Legit Reviews

Okay so i ve posted many post on which board and all that.....
Now this is a really big problem for me now... cause i ve ordered the mobo and ram and i cant decide between CPU!!

Seriously guys m feeling like........ like.... ok let it be
I got few options choose one for me.
ATHLON II X4 630 @ 2.8Ghz
ATHLON II X3 450 @ 3.0Ghz
PHENOM II X2 555 @ 3.2Ghz

The board is MSI 785GM-E51 AM3 AMD 785G HDMI Micro ATX and ram is 2GB kingston value ram 1333Mhz...

DETAILED INFO REGARDING FOR WHAT THE PC IS USED:-
Now this setup is for GAMING!!!! and video editing and conversion of those videos, which i will be uploading in my YOUTUBE Channel....
Also the videos are in HD 720p(for now... as i ve a max res of 1280*1024....) later in the future it will be 1080p.
No hardcore photoshop or anything like that... so please SPEC ME!!!!!!!!

PHENOM II X2 555 @ 3.2Ghz and unlock it.....(turn it into an X4)

I'd say get the quad, my brother just bought a X4 620 and that thing is perfect for gaming. The X4 630 costs just as much as the X2 555, at least here in germany (around 70-80€) .

Of course there is the possibility of unlocking the extra cores on the X2, but it's just a possibility.

In the end it's you choice

+1 for the X2 555. The lack of L3 Cache hurts the X4 620 and it's siblings.

pwcmed wrote:+1 for the X2 555. The lack of L3 Cache hurts the X4 620 and it's siblings.

+2, even the 550 would be a great choice, save a little coin and take advantage of it being a Black Edition, unlocking cores isn't a 100% guarantee but I've already unlocked a few and each time they unlocked to a stable quad-core.

What is your budget and why not look at a quad core Phenom II? If I were in the market for a gaming AMD build it would definitely be a quad Phenom II.

Major_A wrote:What is your budget and why not look at a quad core Phenom II? If I were in the market for a gaming AMD build it would definitely be a quad Phenom II.

My budget is around the same price at what the Phenom II X2 555 and Athlon II X4 630 are right now..
And i cant get a phenom II X4 as its completely outta my league

stopthekilling77 wrote:+2, even the 550 would be a great choice, save a little coin and take advantage of it being a Black Edition, unlocking cores isn't a 100% guarantee but I've already unlocked a few and each time they unlocked to a stable quad-core.

yeah ur right.... i too ve seen may ppls reviews and everyone has unlocked it to 4 cores... and even i did it today in my frnds pc which i built 2day...
AMD PHENOM II X2 555 BE @ 3.2
GIGABYTE 78GM-Uxxxx mobo(ddr2)
2GB kingston value ram 800Mhz OC'ed at 1333 STABLE
500 GB SAMSUNG SPINPOINT F3
and all four cores running at 3.2Ghz stable after 1hour stress test by prime95...
so i guess i will buy the X2 it self as not many games use 4 cores right???

for what your using it for you'll be okay with a dual core so my vote goes to the PII and try to unlock it. You take a bit of a risk but even if it doesn't unlock you won't notice much of a difference between the PII X2 and the AII x4

mx6er2587 wrote:for what your using it for you'll be okay with a dual core so my vote goes to the PII and try to unlock it. You take a bit of a risk but even if it doesn't unlock you won't notice much of a difference between the PII X2 and the AII x4

oh no...please dont refer to it as a PII bad memories associated with that

I believe 550 is easier to type than PII, it's also more specific, no idea why you would use PII lol

mx6er2587 wrote:for what your using it for you'll be okay with a dual core so my vote goes to the PII and try to unlock it. You take a bit of a risk but even if it doesn't unlock you won't notice much of a difference between the PII X2 and the AII x4

Yeah i will obviously try

Jodox wrote:I believe 550 is easier to type than PII, it's also more specific, no idea why you would use PII lol

Yeah +1

CAPS LOCK MADE ME READ THIS THREAD!

mx6er2587 wrote:for what your using it for you'll be okay with a dual core so my vote goes to the PII and try to unlock it. You take a bit of a risk but even if it doesn't unlock you won't notice much of a difference between the PII X2 and the AII x4

i did some testing actually:

taking comparisons between [Phenom II X2 7mb cache @3.813GHz]/[Athlon II X4 2mb cache @3.250GHz]:

Vantage CPU score: 6,511/10,451 (Multi threaded)
3DM'06 CPU score: 3,017/4,375 (Multi threaded)
superpi 1M: 18.65s/24.25s (single threaded)
wprime 32m: 23.74s/23.92s (both @ 2threads, 12.9s for Athlon @4threads)
wprime1024m: 12.8min/6.57min (Multi threaded)

so for apps using two or more threads, the athlon quad wins by ~35%, and with single threaded apps the dual core wins by ~25% due to the higher frequency, im not seeing a performance difference between 2MB vs 7MB Cache

also the dual runs a lot cooler(around room temp at idle, regardless of the hs/f) and make sure you get the BE version non-BE chips have a worse unlock ratio in addition to overclocking limitations

Buy the cheaper dual core and spend more on your motherboard. Maybe you can unlock the additional cores and have a quad.

I'm having the same debate with myself right now. I am finally upgrading from socket 939. Personally I will probably take my chances with trying to unlock a dual core and save on the money for other parts. Tight budgets suck :D

X4 630 is a sweet cpu built one for a buddy runs it with a ati 5850 have it overclocked to 3.7ghz thing is great.
Also the X4 630 and the 620 run very cool