eek! which AMD cpu

[disco Stu]

building a cheapo gaming rig for my mate but I'm alittle unsure about which cpu to get.(AMD) - He only runs rfactor and Race 07 - no other games,but whats the detail up alittle more than how it runs on his 64 +3500.

Mothboard(with 2gb) is being changed but his grafix card is staying(ATI HD 3850)

cpu choice:-
x2 550
x4 620
am2+ 7850 x2 black


thanks for any help

 

[Redmint]

I think in most games (other than a few released this year) he'd see the best results with the phenom 550, so that'd be my suggestion unless he's likely to start playing some of the games that work much better on quad cores like bfbc2.

 

[mymorph]

how much has he got to spend and how long till he wants to upgrade again?

id go quad core, overclock it & 4gb fast ddr2.

 

[disco Stu]

About £80

 

[Phatzy]

not planning to play newer games i'd say the 550, but if he is going to play new released games i would go for the 620

 

[disco Stu]

Put the x4 620 - massive jump in performance. 3dmark doubled and rfactor runs x3 smoother.

Cannot help but think that the standard amd heatsink and fan are pants.

 

[mymorph]

i went for a zalman cnps9500 on my quad athlon 620 overclocked @3.4ghz. works, looks good and cheap too. the stock ones are terrible imho.

 

[Big.Wayne]

• building a cheapo gaming rig for my mate
• I'm alittle unsure about which cpu to get.(AMD)
• He only runs rfactor and Race 07 - no other games
• but whats the detail up alittle more [GPU?]
• Mothboard(with 2gb) is being changed
• his grafix card is staying(ATI HD 3850)

Hey disco Stu,

The System-Core below is pretty hard to beat for price-to-performance! . . . The AMD® Athlon™ II X3 is a great processor for an affordable gaming rig (if you can find it for sale!) . . . I know you didn't ask about a motherboard or memory but I had this screenie done already and it kinda fits what you are doing!

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I would suggest the following motherboard if you have a graphics card:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-128-MS

It is considered quite a decent budget AMD motherboard and has many good reviews:

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

http://www.xsreviews.co.uk/reviews/motherboards/msi-770-c45/

The latest ones have ACC enabled in the BIOS.

The Athlon II X3 is also excellent value for money for around £60. One of my mates managed to unlock one to a Phenom II X4 last week(usually if you can it to unlock you get an Athlon II X4). Of course this is not guaranteed.

 

[stulid]

what about the lack of L3 cache? not really a PhenomII X4 when unlocked.

 

[Big.Wayne]

stulid, some AMD® Athlon™ II X3/X4's are produced using Deneb dies instead of the Propus dies so if someone gets lucky enough to get a good one then in theory they could purchase an AMD® Athlon™ II X3 and end up with a full blown AMD® Phenom™ II X4 . . . I wouldn't promote that to someone as a main selling point but it's possible if one is a jammy git!


[Off Topic]


CAT-THE-FIFTH, I didn't read up much yet on that MSI 770-C45 board so thanks for chucking up some links, certainly looks good value for money and quite well suited to an affordable gaming rig . . . I tend to alway spec a 760G/785G as I think the IGP feature is handy but I may pick up one of those boards for testing!

I notice it has AMD® Phenom™ II X6 support which is great, and one of the reviews states it clocked up to 330MHz Ht ref.Clock which is awesome!( if it was stable?) . . . One of the reviews also states the board "still lacks a very crucial feature: core unlocking" . . . has this been resolved with a BIOS update or?

For the peeps who own a solid GPU and will never ever use the IGP feature and want four ram slots then it fits the bill nicely!

MSI Product Page here

£49.98 inc here

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

My mate had checked the processor and it registers as having L3 cache! I thought he would be lucky if you got the processor to unlock to an Athlon II X4.

It seems that the newer MSI 770-C45 motherboards have core unlocking as people have managed to unlock processors with it. However if overclocking it makes sense to cool the VRMs as many of the cheaper AMD motherboards lack suitable VRM cooling.