Phenom II 940 or 955?

I'm putting together a new system which I'll buy in June. Keep in mind, I'm not upgrading anything. My old pc is a Dell 8300 P4, so I'm starting from scratch.

I don't know whether to go with the PII 940 or 955. The dilemma for me isn't so much price as is longevity. In terms of price, on newegg, a solid AM2+ setup is only about $60 less than a comparable AM3 setup. Should I go AM2+ mobo and 940 with ddr2 ram or go AM3 with a 955 and ddr3. Would going AM2+ hold me over for a good three years or should I go AM3?

I've read that the 955 and ddr3 don't give you much performance gain, but I don't want an AM2+ rig to become outdated. It's not like I have a rig to compare ddr3 to anyways, so whatever I get will be a tremendous boost for me!

I'm still on the fence...

Ok thanks. I've been thinking about it more and more. I've decided to go with AM3. Even if it's not much better than an AM2+ setup, I wouldn't know because I never had an AM2+ setup! Plus, if ddr3 gets better in the future, I will be okay.

Thanks for the help.

Well I put together a wishlist on newegg. With everything the total for a AM2+ setup is about $1300, that's with the main components and a keyboard, mouse, headset, speakers, etc. Going with AM3 would only make me change my mobo, CPU, and ram, right? That change would add roughly $60, so I'm not worried about it.

I would use this for gaming mostly.

True, but I would have to eliminate some of my other peripherals to make up the cost. That, or I would have to use the cheapest Core i7 parts around, instead of using very nice Phenom II parts.

Plus, I like supporting the little guy getting sh****ed on. And I honestly don't need an i7 rig, because I already don't really need a Phenom II rig haha!

if your starting from ground up on a new build, go with the phenom II 955 and AM3 for sure. Good luck with your build, hope it turns out good for you.

no its still watered down

The 940 is watered down too...

He still wants him to get an i7 setup. I can vouch for saving money on a PII system over an i7 system, and it can still do all the things that the i7 can do. (Except having 4 virtual cores )

PhII 720BE / Gigabyte 790x AM3: $245 AR
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Comb [...] mbo.182106

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1600: $60
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820231193



Anand: Phenom II X3 720BE & CrossFire X Performance
http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdo [...] i=3533&p=9

That i7 seven really is a marvel though and my super clocker still gets too hot too fast 4.2 is stable.

I'll never buy an i7, I'll buy another intel chip when they decide to come out with 8 cores. I think that buying an i7 right now would be a serious waste of money. usb 3.0 will be coming out and a bunch of new crap like pci express 3.0 you'll have to update your system sooner than you think so why waste your money on old motherboards with "newer technology" like i7. It isn't worth the price performance ratio right now. When their motherboards drop in price they will be. Until then I'm sticking with my phenom 2 940.

If you can afford the extra cost, I'd say go with the 955 and DDR3 in a heartbeat.

I actually helped two of my friends build these two setups, one obviously needing a cheaper rig then the other, and you can definately tell the difference. The 940 with DDR2 build is still fast and definatley worth the price, but the 955 is an even better price to performance ratio if you can afford it, no question.

955.... pounce on it...

^ well actually as soon as you hit two GPU's, the i7 will have an fps advantage, can't remember how much on average but any more fps in crysis is amazing.