Legit Reviews

Thinking about getting any of the phenom CPU's and well just wanted input.... NEED INPUT JOHNNY 5!

It's a cheap way to get to quadcore if you need it. Gaming still does good with dual cores. Been a price drop on the retail Phenom 9600 black again. You can find it for $225 now. Retail Q6600 is holding steady at 270+.

Its a cheap upgrade to quadcore, especially if your current motherboard supports it.
Just make sure you test the chip well when you buy it because today i read there are some chips with a faulty 3d core out there
http://forums.amd.com/forum/messageview ... TARTPAGE=1
Be sure to stress the chip and if you get any errors send it back for replacement

If you don't mind the price difference, Q6600 is the safest bet

I've been a dedicated AMD user for years, seeing that my X2 6400 out performs the current Phenom offerings in every area except video and sound encoding, and it's almost total lack of over clockability I wouldn't go with Phenom. If it's a choice and your dead set for Quad Intel is a better option.

Honestly other than benchmark scores is a quad faster in real life than a dual core?

I would rather have a fast dual (3.2Mhz) than a slower quad(2.3Mhz) if I was sticking with AMD.

Currently quads only see an advantage in video and sound encoding, most programs and almost no games support more than dual core and wide spread support is probably a year or two away. I went higher speed dual core because currently games benefit more from the higher clock speed than the extra cores. I've been following the phenoms extensively, people have been going nuts trying to over clock them and getting no where fast.

The X2 6400 at $160 is pretty good but you have to keep in mind: It doesn't come with a cpu cooler, and you need a high end cooler to run it (zalman 9700, thermalright 120 ultra class) if your going to drive it like I drive mine. So the cooler is going to run 50-70 bucks extra. If you get a good universal it's worth it because you can carry it on to future builds.

I have a whole thread on the x2 6400 down in AMD Motherboards, benches and motherboard pics included here: http://forums.legitreviews.com/about13093.htm

I can get 3.7 stable with my cooling, with the Thermalright I got 3.52 easily with good temps. I'd recommend a Black Box edition of which ever cpu you choose from AMD as the unlocked multiplier makes it easy to over clock. On my board, a value based AMD 770 chipset the Asus M3A that runs $99, people have been getting 3.1 to 3.2 with the X2 5000 black. The X2 5000 runs a hundred and comes with a stock cooler (replace the stock cooler for over clocking).

IMHO it's better to go higher speed dual AMD than lower clock quad right now, and for phenom unless they do some thing to significantly improve performance and clock speed, and work out the bugs I'll never buy one.

The X2 5000 black does not come with a stock cooler, doesn't need it as it runs cool at stock speed. The Phenoms cannot be OC. Anything beyond 2.4 creates massive heat. 9700 and 9900 have already been cancelled because AMD cannot get a full batch of them to run stable. If you want a Phenom wait till the B3 stepping, they might have fixed the design flaw in it that is causing the chips to fail at above 2.4 There is also the problem with the mCH, there are reports that running RAM at voltages>2.2 V will cause the memory controller on the Phenom to fail after a few weeks. 1st generation Phenoms are good. Three core Phenoms are due out soon, hope they do better.

I just checked on the 5000/no fan, my bad I was looking at a fan bundled deal. Thought that fan was a little fancy for OEM.

I would say, go for either E6750 or the good old Q6600.Get the quad only if you do a lot of Multitasking.Otherwise, a dual core is enough for most jobs.

The Q6600, when on sale, is nearly as cheap as some of the Phenom. Given the better benchmarks of the Intel chip, you might consider it. But given that
the Phenom is already quick fast, t'is a cheap way of getting quad core. I myself am planning on getting one.

anyone know if the phenom rivals intel in their price range? With overclocking included.

hercules71185 wrote:anyone know if the phenom rivals intel in their price range? With overclocking included.

When OCing is involved the Intels come out ahead. The issue is how much do you REALLY OC?
For me I OC and run a benchmark or 2 for about 10 min than I get tired of it and go back to stock.

I've never ran my pc stock. lol. I have the x2 3600 @ 2.85 and stock is slower than a sloth chasing a cheetah. I want something to run games a bit better when I get the 8800gt or newer series nvidia. I think my x2 is going to bottleneck it

biostar nf-520 won't support the phenom right? So I'm stuck with having to get a new set up anyways. Man I really want to stay with AMD I've beenw with them since the 1800 was brand new. then the 2500, now I'm at the 3600 but, very highly overclocked.

I would stay away from Phenom at this moment. There is a bug in the CPU core that causes hangs when certain applications that use nested pages runs. The fix is to disable some options in the BIOS but it has affects performance. I read in the review about it and that the fix will be provided in a new CPU release but I don't think they will replace it. I returned mine as soon as I read about it.
Meanwhile you can go with the Dual 6400+ which you can get cheaper now that Phenom is release.

No problem in staying with AMD, though. Yes, there are a lot of alligators around. And a whole lot of people are abandoning AMD on the premise that one buyer doesn't make a difference—or they just don't care—but if AMD actually went down, Intel would double its newly monopolistic prices the next day, and these same people would cry the blues: you bet.

I really hope AMD can make it, and I believe they will. Their biggest challenge is actually Intel's vastly larger capital.

Phenom triples will be wise marketing, though personally I would feel weird buying anything with a disabled part—but that's just my own quirk. I'm comparing AMD 64x2 5000+ Black -or- 5200+ with Phenom 9500 right now. It might be a good idea to wait and see if Phenom 9550 shows up anytime soon. The AM3 mb is cheap to buy, although it's been criticized as cheaply built.

I just wish I could move my 4 PATAs to my new system. And I'd like to keep my AGP video card too. I like investing in truly better components, but I hate wasting components that work beautifully. Still, the Phenom seems to be open to the future more than the 5000+/5200+. So many pros and cons; dizzying!

Groonx wrote:I just wish I could move my 4 PATAs to my new system. And I'd like to keep my AGP video card too. I like investing in truly better components, but I hate wasting components that work beautifully.

I've got the same dilemma. Not exactly a solution but I relegated the old PC to the living room and just built a completely new one.

As for the Phenoms, I'd wait until AMD irons most of the bugs out.