Intel Core i3 10105F 4-core LGA 1200

The Core i3-10105F is a budget champion when priced right, delivering 4.4GHz boost clocks and solid single-thread performance for under $100. It needs a discrete GPU since there's no integrated graphics, and the locked multiplier means no overclocking. Shop carefully, prices swing from $60 to $187 in the US, and only the low end makes sense. For budget 1080p gaming builds, this chip is an easy recommendation.

The PassMark numbers tell the story pretty clearly. You're looking at 8860 multi-thread and 2643 single-thread. That single-thread score is the one that matters most for everyday responsiveness and gaming, and it's strong for this price bracket. The 4.4GHz boost clock is doing real work there. In our database, single-thread performance sits in the 75th percentile, which translates to well above average for the category.

The multi-thread score is more of a mixed bag. 8860 puts it right around the 60th percentile, so it's solid but not spectacular. With 4 cores and 8 threads, you'll be fine for gaming, web browsing, office work, and light content creation. But if you're doing heavy video editing or 3D rendering, those 4 cores will start to feel limiting. The 6MB of L3 cache is adequate but not generous. For a budget chip, the performance profile is exactly what you'd hope for: fast enough where it counts, honest about where it doesn't.

The Ryzen 5 9600X is the obvious modern alternative, but it's in a completely different price class. You'd buy the 9600X for a new AM5 build with DDR5 and PCIe 5.0. The 10105F is for squeezing life out of an LGA 1200 board you already own or picking up cheap. Different tools for different jobs. The 9600X will crush it in every benchmark, but it costs several times more.

Against older Xeons like the E5-2637 V2, the 10105F actually holds up well in single-threaded tasks thanks to that 4.4GHz boost. The Xeon might win in multi-threaded workloads if you're looking at higher core count variants, but those old server chips need expensive ECC memory and workstation boards. For a simple desktop build, the i3 is the more practical choice. The Phenom II X6 is ancient history at this point, and the be quiet! Ryzen 3 Dark Rock Pro 5 is a cooler, not a CPU, so that's not really a fair fight.

Here's where things get interesting. US pricing on this chip ranges from $60 to $187 across four listings. That's a $127 spread, which is wild for the same processor. If you're paying anywhere near the top of that range, you're getting fleeced. At $60 to $90, this thing is an absolute steal. At $187, you should be looking at a Ryzen 5 or a newer i5 instead.

European buyers face an even bigger spread, EUR 99 to EUR 290 across eight listings. That's a EUR 191 gap. The lower end of that range is a genuinely good deal for a budget build. The upper end is someone hoping you won't check prices elsewhere. Our advice: shop around, check the used market, and don't pay more than the low end of these ranges. The whole appeal of this chip is that it's cheap.

The Core i3-10105F is one of those chips that quietly does its job without making a fuss. It's a 4-core, 8-thread Comet Lake part on the aging 14nm node, but Intel squeezed a 4.4GHz boost clock out of it, which is honestly more than you'd expect from a budget processor. There's no integrated graphics here, the "F" in the name tells you that, so you'll need a discrete GPU. For a lot of budget builders, that's already the plan anyway.

Who is this for? Someone putting together a cheap gaming rig or a general purpose desktop who doesn't want to spend more on the CPU than they do on the motherboard. It slots into LGA 1200 boards, which means you can pair it with older B460 or H410 boards that have gotten pretty cheap on the used market. The 65W TDP means it won't stress a basic cooler or a modest power supply either.

What makes it interesting is the value story. Our database puts its social proof at the 84th percentile, which means a lot of people have bought this thing and walked away happy. The single-thread performance lands in the 75th percentile, which is solid for a chip that regularly sells for under $100. It's not going to set records, but it punches above its weight class for the money.

Skip this if you're doing serious productivity work. Video editors, 3D artists, and developers running heavy compile jobs will feel the 4-core ceiling quickly. The multi-thread score of 8860 is fine for casual use but falls behind when you're rendering or encoding. Look at a Ryzen 5 5600 or a Core i5-12400F instead, both offer 6 cores and meaningfully better multi-threaded throughput for not much more money.

Also skip it if you don't have a graphics card and don't want to buy one. The "F" suffix means no integrated graphics, so you literally cannot get a display output without a discrete GPU. If you're building an office PC or a home theater box, get a non-F variant or an AMD APU. And if you're the type who likes to tinker with overclocking, the locked multiplier will frustrate you. This chip is for people who want to set it and forget it.

If you're building a budget gaming PC and you already have or can cheaply source an LGA 1200 motherboard, the 10105F is a no-brainer at the right price. Pair it with something like a GTX 1660 Super or an RTX 3050 and you'll have a machine that handles 1080p gaming without complaint. The single-thread performance is good enough that most games won't bottleneck on the CPU.

For productivity work, it's more of a mixed recommendation. Light office work, web browsing, and school assignments are all fine. But if you're editing video, compiling code, or running virtual machines, those 4 cores will have you staring at progress bars. In that case, save up for a 6-core or 8-core part. The 10105F is a specialist in being cheap and capable, not a generalist workhorse.