PC: G860 or A8-3870K (at same price) ??

[UETIAN]

Hi all,
I am interested in buying a new PC, and the limit is <270 (€).
There are 2 systems available (at nearly the same price) at the online store:
G860 (2x 3.0GHz) based PC (with 8GB RAM) = 250€
A8-3870K (4x 3.0GHz) based PC (8GB RAM) = 265€

My interest:- !! NUMERICS (double precision) !! (FORTRAN/C++ ..I work with Linux/BSD ... hence no gaming etc.)

I have throughly checked the Intel website and they claim that G860 has 46 GFLOPS (theoretical), but there exists no such gflops data for A8-3870K.
I think that the practical GFLOPS value of G860 (e.g. by running the Intel LINPACK benchmark etc.) will be around 25 GFLOPS.

If there is someone who knows about the efficiency/ capability of double precision nuermical work at these CPUs, kindly guide me.

Please dont ask me to go for i3 (the minimum price of i3-21xx based system with 2GB RAM, is above 300€ !!), or i5 which is even more expensive (>350€).

 

[MajinCry]

I don't know about this, but I'd just throw this in here.

The AMD Phenom II x4 965 BE is £40 cheaper than the i3 2100 (Goes for around £120) here in Scotland, so that could be a consideration if you are willing to extend your budget.

FYI: The 965 BE is half the price of the 2500k, and is only 25% slower.

 

[UETIAN]

Thanks for your valuable advice.
I searched for many hours on internet looking for the floating point operation capability (SiSoft. Sandra benchmark) of Pentium-G860 and Phenom-II-X4-965, and finally ...
(1) - Pentium-G860: 21.8 GFLOPS
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-pc-overclocking-pc-building,3273-9.html

(2) - Phenom-II-X4-965: 45.8 GFLOPS
http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/pii_965/4.html

huge difference indeed in performance, but manageable difference in price (20€)!

BTW: I also found that A8-3870K (35 GFLOPS, if O.C. then 40 GFLOPS) is slower then Ph.-II-X4-965. (3)
http://www.hartware.net/review_1425_5.html
--

So I am going for Ph.-II-X4-965 !

 

[lchrisk]

It depends if you are getting a graphics card with it and if you are going to game.

Honestly, even if you are not going to be gaming, the a8 will still be the better choice. It's a quad core, with integrated graphics that can do pretty well compared to a lot of the low - mid ranged descreet graphic cards.

If you are not going to be gaming, either one would do the trick. Although just get the a8.

 

[UETIAN]

I don't know about this, but I'd just throw this in here.

The AMD Phenom II x4 965 BE is £40 cheaper than the i3 2100 (Goes for around £120) here in Scotland, so that could be a consideration if you are willing to extend your budget.

FYI: The 965 BE is half the price of the 2500k, and is only 25% slower.

The most pleasant surprise that I found at the local store, was the same price of FX-6300 based system and Phenom-II-X4-965 based system (rest hardware is same, only 12€ difference). Although at Amazon Phenom-X4-965 = 90€ and FX-6300=140€.

Do you think that (given this offer) I should switch to FX-6300??