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Would this be a worthwhile and noticeable upgrade?

randomizer

randomizer

randomizer

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Joined
12 Jan 2009
Posts
16
I'm finally looking to upgrade my system. I've had the processor since 2007 :p. I was looking into getting a Phenom x2 550 BE. Along with it I will getting be getting a Asus M4A785TD-V Evo to hopefully unlock the two extra cores. One problem is ram prices seem to have gone up abit since I last checked and I only have £200 so can only afford 2gb ddr3 along with the others.

So atm i'm getting low/average fps (40-50) in certain games and I know my card should be performer much better (70-90fps) at my current resoultion of 720p. I've been advised that the cpu is the bottleneck of my system so will this upgrade give me the boost i need?
 
phenom 555 is worth the extra few quid if you're trying for an unlock (newer c3 stepping)

even in dual, there should be a noticable boost. probably not heartstopping, but these should be capable of 3.8-4ghz. either asus or gigabyte with a 770/760G/785G are good solid platforms for unlocking. as for Ram ... meh.
 
Thanks for the info guys. :)

if the 555 has a higher percentage of unlock rates then its definitely worth the extra £10. I'm aware that my motherboard supports Phenoms that's one of the reasons I bought it at the time. But I am hopefully looking to unlock those extra cores and then use the left over mobo and extras to build another PC.
 
im not so sure about actual percentage rate (there are still duff chips floating around even with the 555), but the newer stepping means that most the kinks and bumps will have been sorted out in the manufacturing process, so there will be less defective dies per wafer, so AMD will have to disable more perfectly good quad cores to fill demand.

in a nutshell...
 
Just got my stuff today and unfortunately both the extra cores were unstable :(. Its not all bad news though I benchmarked a few of my games and I am now no longer bottlenecked by my CPU and i'm getting the a significant boost to my FPS.

Another thing I've noticed is in CPU-z my ddr3 1333mhz ram is showing up as only 669mhz anyone any ideas why this might be happening?
 
Actually the "real" ram speed is 669 MHz.

But its DDR = Dual Data Rate

So manufacturer's would rather give you the effective data rate = 1333 MHz :)
 
Thanks guys had me worried lol :). Seem like a still have things to learn this is only my second build. I just overclocked the cpu to 3.8ghz simply by increasing the multiplier. 40-43C on stock :D. Anyone know the max temp for a phenom x2 555?
 
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