I7 or Phenom II 940 or Phenom II x3 720?

itchy332211

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Im going to buy a new cpu, but i want to be on the safe side and not find out that next month something better is out and cheaper
i7 or amd phenom II 940 or amd phenom II x3 720

im kinda leaning towards the 940 or 720 as im not going to be encoding or compressing stuff on a regular basis so i dont think i7 will be worth it, 720 is alright cause its ddr3 compatible although i wont be using it till ddr3 is mainstream

whats your opinion on this?

I like to game and just generally surf the net mostly
thnks
 

yomamafor1

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If you're only looking for gaming, X3 should be sufficient. You can buy X4 940 if you want to keep the rig for abou 2~3 years. If you want maximum performance, Core i7 is the way to go, but its also the most expensive (by far).
 

itchy332211

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But is it actually worth the huge extra amount of money ill have to pay, besides as i said i aint going to be using many cpu intensive apps, i just want a decent worth it cpu and one that lasts long
 

itchy332211

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so phenom II x3 all teh way, makes sense, which one ddr3 or ddr2? so far ive seen that ddr3 isnt much of a performace booster
 

yomamafor1

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Then Phenom X4 940 it is. You'll save a lot of money by going for a mainstream 790GX chipset, and DDR2.

EDIT: You do reply fast, don't ya? ;)

You should stick with DDR2, as they're much cheaper and easier to obtain. DDR3 does not offer any speed advantage at this moment, and I doubt it will represent a huge jump 3~4 years down the road.
 

itchy332211

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so basically ddr3 isnt going to become mainstream for like say another 2 yrs? i read that the global recession is halting amds and intels plan to use ddr3 as mainstream ram
 

yomamafor1

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I'll say more like a year. Intel's next generation mainstream CPU i5 will be using DDR3 exclusively, while the current Phenom II AM2+ will be discontinued within 2~3 quarters. It looks like both manufacturers are really pushing for massive DDR3 adoption.

I'll still stick with the DDR2 though, as they're dirt cheap. You'll probably want a brand new rig 2~3 years down the road anyway.
 

itchy332211

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lol ye very fast, ima be ordering soon, so 940 and 4gig of ddr2 and a 790gx board,
thnks for helping out