I3-530 vs Phenom II x4

[Rodmantis]

I've seen the latest best cpu for the money chart, and I've seen these two as the winners in their respective price range, nevertheless the motherboard varies.

The price for the Phenom II x4 945 in my country is $188 + 102 for the motherboard, while the i3-530 retails for 149 + 160 for the motherboard. Giving a total cost of 280 for the AMD config and a cost of 310 for the Intel Based one.

The PC is meant for standard home usage (having office, youtube, and a video game open at the same time).
The system will have 2 gigs of ram, a zotac gt 240 ddr5, a seagate drive and a 400 watt psu.

 

[Timop]

You'd rather go for an Athlon X4 and 4GB of RAM, even with a 980X, 2GB will still be too little, especially for multitasking.

 

[Rodmantis]

I will get one strip of 2 gigs of ram and probably another one in a month or two. Nevertheless, the CPU is something I can't easily change, so I would like to know which of those two suits me best

 

[Timop]

The Phenom will be better, since youll be running multiple programs at the same time, the 2 extra core will shine through.

But Id really get 4GB at the same time, you'll have a pretty bad computer for a month with only 2GB.

Where do you live? Whats the pricing on the Athlon X4?

 

[devorakman112]

ill take 4 real cores over 2 typerthreaded cores anyday.

 

[mosox]

How much is a Phenom II X4 955?

 

[Emperus]

The Phenom II is the obvious better choice here.. But i'll recommend sticking with Timop's suggestion.. Your usage scenario is well served that way.. If you wish to get one from the Phenom II lineup then its recommended you add up some cash and get one from the X6 series..

 

[Emperus]

The Phenom II is the obvious better choice here.. But i'll recommend sticking with Timop's suggestion.. Your usage scenario is well served that way.. If you wish to get one from the Phenom II lineup then its recommended you add up some cash and get one from the X6 series..

 

[ScoobyJooby-Jew]

I ran a phenom IIx4 with 2 gigs of ram for a month. It really wasnt bad. My faulty gfx card was a bigger problem than the lack of memory

 

[duk3]

Phenom II x4 for sure, how much more is an x4 955? On newegg the 955 is only $5 more.

 

[Outlander_04]

The phenom and Athlon are the same core , but the phenom has an L3 cache .


It seems to me that an athlon x4 640 has about equivalent performance to the i3 530. So why not use one of those? It would be cheaper than the Phenom , and combined with a good 880G chipset motherboard [ so you dont have to buy a graphics card immediately ] you could also afford the 4 gig of RAM now

 

[elixir4001]

The phenom and Athlon are the same core , but the phenom has an L3 cache .


It seems to me that an athlon x4 640 has about equivalent performance to the i3 530. So why not use one of those? It would be cheaper than the Phenom , and combined with a good 880G chipset motherboard [ so you dont have to buy a graphics card immediately ] you could also afford the 4 gig of RAM now

This sounds like a good idea

 

[Rodmantis]

Yeap, that sounds as a good idea, but I'd rather have my video card now and THEN the gigs of ram (it's just a months wait).

Should I invest much in the platform? Cause they're selling me a 100 dollar AMD motherboard with integrated video, but they also carry a 60 dollar platform with no video, where I could use my videocard instead.

 

[elixir4001]

If you're for sure going to buy a vid card in my opinion there's no reason to get on board video. Save 60 and get the cheaper one as long as the MBs are comparable.

And also if you're really going to buy the ram in a month make sure you do and not just say oh I'll get it next month, etc etc lol. It will really benefit you

 

[Rodmantis]

Best answer selected by Rodmantis.