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Which mid range cpu would you get?

Futures

Futures

Futures

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Joined
10 Jul 2008
Posts
144
I'm in the middle of putting together a mid ranged gaming rig. I have pretty much everything sorted out except a cpu & motherboard.

I'm thinking along the lines of either:
intel E7400 & P45/X48
or
amd x3 720 & 790GX/FX

I will be overclocking. My thinking with the intel setup is that i can get something like a Q9650 for a boost, if its needed.

But will a x4 940 be a big enough boost if i needed it? and would it be better to get an AM3 board, as i want something to last a while without swapping too many things around.

core i7 is out of my budget for now, as i want to spend £250 give or take.
 
E7400 *** :D plus the E7 chips can get some awesome OC's i have seen other reach 4.6Ghz or you could go E5200 as these can go close to 4Ghz.
 
Personally would go for the phenom II 720. The AM3 is still pretty new so would thought a lot of newer cpus would come out for it while socket 775 is nearing its end of life comparatively.
 
The 720 is a stonking CPU, AMD have got this price range on lockdown in my view.

It performs near the equally priced intel duos, overclocks very well, and you get an extra core :)
 
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ah yes x3 720 looks like the one to have, what motherboard would you recommend to get the best overclock? i'd want at least 3.5ghz.
 
Well it seems to trade blows with an e8400 even on apps that don't use the third core and overclocks pretty well so compared to an e7400 it should perform a lot better.
 
Big.Wayne said:
Why is a Phenom II X3 Tri Core 720 a good choice? :confused:
Click to expand...

Because it currently offers the best price to performance ratio of any cpu out there and at higher resolutions is able to BEAT the quad core i7 in game benchmarks, it has lower power and heat outputs than any comparative Intel chip.

It overclocks very well, most chips are seeing 3.8-4GHz.

It has one core disabled but ALL cache enabled, more cache per core than the range topping 940.

It's an awesome chip.
 
Big.Wayne said:
Why is a Phenom II X3 Tri Core 720 a good choice? :confused:
Click to expand...


Not only is the chip itself good, but for a total of £350 you can also set yourself with an AM3 motherboard + 4Gb DDR3 ram, a platform which will be upgradable going into the future. Intel can't touch that for the price.
 
liquidex said:
Well it seems to trade blows with an e8400 even on apps that don't use the third core
Click to expand...
Hmmm sounds decent?

Edleake said:
Because it currently offers the best price to performance ratio of any cpu out there and at higher resolutions is able to BEAT the quad core i7 in game benchmarks
Click to expand...
Are you basing this on web reviews or do you own one?

If you don't own one then I think AMD should be paying you for maximum *pimpage!* :p

Edleake said:
it has lower power and heat outputs than any comparative Intel chip
Click to expand...
Now that is something I am interested in, gonna check that out and if your claims are exaggerated Edleake it's gonna be pump city! ;)

mnemonix said:
Not only is the chip itself good, but for a total of £350 you can also set yourself with an AM3 motherboard + 4Gb DDR3 ram, a platform which will be upgradable going into the future. Intel can't touch that for the price.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the feedback, nice to see AMD is keeping some public happy! :)
 
Big.Wayne said:
Now that is something I am interested in, gonna check that out and if your claims are exaggerated Edleake it's gonna be pump city! ;)
Click to expand...
My 720 is presently idling @ 20c and loads @ not much more than 30c using the stock cooler.

My old e8500's (C1 and EO) and my old q9450 all idled over 30c and loaded above 40c under good water cooling. All in the same PC (and room) and all are temps taken @ stock speeds and voltages.

Not had long with the AMD but my impressions are that it's a very cool running chip which seems to be very capable overall.

Only real reason i moved to AMD was for the more reliable SLi board (had a 680i and hated it - plus the 780i's didn't get much better reviews! :() the other positives have all been added bonuses. :D

gt
 
Basically I don't know much about the new AMD stuff apart from some marketing stunt about being able to clock these new chips at -200°C :D

I will do some homework as soon as I get time but if anyone has some good review linkies feek free to share them! :)

I wanna see this Phenom II beating an E8400! :cool:
 
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