X2 4200 or phenom 2 x2 550

Forum Overclocking : AMD X2 4200 or phenom 2 x2 550

AMD

Hello, do u think i should upgrade to phenom 2 or should i just invest in a cpu cooler and overclock my 4200+?

Reply to gutomako330

The X2 550 will completely blow away any of the original X2's (the 3800+ through the 6400+). It's not even close. Plus, the 550 will, in about 70-75% of the cases lately unlock to at least a tri-core if not a quad, and you should be able to push them to 3.3-3.4GHz on the stock HSF. I've actually had all of the recent ones I've bought - 6-8 of them (I've lost count) - unlock. Of course, you'll need a newer MB than what I suspect you have (an old AM2 board????). You can oc that 4200+ to the fastest you can and it still won't touch a 550 or 555BE. They're both unlocked multipliers and I've never had any issues getting them to an 18x multipllier (3.6GHz) with the default two cores and the stock HSF. I doubt you'll ever get your 4200+ close to that.

------------------------------ MSI x58 Pro-E, i7 920 OC'd to 3.6, 12Gb mem, Intel 160Gb G2 SSD with 2tb WD Caviar Black, OCZ ModXStream 700W PSU, Win7 Ultimate 64bit, ATI HD5870 w/ 3 1080P monitors in eyefinity
Reply to dkapke

That will be a good upgrade.
4200+ is a 939 processor(I think).

You need to buy a new mobo.

BTW What do you use the PC for?

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Reply to shubham1401

upgrade to phenom 2.

Reply to jfem

shubham1401 wrote :

That will be a good upgrade.
4200+ is a 939 processor(I think).

You need to buy a new mobo.

BTW What do you use the PC for?

i do a alot of gaming and internet checking mail, social networking.... but the purpose of my upgrade is gaming.

Reply to gutomako330

Please list the specs of your current PC along with power supply and monitor's native resolution

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Message edited by shubham1401 on 03-07-2010 at 08:17:41 AM

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Reply to shubham1401

There are am2+ 4200+ x2 chips. I just upgraded my Brother-in-laws computer with my old 710. He had a 4200+ and with a bios update, could run my 710 no problem. His is also an am2+ mobo though, to be fair. I wouldn't think an am3 could run on an am2 board that may be able to run an am2+ chip.

------------------------------ Awaiting Insurance Claim on powersurge, RIP my sweet Leo
Reply to JofaMang

shubham1401 wrote :

Please list the specs of your current PC along with power supply and monitor's native resolution

amd athlon x2 4200+ 2.2 ghz am2
msi k9n4 sli board
just upgraged my video from 8600 gt to gts 250
2 gig gskill ddr 2 ram
500 gb seagate drive
550 watt corsair vx psu
hanns g 17 inches lcd monitor my resolution in my desktop is 1440x900.... but when in gaming i set it to 1280x 720 or 1024 x 768....

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Reply to gutomako330

gutomako330 wrote :

From what I could find from a quick google search, your motherboard will not support am3. I could have been reading some outdated information, but since your motherboard is am2, and not am2+, it will not run a phenom 2. There were some MSI am2 boards that support a couple Phenom 2 am2+ CPUs (920/940) but yours is not one of those. You are either going to have to OC, or purchase new mobo for any am3 processor. You may have some luck finding a better am2+ dual core that will work, like maybe an am2+ 6000+ x2. These chips don't have a lot of headroom for overclocking, so a better cooler would allow you to OC, but the results may be dissappointing. 10-15% OC seems to be the most these will achieve with any semblence of stability.

http://www.overclock.net/amd-mothe [...] -list.html

I would also like to add, that a 250gts at 1440x900 you should be able to play at max settings on most any non-crysis/gtaIV title.

Message edited by JofaMang on 03-14-2010 at 03:06:17 PM

------------------------------ Awaiting Insurance Claim on powersurge, RIP my sweet Leo
Reply to JofaMang

The x2 is lika really cheap quadcore, since there is the potential of unlocking cores

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Reply to Starges

gutomako330 wrote :

amd athlon x2 4200+ 2.2 ghz am2
msi k9n4 sli board
just upgraged my video from 8600 gt to gts 250

hanns g 17 inches lcd monitor my resolution in my desktop is 1440x900.... but when in gaming i set it to 1280x 720 or 1024 x 768....

Do you mean to say that even after replacing the 8600GT with gts 250 you still set your resolution to 1280x720 or 1024 x 768? Why do you do it? Do you experience lagging or stuttering or crash at 1440x900?

Reply to randomkid

Get the Phenom II. I had an Socket 939 4200+ before I upgraded and going to a Phenom II X3 720 BE made a world of difference.

Since the Phenom's are AM3 sockets, you'll have to upgrade your board, your cpu and your memory.

Stay away from Athlon IIs. They only have a L1 and L2 cache. The Phenom II's have an L1, L2 and L3 cache. The X3 720 BE has a 6 mb L3 cache, which is great and the black editions have an unlocked multiplier so you can overclock the heck out of them. Also, like Starges said with the X2s, the X3 can have it's 4th core unlocked and if you're lucky (like I was), it will be stable. You have to make sure you have the right kind of BIOS to do it. This guide lists what motheboard/bios combos will work -> http://www.overclock.net/amd-cpus/ [...] guide.html

My motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-MA78LM-S2H.

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Reply to isamuelson

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