AMD PII X4 955, or Intel Q9550?

[touchdowntexas13]

I am hopefully going to build a new computer here pretty soon. The machine will be used for all of my school work, a lot of web browsing, LITTLE audo/video rendering, and gaming is probably the most important on there.

I do plan on oc'ing at least some, so which of these is easier to oc?

What do you guys think? AMD or Intel? The two builds i have on Newegg come out to be the same price so price isn't a deciding factor.

 

[touchdowntexas13]

Yes the i7 is only $20 more, but the mobo and memory are also a bit more expensive. I ask because someone suggested that particular intel quad core over the amd PII X4 955 build that i had posted. I was just curious on which one performed better.

 

[touchdowntexas13]

oh ok. I'm not inclined to overclock to 4 GHz or anything. If i could get the 955 to 3.6 i would be happy.

 

[cjl]

I'd go with the 955 then.

 

[touchdowntexas13]

thanks for your input.

 

[smithereen]

I think so as well.

 

[touchdowntexas13]

that's what i will do then. thanks guys.

 

[fazers_on_stun]

I'd check out THIS article first, before making any final decision..

 

[touchdowntexas13]

There is an article here on Tom's that slightly contradicts that i think. One of the statements made in the article you linked though, was that you would only notice the performance difference in games when you owned a really expensive gpu setup (sli/cf).

I know that the article on Tom's stated that for gaming, the processors perform about the same. When the graphical settings were cranked up, there was minimal difference.

 

[touchdowntexas13]

So one thing i didn't know was that the Q9550 could use ddr3 memory...

When i make a build for both the Q9550 and PII X4 955 they come out to be the same price.

This makes me think that maybe the Q9550 might not be a bad idea after all.

Anyone else with a good opinion/advice?

 

[smithereen]

An AM3 system will be upgradable longer and have similar performance and a slightly lower price. AMD chipsets rock for cheap, Intel DDR3 chipsets are expensive. Anyways, once you equip either of them with DDR3 you're starting to get into i7 price ranges.

 

[cjl]

So one thing i didn't know was that the Q9550 could use ddr3 memory...

When i make a build for both the Q9550 and PII X4 955 they come out to be the same price.

This makes me think that maybe the Q9550 might not be a bad idea after all.

Anyone else with a good opinion/advice?

The Q9550 can't really fully use DDR3 though. The front side bus architecture limits the gains from faster memory on the older Core 2 series CPUs. The i7 and Phenom II can better use the bandwidth of DDR3, so they are the only systems I would consider DDR3 to be worthwhile on.

 

[touchdowntexas13]

alright well then i think i am gonna stick with am3 at this point. Thanks for all of ya'lls advice. This should be fun

 

[Bluescreendeath]

775 isn't technically a "dead socket" since it will still be supported until 2011. By that time, the 1366 and i7s would be old and outdated as well.

 

[touchdowntexas13]

From what i have been reading, it won't be "dead", but there won't be anything new coming out for it. There will just be lower prices on the processors that run on that socket. I could be mistaken, but that's what i have been reading.

 

[smithereen]

Be surprised if you see any new CPUs for it.

 

[Helloworld_98]

^ well there might be some Q9770's floating around on ebay for $100 or something by 2011 but otherwise it's gonna be the fastest cpu you would be able to find.

 

[deredita]

I'd go with the 955 then.

I also agree.

 

[Wisecracker]

Anandtech: Phenom II X3 720BE & CrossFire X Performance
http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3533&p=9

PhII 720BE combo deals ---->>
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductCombos.aspx?Item=N82E16819103649&SubCategory=343&SortField=0&PageSize=10&page=1


Your choice as to DDR2 or DDR3. For you needs won't really matter. The Gigabyte GA-MA790X-UD4P combo gets my vote for $219 - or maybe the Asus 790FX if that's yer thang.

Pump the extra bucks into your vid card(s)

 

[ocre]

everyone says 955. I do to but i think its so strange to see all the AMD support. Honestly they need it. Its just nice having something new and different to advise ppl to get. And the Phenom 2 is a great cpu to advise on. I just got so tired of all these intel builds I done for like the last 3 yrs, The 955 will be everything you need plus its fun with the unlocked multiplier. Just a different age, I hope things stay with a little more options. I mean you cant just say one over the other anymore, there is a real option again. Its pleasing to see this.

 

[Mousemonkey]

I still haven't forgiven AMD for pulling the 939 series because I'm a gnarly old bastard. :lol:

 

[peanutpc]

you could get a Core I7 920 @ Micro Center for $200.00.

 

[Amiga500]

I still haven't forgiven AMD for pulling the 939 series because I'm a gnarly old bastard. :lol:

Yeah, dissapointed me a bit too that the upper limit of skt939 was a 4800x2 (if I remember right)... even more dissappointing was the relatively quick phase out time of even these chips.


I upgraded my K8 to a 4600x2 a couple of years back - I had to bring it forward as they were getting increasingly hard to find and prices were starting to climb. Does the job nicely.



I do have another machine based on the legendary Q6600 though.

 

[witcherx]

955..... +1

 

[touchdowntexas13]

For all of the people suggesting the 955...

Do you guys find that you wish you had SLI support on your mobos?

I didn't know that SLI wasn't supported with AM3, and that is kind of disappointing to me. I'm not necessarily the kind of person that wants to put multiple GPU's in a system, but with the release of the new 4770's sometimes the best deal is to CF/SLI two weaker components. I just don't want to not have that option if Nvidia came out with a gpu with similar value as the new 4770 down the road.

One good thing is that I am pretty sure i will never want more than two GPU's (at least not for a long while) so since they are coming out with these dual-GPU cards I could get away with buying one of those cards and not worrying about SLI support on the mobo.

I'm not saying that I only want Nvidia products, but i do want the option of getting the best value/performance parts when they come out, and if that happens to be two Nvidia cards in SLI...

Anybody worried or disappointed about that factor in their systems?