Help... Phenom II 940 or E8500

PII all the way. You might not even need a need a new mobo.

Check to see if your current board supports it.

Phenom II is awesome, go for it.

The E8500 will serve the purpose I guess but man as more programs use more cores the quad will just get better and better, the E8500 was at its peak now its not gonna rise anymore.

If you really wanna futureproof get the Phenom II X3 720 and OC it.

lol@phenom.....

Cheers, Never heard of the X3 720 but I might check it out... Any recommendations for a mobo??

p2 940 better
mobo ASUS M4A79 Deluxe

Anything slightly less expensive?

Well for the P II 940..
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?Ite...

With the X3
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?Ite...

Can try your luck with this mobo in unlocking the 4th core...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?Ite...

Lol +1 mate was just about to post that

 ...

i'd go with phenom2 940 or X3 720 BE

Cool, I was actually checking out the GA-MA790GP-UD4H mobo, anyone actually use this combo? Sounds pretty good for the price...
This might create a sh*tstorm but what are people's opinions on asus vs gig regarding amd??

Overpriced and/or overrated, imho.

Biostar motherboard are quite good, performnig really nice, and don't cost an too much. Asus was the only brand that died on me, Gigabyte was good, but not better than the other brand I've tried.

I own a Biostar motherboard, the 790gx A2+ and it run my Phenom 9500 @ 2.4 Ghz rock stable. Didn't have any memory incompatibility either.

Well asus creates quality top of the line products but are overpriced and there support is absolutely crap. Gigabyte makes quality boards also for a nice price and there support is better then asus. and Biostar isn't really known for top notch products but there combo board with the 720 and 94o ispretty good, and you will have much better luck trying to unlock the 4th core on the 720be with that biostar board given that the 4th core is functioning correctly.

I am using that MB and CPU at this time until and if I decide to change.

I had been using a Foxconn A79A-S 790FX motherboard... but one of the PCIe slots went bad at about the same time as a nasty smell was coming from my new Xaser case. (The smell ended up being the Thermaltake fans... their fans actually cause a smell that is awful.) My Foxconn might be okay...

Anyway I bought the MA790GP-UD4H because it was the only MB I could get on a sunday in a local shop. It actually "feels" more solid than the Foxconn. In addition I can get about an additional 100Mhz out of the CPU before crashing. (The Foxconn could go to 3.8Ghz; this GIgabyte can go to 3.9Ghz and I bet I could get 4.0Ghz if I tried hard enough. But I generally don't overclock other than playing around and benchmarking.)

This bios lets you change the NB and HT. In addition it has more voltage control than the Foxconn; you can set the NB VID and also the NB Core voltages. With the Foxconn you couldn't set the NB Core; only the NB VID.

AND this bios is MUCH better than my old GIgabyte MA790FX-DS5. That MB couldn't run at stock without crashing. I swore I'd not own another Gigabyte; but this UD4H actually works well. I'm still miffed at Gigabyte for abandoning the DS5... but I'll get over it. (All the MB companies do that over time.)

Sweet, cheers for that man, nice avatar...

overpriced yes, overrated no.

the whole argument for quad cores is soooo frigging stupid its mind blowing.

heres the argument:

get a quad core now because in the future it will be good. its the same thing the PS3 users were saying and guess what? the ps3 never beat the 360 in any way and the new consoles that are being planned will outdate the current ones.

the same argument is being user for processors: get a quad core because apps will come out that will utilize all the cores. too bad that will not happen for a really long time for MANY reasons and by the time it does, there will be 6-8 maybe 10 core processors that will render a quad core obsolete. logically, it makes no sense to get a quad although many 'computer enthusiasts' here will tell you otherwise.

heres the deal:

if you multitask like crazy get a quad
if gaming is your primary concern, get a dual

Or live in the best of both worlds and get the x3 720!

Although, given Werxen's logic, the only Dual Cores worth buying is the e8xxx series. Most (if not all) benchmarks reiterate the fact that clock for clock, Intel's e8xxx line can still compete (if not beat) AMD's flagship the PII x940. The quads break away in the true multi-thread apps, but the real question is... are there enough apps out there (that you will use)?

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=351...

I'm stuck between them myself... I just want to be able to play Starcraft II when it comes out I don't really care about anything else lol

IMHO given the Egg's combo deals you would have to be FREAKIN STUPID to buy Intel's more expensive dual core:
(ie e8500 + GigaUD3P = $315)

vs. a less expensive equally (if not better) performing Quad:
(ie x4 940 + Giga UD4H = $305)

Thanks for the offer, but I think I will risk $-10 to future proof with a "PS3" this time around

*proud owner of the 360 :-)

^ right i totally agree with you on that. the price for the wolfdales NEEDS to go down ASAP. i have no idea wtf intel is thinking with their pricing schemes - im inclined to think that it is because the wolfdales still sell like crazy but who knows. honestly though, the 8x series is the i7 of dual cores. being primarily a computer gamer i went with it over the Q6600 because 1) i knew i could overclock it like crazy and 2) i would be set for games for awhile seeing as how the trend to multi threaded games will not happen for awhile. at 4.5 i could run crossfire and obliterate every game out there.

I have the same mobo and I like it , I am not fond of the bios switch I tend to like how pheonix is laid out better and the categories are alot more user friendly. But the biostar 790 gx has xfire at 8x and an integrated gpu for hybrid xfire with 3400 series gfx cards.
I had the phenom 9600 but photoshop didnt like it much and would get jittery on resizing (zooming) so I picked up the p2 920 and am very happy with it.

Phenom II, no doubt about it. I've got one in my new computer, very good future-proof CPU for the price.

I hate the term future proof. No cpu is future proof. Its more like how long can I tolerate my cpu peformance until I upgrade proof.

^ lol. exactly.