Ivy Bridge I7-3770S and I5-3570K builds for less than half the cost. Now and 3 years ago I used the best available Asrock ITX boards to enhance what I want in these units: feature rich power HTPC's that can run nearly silently with ultra low profile CPU fans without burning up. With the previous builds I had to use the motherboard's built in controls to slightly underclock the CPU's to get the thermal and quiet noise level patterns I wanted. Now I have used 2 new Fatal1ty Z170 Gaming-ITX/ac boards with thirteen buck Rosewill RCX-Z775-LP 80mm Sleeve Low Profile CPU Coolers that without underclocking run the new I3's quietly 10-15 Celsius lower than the old builds. Plus I now have HTPC's that have HDMI 2.0 ports that can run 4K video at 60Hz.I am not a gamer, so I also used the Fatal1ty Z170 Gaming-ITX/ac boards to get the new USB3.1 and C ports and upgraded Audio. I suspect that gamers on a budget could put the cash saved on this Skylake I3 into a good Graphics board and small SSD - and still have a rocking machine. Recommend: Don't skimp on the motherboard though.Update: 5/18/2016: Just saw some old comments/questions: Yes, I am using onboard graphics only. My HTPC enclosures are only about 8X8X2.5 inches. In these tiny boxes the older I7 & I5 Ivy Bridge temperatures ran up fan speeds and noise too much for my tastes while watching video, so I artificially under clocked them in the bios to reduce the thermal profiles and quiet the fans to unnoticeable beyond 12-18 inches away from the units. The I3 Skylake builds run quietly as HTPC's without bios setting modifications. The only time fan speeds and noise increase are during maintenance tasks such as virus scans and OS update installs which run quickly with the I3's. But for my personal preference for snappy maintenance, the G4400 or G4500 Skylake dual-cores might have worked well as HTPC's for me. I did build a totally silent HTPC using an Asrock Q1900DC-ITX board which includes an Intel Quad-Core Processor J1900 with fanless heat sink and built in DC/DC power for cheap. It runs well as a HTPC, but it's pokey running maintenance tasks, so like the I3's better

I gotta say, I didn't think a $120ish i3 would impress me. I got it because I wanted to build a computer without breaking the bank, and reviews were kind to this little chip. Well, for like 95% of purposes, it not only does the job, but it does it WELL. Once I got my system built, I decided to stress-test it by doing things like video encoding, moving files, Excel calculations from last year's Quant class (at my college, quantitative chemical analysis is a very Excel-heavy course) and some gaming. Well, obviously with more highly threaded tasks, you're going to get more performance out of four physical cores (like an i5) and even more out of four physical cores with hyper-threading (like an i7), and it did reach mid 90's in terms of CPU utilization during the video encoding task. That said, the stock fan still managed to keep it cool during that task, which is nice. With everything else, it felt very quick- at no point did it feel like I was experiencing slowdown or anything. The only time it started to slow down a bit was when I was multitasking, with several downloads running simultaneously, plus moving files between drives and streaming music via Spotify. And surprisingly, it could run older games very well, even running newer games at low settings, but 1080p and playable framerates. But if you want to enable more graphical bells and whistles, my recommendation would be to get a discrete GPU, as the integrated graphics are respectable in comparison to older generations of Intel IGPs, but nothing special at all in the overall scheme of things.

The i3-6100 is a powerful little dual core processor with hyper-threading that allows it to compete and surpass most similarly priced quad-core processors. It uses the 1151 socket which allows for easy upgrade into something even more powerful in the future.I used this as the core of my intel based computer for Video Gaming and rendering 3D models and video in Blender. I paired it with a GTX 960 video card and this duo has handled everything I've thrown at it without breaking a sweat. It runs Fallout 4 on ultra and has had absolutely no problem with No Man's Sky.The stock cooler was a breeze to install and has kept the processor nice and cool. The pre-applied thermal paste on the heatsink has been more than adequate thus far (though I'll probably clean it off and apply some Arctic Silver later just for my own peace of mind).While there are certainly more powerful processors on the market today, the i3-6100 is definitely the best on offer in its price range at this moment. It also has the benefit of allowing you the flexibility of upgrading to a much more powerful processor in the future.All of my previous builds have been AMD based and this little guy is certainly making me question my allegiance.It was relatively inexpensive, powerful, and the 1151 socket will let me upgrade to something much more powerful in the future should I so desire. Definitely happy with this purchase.