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Phenom II who has built one and what are your thoughts?

I would say don't bother if you aren't going to overclock, the stock cooler isn't too bad actually. If you are going to be overclocking, then yes, most definetly, a bigger better cooler will help a lot.

As for which one, well there are many to choose from. I personally use a Noctua NH-U12P, this is quite expensive though. I noticed the OCZ Vendetta 2 is on 'this week only' for £25 at OcUK, that looks like a decent solution.

The Scyth Infinity is a good one too, and if you don't want to spend very much, Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro has always been the sub £20 weapon of choice.
 
I've been playing with a new PII 720 set up and so far I'm quite impressed, considering the price I'm very impressed.

OcUK B grade M3A79T, 4GB OCZ Gold 8500, PII 720 = about £264. Coming from a socket 939 there's a bit to learn about over clocking the new system, but after a little time and after learning the limitations of AMD Overdrive the system is just reaching the 2h mark in the Prime95 torture test @3857MHz. That's £68 per GHz :)

Windows XP32 @ 4GHz is not a problem, but is not stable.

As for speed relative to my 3GHz Opti 180, the PII720 is almost twice as fast in the single threaded SuperPi test. Sticking my old 7800GT in the system gains about 30% (guessing from memory) throughout 3dMark06.

Still much playing to be done but for now it looks like a worthwhile upgrade.
 
Hey im new here :),
been with AMD systems for years but being a student and jobless i dont get time to upgrade.
1st system was AMD 3200+ 939, 1gb ddr ram and a Nvidia 6600. After one year a switched over to a AMD 4600+ AM2, An9 fatalilty motherboard 1gb ddr2 recently upgraded to 3gb, 8800gts 320 and recently swapped with a friend for a 8800gt.
Now when i get a job i wanna upgrade to the newer phenom II cores, i have been looking at the i7 cores, the cpu's are resonably priced but the cost of the motherboards and ram is too expensive. So i thought i would keep with AMD and go for the phenom II, but which one?
phenom x3 720BE ( app the 4th core can be unlocked) or
Phenom x4 940BE ?
Also which motherboard would be stable at any clocks and would i be fine sticking to 3gb corsair ddr2 pc6400?

p.s
sorry for the topic bump.
 
Do not get the Tri core for the possibility of unlocking the 4th core. If you want four cores go for the 940.

As for mobos they are not that expensive, which ones are you looking at?

Personally i would go for the Tri Core, it offers better value right now and overclocks a lot too. Depends on your needs really.

Edit: Have you been lookingat the AM3 mobos? Dont bother yet, 720 can be used with socket AM2+ and standard DDR2
 
ohhh i know, that i was talking about the i7 core mobo/ram being to much. Well at the moment in time all i do is game, but when i get to uni ill need a better system to cope with programming as such.
What would be a decent mobo for AMD oc?, ive been caught up to much with intel technology im lost with AMD xD.
Also with the AM2+ motherboard, all you do is update the bios so they work with the new phenom II cores?
I have been looking at this motherboard "MSI K9A2 Platinum AM2+/AM2 AMD 790FX ATX AMD Motherboard", my friend has it running 4gb OCZ ddr2, AMD 6400+ and 2x 3870, would that work very well with the phenom II cores and potentially clock to around 3.5-4ghz with the right cooling??
 
I am not familiar with the specific motherboard. I do know that the best mobos are the ones that combine 790FX and SB750, closely followed by 790FX and SB600.

Basically it depends on the budget, 780 nforce mobos are supposed to be good but are too expensive for an AMD machine IMO.

My advice is to find either a 790FX like the one you listed, check that there is a bios available for AM3 Phenom II processors, check that it has adequate cooling for the crucial bits on the motherboard and you should be fine. Xtremesystems may be a good place to ask for this kind of information.

Again for the actual processor it depends on how much money you want to spend. Both the Tri Core and Quad core variants of Phenom II clock about the same, i would go for the quad core if i had the money, but the tricore offers tremendous value so its a good choice too.

Good luck with the build, and let us know how it goes!
 
:) Hi, i have a phenom rig, heres is my specs

amd phenom II 940 black edition
asus wifi deluxe
8gb ocz reaper 1066mhz
zalamn 9500
BFG gfeorce 8800 gts 640mb special edition
corsair tx 650 power supply
antec 1200 case
vista 64 premium

can run any game on maximum, very pleased with my new build, ive never tried intel before so cant compare my setup to a similar intel based system. I am still at stock speed just now 3.0gh, kind regards:).
 
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Yh this upgrade will go ahead, depending how soon i get a job, so ill do abit more research in to AMD again, thank you for your help.
Yh a phenom II data base would be good, it will help me out with abit of research aswell ;).
Get one going lads/lasses :).
 
Without clicking the link is it a poor translation and just means the ACC is built-in to the Phenom II, i.e. the ACC code for the 65nm Phenom was motherboard (SB750) dependant but no longer is?
 
Edleake said:
Without clicking the link is it a poor translation and just means the ACC is built-in to the Phenom II, i.e. the ACC code for the 65nm Phenom was motherboard (SB750) dependant but no longer is?
Click to expand...
its the english dfi site..

ACC code for the 65nm Phenoms was already in the first release bios..

what i don't understand is why it says AMD Phenom II 65nm.

anyway i've tryed the bios, it as some nice features, like core down choose from single core, dual core, tri core, quad core. also it seem to use less power and it felt faster. but one down fall was the lan didn't work. so im back to my old bios.
 
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