Core i3 vs Phenom (wich one to buy?)

What is your main uses for the system. Also there is no such thing as a phenom x4 655 do you mean 955 if you do then the Phenom II 955BE would be your best choice for processor out of those 3.
 
From cheaper to more expensive;

CPU (quads)

Athlon II X4 630 or Athlon II X4 635 or Phenom II X4 925 or Phenom II X4 955BE

mobos

MSI 770-C45, MSI 770-G45, Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3, Gigabyte GA-MA785GT-UD3H .

 

xaira

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im guessing by ur pricerange that the middle one is the

Athlon II X4 635, which is the best hands down, but id ditch the asrock and go with the asus board and get the 630 instead of the 635, 100mhz is not worth $20
 

Raidur

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Nov 27, 2008
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I wouldn't go with anything more than I3 or Phenom II X2/3 or Athlon II X3/4 with only a 5770.

Between the bunch I would go with either i3 or Athlon II X4. (i3 annihilates Phenom II X2 once overclocking is taken into account, and 4 cores is a hard thing to look past for the Athlon II)
 
In terms of per core and per clock performance, the Core i3 is better plus you can upgrade to a Core i5/i7 quad later. But if its needed now, the Phenom II X4 would be better to go with although the L3 is not exactally usefull for everything there are some programs and some games that will utilize it, I think games at higher res do better with faster/more L3.

Its hard to really say. The i3 is a bit high in price compared to AMDs offerings but still its not an easy choice.

I say Phenom II X4. A quad is nice to have for multitasking like when you play a movie on one monitor while playing a game on the other.
 

duk3

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Jan 15, 2010
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Plus you may be able to *not sure* upgrade to a six core later, something you definitely will not do on a p55 motherboard.
 

lcp1109

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Another question, why not go for one of the two MB I mention, with nforce 720d, if:

- I'll only be able to buy a DDR2 800 Mhz CL5 or a DDR3 1056 Mhz CL7, that I think have almost the same performance;

- I'll not get a 6 core soon (I have an AMD 2600+ for about 7 years and I'm changing it mostly because my GPU doesn't have shader 3.0 :) );

- 720D have more raid options;

- other specification aren't really important to me, besides those from bios that I don't fully understand their importance;

So, there is any good reason to pick an 770 or 785 instead of 720d MB?
 

mfernicola

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Oct 3, 2009
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Based on your postings, there is no reason why you shouldn't get the nforce board.

Unless you plan on taking advantage of the increased raid options, I would just go with the least expensive option. Any of these boards can overclock.

+1 on the Athlon II x4 630 -- it will EASILY drive your 5770.
 


Actually thats not a sure thing with LGA1156. ALl we know is that Sandy Bridge will be for both LGA1366 and LGA1156 and Sandy bridge is supposed to be 4-8 native cores so a 6 core for LGA1156 IS a possibility.
 
G

Guest

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save yourself some money and get the 555 with asus m4a770. that will save you a lot of money and, with a little luck, you'll get 2 extra cores with an unlock. otherwise get the 955 which you will absolutely not go wrong with. also, if you're looking into integrated graphics, then maybe you should get a 785, otherwise the 770 will do just fine.