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Processor: AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition
The original intent was to squeeze a Phenom II X3 processor into this month’s budget machine, but in the end, it just wasn’t a possibility. The $100 Phenom II X3 710 we used in a recent overclocking article was out of stock and the $120 Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition pushed us just outside the flexibility of our budget.
Read Customer Reviews of AMD's Phenom II X2 550
Instead, we opted for the AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition which has seen serious street pricing fluctuations since its release. This Phenom II has two functioning cores, runs at 3.1 GHz, and has 6MB L3 cache. It won’t offer the same performance as a triple-core in many of our multi-threaded applications, but with higher stock core speeds, should put up some higher numbers in the single- and dual-threaded tests. Further, it provides solid overclocking potential and, if you are lucky, even has the potential to successfully unlock the disabled cores.
CPU Cooler: AMD Boxed Cooler
The first sacrifice we made in the interest of cramming all of these goodies into a $650 budget was utilizing the “free” bundled AMD cooler. The all-aluminum heatsink is identical to the one on our Phenom II X3 710, and has nowhere near the cooling potential as the copper-base and heat pipes found on the upper quad-core Phenom IIs. A 70mm x 15mm fan covers most of the aluminum, making this cooler look downright puny compared to one of the 92mm or 120mm aftermarket coolers we would like to have used. We may not be able to push CPU voltage far with this cooler, but the dual-core Phenom II still has the potential to reach 3.5 GHz at stock voltage.
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A nicely done build, great work with overclocking on a stock cooler and an impeccable write up. Thanks for the great article Mr. Henningsen. AMD did a good job for a budget build, especially at stock clocks.
Great article! It's crazy to see all of that packed into a case for only ~$650.
I usually love reading these, but this time I just went directly to the comment section. There's no point in building or owning an amd box, they are too weak compared to modern Intel/Nvidia based systems.
Wonderful. =D
What about the new $100 quad core athlon with no L3?
I know I like extra cores. Wonderful choice regardless.
I wonder what the quad core athlon with a 512MB 5850 (which would increase the budget though) will be like. Both cheap yet highend parts. =D
Nice to see what only a pocketful of cash can get you.
i know it wasn't available at the time but what about that 100 dollar quad core the athlon II x4?
Good article. I know you stated you were leaving the "unlocking" of the other cores to the winner of the contest, but were you guys able to unlock? If so, could you re-run those benchmarks? Again great article.
While "forcing" all AMD builds for a single marathon is a good idea, the timing is somewhat unfortunate.
An article which explores the performance and value of a complete Lynnfield build is something I (and many others, i'd dare to guess) would like to see but haven't yet, and this month's SBM is a missed opportunity in that regard.
That's a bitchin budget gamer system especially looking at the gaming benchmarks.Just this month I was thinking about building a similar type of system with the Phenom II X2 550BE.I was going to go with gigabytes 785G type board (just one graphics card slot) though however I may reconsider that especially with what you presented here although I was shooting for a much cheaper budget build (about $180 less than what you have),Newegg did have a gigabyte 785G board with the Phenom II X2 and $20 off in a combo deal until the end of this month.
I think that your choices were better than mine (more powerful).
Another alternate mobo - 785G ...they are availbale in AM3/AM2+ flavours and have SB 710, which can allow core unlocking -http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128394
But not sure about their o/c potential though...
Nice to see a cheap system still using a quality motherboard.
I usually love reading these, but this time I just went directly to the comment section. There's no point in building or owning an amd box, they are too weak compared to modern Intel/Nvidia based systems.
It's a budget build... I doubt that you could do any better with intel for this price, and seriously doubt that nvidia would be better.
Face it nvidia is not the best right now. I own a 8800GT 512, it was/is an excelent card but just because nvidia did something awesome doesn't mean that presently it's the best choice.
I really can't understand people who bias their choices based on the brand.
My advice: don't buy a brand buy quality/performance/cost, it will save you some money and you'll be better served...
Another alternate mobo - 785G ...they are availbale in AM3/AM2+ flavours and have SB 710, which can allow core unlocking -http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128394 But not sure about their o/c potential though...
Yeah that was the one in the combo deal with the Phenom II X2 550 BE.
I was considering one Radeon 5850 card for it.I wonder how one Radeon 5850 compares to 2 Radeon 4850's CF'd.
I wonder how one Radeon 5850 compares to 2 Radeon 4850's CF'd.
http://www.tomshardware.com/review [...] 22-16.html
The new big brother of the new card's shown here. Given the minor differences in speed and a few shaders missing I'm guessing this chart's difference between 2x4870 and 5870 account more or less to the difference between a 5850 and 2x4850 (assuming 1gb memory, 512 just isn't enough for 2500, and at 1600 u only need one 4850 512mb in most games).
In any event - consider the savings in power consumption when calculating cost. The new cards are so much cheaper to idle - and my 4870 idles most of the time.
And why not this HDD? Wouldnt this be faster than that WD Blue ?
Samsung F3 500GB
$49.99 with Free Shipping
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6822152181
Just a thought, would the Athlon II X4 be a better alternative if the user is geared towards productivity apps rather than games?
Just a thought, would the Athlon II X4 be a better alternative if the user is geared towards productivity apps rather than games?
If a user is geared towards that, something with an i7 is a better choice. Just drop the graphics altogether (or get a 4650 or something).
All hopes go to the winner of this system on a successful unlock of the 2 disabled cores, after throwing on a nice after market hsf. Though I wonder how this build would have went with a single 4870 1gb instead of two 4850's and an after market cooler was used bench wise with it running x4 not x2. Winner might want to do some research if unsuccessful at unlocking with the stock bios after reading buyer comments on the mb which bios version to flash(latest isn't always best).
Seems the total on NewEgg is now close to $700.
You know after all it would be very hard to out do this budget system build especially if the cores are unlocked.Dang
Can I enter the competition if I live outside of the United States?