Phenom x4 960T

[Manbatius]

Hi all,

Build for a friend, who uses his pc for net but also a fair bit of photoshop.

Is the phenom x4 960T acceptable for this sort of price.

I would go core I3 but someone told him they were the old models and does not want that.
I also perhaps think he would benefit from more cores but cannot stretch to core I5.

Cheers

 

[mmj_uk]

Yep they are great value, especially if unlocking the two extra cores works (most of them are Phenom X6 with two working cores switched off).

 

[cmndr_andi]

May I ask what the budget for the system is and what parts does he need (tower, OS, monitor etc.)?

As for the i3, why does he think they are old models? The i3 2000 series use the sandy bridge architecture and are just as new tech as the i5 2500K and i7 2700K.

 

[Manbatius]

May I ask what the budget for the system is and what parts does he need (tower, OS, monitor etc.)?

As for the i3, why does he think they are old models? The i3 2000 series use the sandy bridge architecture and are just as new tech as the i5 2500K and i7 2700K.

Yes i tried explaining that, known the lad forever so its not like he doesnt believe me, more that for the sort of money he wants something more than dual core. (i tried expalining hyper threading)

He has a monior but needs a new tower. Below is the current build and budget at the end.

Coolermaster Silencio RC-550

AMD Phenom II X4 960T

Asus M5A88-M, AMD 880G, S AM3+, DDR3, SATA III - 6G

8GB (2x4GB) Corsair DDR3 XMS3, PC3-10600 (1333)

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro

60GB OCZ Agility 3 SSD, 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s

1GB Sapphire HD 6670 ULTIMATE, 1600MHz GDDR5, GPU 800MHz, 480 Cores, DL DVI/DPort/HDMI, Passive

520W Antec Neo Eco Modular PSU 82%Eff', 80 PLUS Bronze

Sony AD-7280S-0B 24x DVD±R, 12xDVD±D

Windows 7


To be re used, 2 2tb hard drives.

The basket total is £540 and he was wanting to spend about £550.

Went for a silent gfx as the system is kept on a lot and noise bothers him.
Main use is photoshop while lots of other programs are open!
Maybe be used for some gaming/

 

[cmndr_andi]

How does this look as an alternative?

This gives you a passively cooled Nvidia GT 440 graphics card (afaik there are some CUDA accelerated plugins for photoshop), which should be ideal for photoshop.

The CPU is an i5 2300 sandy bridge quad core and the motherboard is a basic H61 board. It won't allow overclocking - but at stock speeds this CPU is very swift, have a look here:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core-i5-2500-2400-2300_8.html#sect1

The M4 SSD is a faster and more reliable one than the Agility 3.

 

[Manbatius]

very interesting, I did compile a I5 system but it was a bit more than that I think! I went for a 2500k though, will have a look into the bits.

That gfx is about £20 cheaper than the amd one I had in mind, how is its performance in comparison though.

I would have to change the motherboard, USB3 is a must.
I also thought I needed sata 3 for the best from the ssd.

Certainly will check out another motherboard and recompile the list and see where its at!

is it true that Ivy bridge will be backward compatible with the sockket (bios allowing), when I chose the cpu i was reading that it would not be. but now I am hearing different!

I also picked the system some time ago so no doubt prices have changed a bit!

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The GT440 GDDR5 is around 10% slower than an HD5670 GDDR5:

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/GeForce_GT_440/26.html

The GT440 GDDR3 is much slower than a GT440 GDDR5 AFAIK. An HD6670 GDDR5 is around 25% faster than an HD5670 GDDR5:

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_6670/22.html

However,an HD7750 GDDR5 can be had for around the same price as an HD6670 GDDR5 and is around 40% faster:

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/HD_7750/26.html

OTH,if no gaming is to be done on the computer,go for a cheaper card than an HD6670 GDDR5.

 

[cmndr_andi]

Yes, the i5 2500K is a nice CPU, but unfortunately with this budget it really can't fit too easily unless you comprimise on other areas (also you would really have to go for a P67 or Z68 board to make full use out of this CPU - which adds even more to the cost).

In contrast, the i5 2300 is a good deal cheaper but apart from the lower default clockspeed, weaker onboard graphics and non-unlocked multiplier it is pretty much the same chip as the i5 2500K (hence why it performs rather similarly in those tests).

As for the GT 440 vs the HD 6670 - if you look at this review the 6670 is quite a bit faster in games. However, if he will be mainly using the system for photo editing then this performance difference won't be apparent - and the Nvidia card will support the CUDA accelerated plugins (which the AMD card can't) which may aid functionality/performance.

As for USB3 and SATA3 - in that case I would recommend looking a cheap H67 or Z68 board.

As for Ivy Bridge - yes with a BIOS update these LGA1155 H61, H67, P67 and Z68 board will support LGA1155 Ivy Bridge CPUs - just make sure the particular board you are looking at is planned to get a BIOS update. Here is are some pages of the current boards which will work with Ivy Bridge CPUs:

http://event.asus.com/2011/mb/PCIe3_Ready/
http://www.gigabyte.com/press-center/news-page.aspx?nid=1048
http://event.msi.com/mb/22nm/

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Another contender is the 95W Phenom II X6 1045T,which is around the same price as a Phenom II X6 960T,although I am uncertain how well CS5 utilises extra threads.

Having said that my Core i3 2100 seems perfectly fine with the Adobe Lightroom 4 BETA, and other image editing and RAW conversion applications.

 

[Manbatius]

The GT440 GDDR5 is around 10% slower than an HD5670 GDDR5:

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/GeForce_GT_440/26.html

The GT440 GDDR3 is much slower than a GT440 GDDR5 AFAIK. An HD6670 GDDR5 is around 25% faster than an HD5670 GDDR5:

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_6670/22.html

However,an HD7750 GDDR5 can be had for around the same price as an HD6670 GDDR5 and is around 40% faster:

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/HD_7750/26.html

OTH,if no gaming is to be done on the computer,go for a cheaper card than an HD6670 GDDR5.

Initially there was no gaming to be done but then decided maybe a bit of skyrim.
It still has to be silent and the 6670 seemed to be the quickest passive one.

I considered the 6 cores but this seemed better value, especially with core unlocker. think i seeen a 6 core today same price though!

 

[danjama]

The phenom six cores are getting harder to find, but will benefit photo and video processing. Also remember that the 960t might not unlock. Don't have that worry with a hex core.

Also, i've heard that skyrim is a bit of a beast to run. The CPU should be fine, but he'd want a better gfx card, depending on how high he wants the settings.

 

[Manbatius]

The phenom six cores are getting harder to find, but will benefit photo and video processing. Also remember that the 960t might not unlock. Don't have that worry with a hex core.

Also, i've heard that skyrim is a bit of a beast to run. The CPU should be fine, but he'd want a better gfx card, depending on how high he wants the settings.

I thought of the 960t as its clocked at 3ghz

There is a AMD Phenom II X6 1045T, Sok AM3, 2.7GHz for the same price, i suppose the clocking of 2.7 may noy make a huge difference as turbo boost will put it to 3.2. (thought the 960s is 3.4)

As for skyrim, i dont think he woukd be bothered about high settings, is more interested in it being quiet but still able to game a spot. His only other gaming would be football manager

 

[danjama]

I thought of the 960t as its clocked at 3ghz

There is a AMD Phenom II X6 1045T, Sok AM3, 2.7GHz for the same price, i suppose the clocking of 2.7 may noy make a huge difference as turbo boost will put it to 3.2. (thought the 960s is 3.4)

As for skyrim, i dont think he woukd be bothered about high settings, is more interested in it being quiet but still able to game a spot. His only other gaming would be football manager

the 1045t was the lowest hex core phenom. I would definitely take the 960t over it, as even if it doesn't unlock it's a great overclocker. But a 1090t or 1100t for a good price is something to look for. If you dont want the hassle of looking for one, go with the 960t in my opinion. He will be happy and probably wouldn't actually notice the difference.

 

[Manbatius]

the 1045t was the lowest hex core phenom. I would definitely take the 960t over it, as even if it doesn't unlock it's a great overclocker. But a 1090t or 1100t for a good price is something to look for. If you dont want the hassle of looking for one, go with the 960t in my opinion. He will be happy and probably wouldn't actually notice the difference.

Yer the system will blow him away anyway, he currently has a low spec Pentium D!

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I thought of the 960t as its clocked at 3ghz

There is a AMD Phenom II X6 1045T, Sok AM3, 2.7GHz for the same price, i suppose the clocking of 2.7 may noy make a huge difference as turbo boost will put it to 3.2. (thought the 960s is 3.4)

As for skyrim, i dont think he woukd be bothered about high settings, is more interested in it being quiet but still able to game a spot. His only other gaming would be football manager

I did a build recently for my mate with a Phenom II X6 1045T(he needs six threads for some of the work he does),and it seems fine for a bit of gaming. He does run Skyrim on it at lower settings as he only has HD4670 GDDR3.

The Phenom II X4 960T will be a bit more quicker for gaming though.