I am in the process of building a new system with an AMD CPU, and originally was seriously looking
at the X2 5000+ Black Edition when the price was so low on Newegg, but then it popped back up to
$95.00 all of a sudden. For the price, I was also tempted by the X2 5400+ for $78.00 or so, but
noted that each one of those would need a CPU cooler (maybe another $25.00 or so) for a real net
price of around $105 - $120 or so, according to whatever the Newegg price was on that day I got it
(the 5000BE at $95.00 and a $25.00 cooler would have been $120.00 right there).
So, by the time I buy a CPU cooler for either one of those what does anyone think about going with
the X2 5600+ for $129.00 (or another $10.00 or so)?
How will a 5000BE overclocked to 3.1GHz (but still with smaller cache) perform compared to a 5600+
at 2.8GHz with that monster 2 x 1MB L2 cache. And I don't have to overclock anything, but still can
do that if I ever want to?
Also, earlier today I noticed that the Newegg price for the 5600+ just dropped to $122, or a whopping $2 more than the 5000BE would have been at the normal price plus a cooler. Even with the 5000BE down to $85.99 with a $25 cooler, that is $111 or so. Seems like the 5600+ might be well worth another
$10.00.
I don't even know if I will ever need that much CPU speed, I don't game much, don't ever plan to SLI, RAID,
or Crossfire, just some video editing now and then, maybe a TV tuner someday, and a nice sound card.
But for just a little extra $$, if really any at all, that L2 cache in the 5600+ makes it really appealing to
try one.
I just ordered one, sure hope that it turns out to be a good choice.
An X2 5000+ BE @ 3.1GHz would roughly match a stock X2 5600+ @ 2.8GHz. Of course you can overclock the X2 5600+ as well which would put it ahead again.
The X2 5600+ is based on the 90nm Windsor core, so it has a larger and faster L2 cache. It does run a bit hotter though than the Brisbane core though.
