Budget gaming cpu - X2 550be vs X4 620

[bige420]

Im building a low budget gaming pc for my brother, budget is around $600. All hes really going to be doing is homework (word documents), web surfing, said he wants to play Oblivion, Diablo III and Starcraft II when they come out. I was planning on getting him a 550be, but then I saw the AII X4 620 and I'm thinking I might go with that. I read on anand they got theirs up to 3.25ghz on stock cooling and I would imagine I could probably get something similar. So what do you guys think I should get, a higher clocked dual core with more cache, or a lower clocked quad with less cache?

 

[xaira]

http://www.guru3d.com/article/amd-athlon-ii-x4-620-review-test/

the 620 is a beautiful chip, im waiting for it to be released actually, i wouldnt xpect it at $100 tho, remember the 4770, i think itll be like $125

 

[bige420]

After looking at some benches its really a tossup for me. I'm not sure if he'll ever use the other two cores, he doesnt do any video encoding or photoshop or anything like that, just pretty basic stuff. What im really looking for is gaming performance, its usually around a 10-20 fps difference between the two. You suppose it would close the gap if I clocked that 620 up to around 3-3.2ghz?

Edit: its on Newegg right now for $99, really great price for a quad and the 550be is around the same price.

 

[xaira]

if hes not a hardcore user get an athlon ii x2 240 its a really good chip for $60

 

[xaira]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103706

a 2.6 45nm quad at $99, say what you want about intel, but without them life wouldn't be so sweet.

 

[belial2k]

The 620 is a very gimped quad core. The 550 will out perform it in most things, especially overclocked....and if you get lucky you might be able to unlock the other two cores with the right MB.

 

[bige420]

I know its gimped but the difference in gaming is not too drastic 10-20fps in most games and I attributed that to the clock difference. I'm thinking if I get the 620 up to 3.2 it will perform similar to the 550 in gaming, and it will have two more cores for future quad threaded games.

 

[belial2k]

but it will never have l3 cache, so will always be limited. You are also forgetting the 550BE can be overclocked much higher, so what little gains the the two gimped cores give you will be offset by the higher clock speed on the 550...and if you get lucky on the 550 you will have a full phenom II quad. I love quad cores, but to me the 620 is just a marketing ploy and will underperform in the long run compared to similarly priced dual cores from both AMD and Intel.

 

[bige420]

They both overclock similarly since they are pretty much the same exact cores with a different amount of cache. I think I've decided that im going to go with the 620 and overclock it up to at least 3.0. I know I could get lucky with the 550 and get a full blown phenom II but its not certain. It performs about the same as a Q8200 for $50 cheaper.

 

[jj463rd]

I would say that it's a hard call between those choices.However look closely at the combo deals at newegg when the Athlon II X4's are available because you will probably be able to pick up that CPU with a motherboard for a few bucks off of the price.
Another thing hold off on getting any Radeon 4XXX cards as the Radeon 5800 series will arrive pretty soon and they will kick butt and vastly outperform the Radeon 4XXX cards giving about twice the performance.You might want to get a Radeon 5850 ( I think that they will have them) for that budget system.

 

[xaira]

the 5850 will be released at $300

 

[bige420]

Its going to be a little while before he gets the money together to buy everything. Right now i have a 4850 in his build and im hoping that once the 5000 series comes out it will lower the prices and i'll be able to get him a 4870.

 

[bige420]

I just found this combo deal for the X3 720 and the GA-MA770T-UD3P that basically brings down the price of the 720 to $100 so i'm just gonna hook him up with that. Best of both worlds.