Quad or tri spec?

1pudding1 · 2 Nov 2009 at 14:04

Im upgrading my ancient PC soon, and am currently looking at the following:-

Is that CPU worth is, over an X4 620 at 2.6GHz such as this:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-258-AM&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=803

Any suggestion or changes to make? Hopefully I havent got something mismatched, like RAM speed and mobo?? I only intend to use it for net/office type stuff, no heavy gaming or photo/video editing so I assume that spec will be way more than capable for anything like that?

Cheers.

SfnX · 2 Nov 2009 at 14:28

tri-core cpus do sometimes get close to quad core performance, if you have however a bit more cash go for the quad seeing as its more futureproof.

1pudding1 · 2 Nov 2009 at 14:29

Well the quad Ive mentioned above is actually £14 cheaper, but 0.2GHz slower, so Im not sure which would be best really.

SfnX · 2 Nov 2009 at 14:32

ye, dilly of a pickle, tbh 2mhz slower isnt much for ANOTHER core, the more the merrier in cpu world, besides u can overclock it slightly and get ebtter performance!

cmndr_andi · 2 Nov 2009 at 14:40

Here is a review of the Quad cores vs the Tri Core and a few other CPUs.

It goes though a good few tests, and overall the Quads come out very well. They aren't as fast as the tri core in gaming - but most other things the quads are faster.

demon8991 · 2 Nov 2009 at 14:40

Quad all the way!

Ast3r · 2 Nov 2009 at 15:33

But if he goes for a GigaByte board won't he be able to unlock the fourth core of the 720 and thus having a Quad Core at the price of a Tri-Core?And won't the extra Cache Level from the 720 make a difference in multitasking?I think that you should change the mobo with a Gigabyte one and then unlock the fourth core on the 720.You'll end up with a Quad-Core @ 2.8Ghz and 7.5MB Cache and with a decent cooler you could clock it to 3.0Ghz and up easily.

Ryan-3 · 2 Nov 2009 at 15:47

I believe that the phenom tri core may be better than the quad as you can unlock its fourth core, and it has 6mb L3 Cache, and the x4 620 doesn't!

You could get cheaper ram, as at that speed it wouldn't make much difference for everyday if you even selected 1600Mhz. Plus, AMD all have a FSB of 1333Mhz, so the extra speed is un-nessesary.

1pudding1 · 2 Nov 2009 at 16:09

Ok, so after the advice, how does this look?

Got a Gigabyte board, so I can unlock the 4th core (is this not possible with that Asus board then?)

Went for slightly cheaper and slower RAM, although it only saved a fiver. Exactly what speed is that 12800 RAM compared with that 17000 RAM? 1333MHz?

Ast3r · 2 Nov 2009 at 17:32

Some people claim that they have been able to unlock the fourth core on other motherboards but on the Gigabyte boards is much more easy to do that and also you have a higher chance to get it working.The difference between the RAM the Geil Ultra Series is @ 2133Mhz and the OCZ Obsidian @ 1600Mhz so theres a difference of 533Mhz between them.But with an overclock you could get the frequency to 1700-1800Mhz.But 1600 is enough for everything you'll want to do.