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athlon vs phenom vs clarkdale

CAT-THE-FIFTH said:
In any software that can use more than 4 cores the Phenom II X6 1055T is around the same as a Core i7 860 at a much lower price-point. Also new revisions of software can make a big difference to the scores. For example Bittech and Anandtech use Cinebench R10. Cinebench R11 has better optimisations for AMD processors which means much higher scores.

Also what OS you will use also is important as most benchmarks are under Windows and the OP wants to use Ubuntu for their non-gaming needs. Again the OP should check Phoronix.

Another thing is that since socket AM3+ will accept socket AM3 processors and DDR3 RAM it should mean that it will be easier for the OP to upgrade their system in steps.

Of course for any virtual machine work the Phenom II X6 has six available cores versus the 4 available cores of a Core i5 760.
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is there much point to just upgrading mobo and nothing else? would it give new features?

and this is getting way more complicated now where talking about upgrade paths. is it safe to say x6s and i7s perform about the same so both upgrade paths are equal?

also if a benchmark performs better on one processor than another under windows, wont this be the same what ever operating system is used? sorry but pretty new to linux and lots of it is just way over my head lol
 
CAT-THE-FIFTH said:
These two reviews compare the Athlon II X4 640 and Core i3 530 directly:

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Athlon-II-X4-640-vs-Core-i3-530-CPU-Review/1041/1

http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/aii_640_aii_610e/

The Athlon II X4 640 is around £76:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-268-AM

The Core i3 530 is around £80:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-311-IN

You can get decent budget AM3 ATX motherboards like the ASRock M3A770DE or the MSI 770-C45 or 870-C45 for around £45 to £55.

Even, Bit tech which tend to prefer Intel processors think that the MSI 770-C45 is a fantastic budget motherboard:

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/motherboards/2009/09/17/msi-770-c45-motherboard-review/1

AM3 motherboards start at around the £40 mark.

OTH,the cheapest H55 motherboards start around £55 to £60 and are mATX with less slots. ATX H55 and P55 motherboards start around £70.
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that review seems to like the x4 and the cheap motherboard was a good find cheers. i think you and wayne are slowly talking me into buying a x4 lol
 
ng93 said:
is there much point to just upgrading mobo and nothing else? would it give new features?

and this is getting way more complicated now where talking about upgrade paths. is it safe to say x6s and i7s perform about the same so both upgrade paths are equal?

also if a benchmark performs better on one processor than another under windows, wont this be the same what ever operating system is used? sorry but pretty new to linux and lots of it is just way over my head lol
Click to expand...

Regarding the upgrade path it depends on how you do things. If you buy the CPU,RAM and motherboard in one go then an upgrade path is less relevant. However,if you upgrade in parts then having some sort of compatibility will help. For instance socket 1155(Intel H55 and P55 chipset) motherboards will mean you will be stuck to the current socket 1156 processors. TBH,it is annoying that socket 1156 is being replaced by socket 1155 so quickly.

The current AM3 motherboards are limited to the current AM3 Sempron,Athlon II and Phenom II processors. However,the current AMD processors and DDR3 RAM will work in AM3+ motherboards which are being released in the next few months. The next generation AMD Bulldozer processors(a totally new architecture) will work only in AM3+ motherboards.

Regarding Linux I would still check what processor is better as Ubuntu and Windows are quite different under the hood AFAIK.
 
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ng93 said:
that review seems to like the x4 and the cheap motherboard was a good find cheers. i think you and wayne are slowly talking me into buying a x4 lol
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The 870-C45 has replaced the 770-C45:

http://www.msi.com/index.php?func=proddesc&maincat_no=1&prod_no=2129

TBH, it looks like the 770-C45.

OcUK sell the ASRock M3A770DE for £52:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=mb-034-ak

here is a review:

http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/29...board_amd_s_discrete_value_chipset/index.html
 
I assumed the OP's budget was in the £80 region.

If he's compiling programs ... the virtual machines are to test the scripts/programs without endangering the host OS?

I can run 2 virtual machines,at the same time, via VMWare on my lappy with a Centrino Duo... but must admit system resource allocation can get a bit dodgy. No such problem with my Linux set up (Virtualbox) and Phenom II X3 720BE :)

Tough call :(
 
The i3 supports intel virtualisation tech as well which I assume does the same thing as amd-v? In the perfect world where all apps fully utilise all cores the athlon x4 would be a no brainer. But unfortunately that's not the case yet. So it all comes down to how much multi tasking you'll be doing really.

I'm a sucker for high oc so if it was me it'll be i3 :p ocuk even does 4.2ghz pre oc bundle so you don't even need to oc it yourself. You'll be limited to i7 800 series though when it comes to upgrading on skt1156.

Oh and :eek: at the x6 price!
 
From gaming point of view, the overclocked Athlon II X4 will only has advantage over the overclocked G6950, IF the game would make good use of the extra cores.

Take WOW and Crysis for example...the G6950 at 4.6GHz will walk all over the Athlon II X4 at 3.7GHz, but in games like ArmaII, the Athlon II X4 at 3.7GHz would possibly deliver better frame rate than the G6950 at 4.6GHz. Just my 2p :p

And vcore 1.520V for keeping the Athlon II X4's 3.7GHz overclock stable ? That's gonna need a pretty good CPU cooler...
 
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sorry i havent posted earlier today been busy

after looking at those reviews i think ill go for athlon II x4 640 with the msi 870-c45 mobo and 2x2gb ram

BTW the VMs are for programming and testing in different OSes as its just much quicker then rebooting and wont **** up the main os if something goes wrong

cheers for the help all,
ng93
 
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Ordered an Athlon II x4 with an MSI 870-C45 myself seemed like a perfect combination of good price and performance. Strangely my CPU code indicates it's a Denab also and not a Propus which means potentially unlockable L3 cache which is a nice surprise. Will find out tomorrow anyway when the mobo & ram is delivered. :cool:
 
franco_22 said:
Giving you another option you could always look around for a cheap phenom 945 be and just overclock it
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that sounds like a good deal but i havent had much luck with second hand electronics so dont want to risk it

SouthEastBlue said:
Ordered an Athlon II x4 with an MSI 870-C45 myself seemed like a perfect combination of good price and performance. Strangely my CPU code indicates it's a Denab also and not a Propus which means potentially unlockable L3 cache which is a nice surprise. Will find out tomorrow anyway when the mobo & ram is delivered. :cool:
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am i right in thinking if this works itll perform like a phenom ii x4?

also bit off topic but what does everyone think of the sharkoon rebel 9?
 
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Yeah if the L3 cache unlocks it's basically turned into a Phenom II.

Will report back tomorow evening anyway it may not be stable with it unlocked but it's worth trying since Deneb core Athlons II's are fairly rare.
 
The G6950 is essentially a cut down version of the i3-530 as far as i'm aware, well, have been led to believe.

Just did a budget build and was going for the pentium until i noticed (just before i clicked buy) that the 530 was just £10 more. I support the AMD side of things too, but from immediate experience i can say you can't go wrong with an i3 or the pentium just for the sake of having that immense clock.
 
Sorry for late reply, had trouble with the new system... Had to RMA my motherboard due to non post, then found out it was my ram stick that was the problem.

In the end I bought another stick of ram, and bought an Asrock M3A770DE, which is handy as it has crossfire on it too which I didn't realise even though its 16x/4x.

Anyway, yeah it unlocked the L3 cache.... Here's the screenshot of Everest...

unlockedcache.png


Apparently all Athlon II X4 CPUs that have xxCxx instead of xxDxx in the start of their batch code (or whatever you call it) are Deneb cores like mine. :)

Just waiting for my OCZ Gladiator cooler, then I will clock it up a bit also as the Deneb chips are also meant to be good clockers.

All in all, not bad for a £66 CPU :D
 
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