Phenom II x2 550 or Athlon x4 620

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MightyMightyMe

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I'm getting a new motherboard from newegg (GA-MA770T-UD3P) soon but I'm torn on which processor to get. I'd like to have a quad-core processor with speed around 3 Ghz. I know the obvious thing would be to get a Phenom X4 but I'm only gonna have about $100 to spend on the processor. So what do you think I would have a better chance with: overclocking an Athlon II x4 to around 3 Ghz or unlocking the other 2 cores on the Phenom II x2?
 
Overclocking the Athlon II X4 would be better. Those things pretty much guarantee an over 3GHz overclock. The Phenom 550 doesn't guarantee you 4 good cores.
 
I would get the X2 550 to be honest. You will most likely unlock it with that motherboard.
 
X4, easy. With the X4, you are guaranteed the two cores over the Phenom, and you should be able to OC it with no problem. Even assuming everything being equal (both cores unlock/OC to 3ghz) you end up with the main difference being the L3 cache on the Phenom, which has been shown to not make much of a difference with performance. Really though, you should assume the worst case scenario (no core unlock/no OC to 3ghz) and buy based on what you would have the least problem living with at stock.
 
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Definitely the Athlon. You are guaranteed to get 4 cores and an overclock with the Athlon, you are not guaranteed four cores unlocking the Phenom. A higher clock, L3 cache, and unlocked multipliers are nice, but 2 extra cores are even better.
 
The Athlon II. The odds of being able to overclock the Athlon to 3 GHz are a lot higher than the odds of both disabled cores on the Phenom 550 being fully functional at 3 GHz.
 
When I bought, it was betweeb a 720 or 550. I rolled the dice on the 550 and got 4 cores and 3.7/3.8 ghz on stock voltage.

You like to play the dice? Bet on black!
 
I bought that motherboard last week from Newegg and I got the Phenom 550x2.I was hoping to unlock it but it wouldn't work.It has the f4 bios so I don't know if thats the problem.It does have the ACC option in bios so probably not.
I had it running at 3.4 on stock cooler and put a thermalright xp-120 on it tonight and will see how much higher I can take it.
I use the computer for a htpc.
 
If you can find a PII X4 805, that would also be an option, it is cheap, it has 4 cores and L3 cache (smaller). I have an X2 550 but it can't be unlocked, it is running at 3.6GHz at stock voltage. I know that a quad core is better that's why I have ordered a PII X4 965 C3. The 550 is just a CPU that I bought to play with while waiting for the C3 stepping.
 
I'd say the Athlon II 620, its a Quad core out of the box, there is a chance you can unlock the L3 Cache. I had a 550BE and it didn't unlock, made me sad :/ but it was a fast chip :p
 
M3T4LM4N222 said:
I'd say the Athlon II 620, its a Quad core out of the box, there is a chance you can unlock the L3 Cache. I had a 550BE and it didn't unlock, made me sad :/ but it was a fast chip :p
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There is no chance of unlocking the l3 cache, that was only on the very first chips that were derived from the phenom. These are entirely different chips.

@ OP, if you want to make a compromise, for about $15-20 more you can get the Phenom II 720, 3 cores and 6mb L3
 
^
I'm surprise your the only one who suggest the X3 720BE as a compromise. It does make better sense than the X2 550BE and the X4 Athlon II.

Plus for kicks you can try to unlock the 4th core. If you don't at least you get the L3 cache which I hear makes a difference in gaming.
 
both are good chips. Also cheap.
I would go for x4 because its quad core. But I think 550 will be little bit faster in game due to higher clock and overclock(mine running 3.9 now)
 
Right now I have a x2 5600 (Original version) that is giving me stability problems. Right now its primarily a gaming machine but I find myself doing more and more video editing and development. The Athlon x4 scares me because I really don't want to end up with a slower processor than I have, at least the Phenom II x2 would be faster than what I had out of the box. I honestly hadn't really thought about Phenom II x3, that seems like a good comprise between the two actually. I don't know why I didn't think of that. You've been really helpful guys.
 
+1 for the 720

Or you might look at a 810 if you can find a good deal. It only has 4mb L3 cache, but it does have 4 cores. Check out the processor thread where the 720 and 810 are stacked up against the i7 920.
 
The i7 beats the pants out of all AMD processors, unfortunately. But it's so far out of the price range it's not even an option for me right now. My 720 is great, no complaints.
 
I'd get the 620. If you get the Phenom II X2 and can't unlock the other two cores, then you're stuck with two cores. It's always a gamble to get a one of those 550s just so you can unlock the other two cores because there's no guarantee. Even so, at stock speed I'd still get the 620 over the 550 because I'd rather have four cores than an L3 cache and two cores. That's just my preference. I've looked a lot into this because I've been looking at different forum post and asked lots of people for a few months because I eventually hope to get an Athlon II X4 620.
 
I recently bought that same motherboard and got the 550.I couldn't unlock the 2 cores but overclocked it to 3.8.My temps only reach 38 degrees Celsius on full load with stock voltage.I think I can hit 4 no problem.I will probably keep it at 3.6 though because its a htpc,so no need to have a crazy overclock.
 
A 550 clocked at 3.8 should have no problem with any application you throw at it even if you only get 2 cores. And it should perform better in gaming than the 620.
 
I definitely like the 620 better. Its going to hit 3.4ghz on decent air, or higher, and a quad core @that speed is going to be more versatile than a dual core.

The cache, and chance of unlocking to a full cache Phenom II X4 is definitely tempting from the 550, but Id still choose to go with the guaranteed quad core. Im building a media center PC and a pc for a joe sixpack user in the next week, both are going to be using 620 X4's. Just too good a value to pass up. I did not expect to see a 100 dollar quad core this soon, nice job AMD. Before this came out I was going to be using 710/720's for normal people budget builds that want more than just a dual core, and then comes a 100 dollar quad, woot!
Every OEM builder like dell and compaq should be rolling out nice budget machines with these babies, they could be charging 100-200 less than any other box on the shelf with a quad core, and easily bumping their core speed to 3ghz.
 
Yeah if it weren't for that deal at Fry's I probably would have gone with the triple core, but I'm loving my Quad Core with unlocked multiplier.
 
I have a 720 on a 760G based board with ddr2 800. Zero complaints. Nice middle ground.
 
I had a gigabyte MA785G. I bought an x2 550 from Fry's and could unlock the two cores in bios but it wouldn't load windows. Used that chip in a build for a friend who doesn't overclock and bought another 550 from Newegg. Unlocked just fine and clocked to 3.6 stable. The overclocker/enthusiast in you will say take a run at the 550 but if you absolutely have to have a quad core go with the 620.
 
I picked up the 620 and the Asus M3N78-VM combo for 129 from frys a few weeks ago, and i've been over all impressed with this budget quad. Does the job very well, very fast, does great for gaming as well, overclocked to 3ghz easy. Although yea the 720 would pretty much be a better option since you already have mobo picked out. Can't go wrong with either cpu though.
 
I'm in a similar boat (not intent to hijack). I'm looking up upgrade my GF's system with a new cpu, mobo, ram and I'm now debating on the 550 or the 720. From anandtechs benches they're basically the same in terms of gaming performance (main concern is WoW) and price is about the same right now as well.

I don't have a great cpu review site either. Hard doesn't do jack.
 
Dallows said:
I'm in a similar boat (not intent to hijack). I'm looking up upgrade my GF's system with a new cpu, mobo, ram and I'm now debating on the 550 or the 720. From anandtechs benches they're basically the same in terms of gaming performance (main concern is WoW) and price is about the same right now as well.

I don't have a great cpu review site either. Hard doesn't do jack.
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Either of those should be fine for WoW. Video card would be more important, and even then, WoW doesn't require an extremely powerful one.

The Athlon II chips overclock like champs, from my experience and everything I've seen so far. I had an x2 245 (2.9 stock) that hit 3.77 GHz on air, with less than stock volts, and I'm sure it could have gone higher if I could have gotten the HTT faster on my motherboard. Same chip underclocked to 2.5 GHz needed only 1.008v to be Prime stable, so I was impressed with it.

That being said, I sold the chip and got a Phenom II 550BE, and am about to try my hand unlocking it. Motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-MA-785GM-US2H and BIOS is the new F6 beta, which I chose because it will allow me to try only 3 cores if all 4 aren't stable. Wish me luck...
 
douglasb said:
Either of those should be fine for WoW. Video card would be more important, and even then, WoW doesn't require an extremely powerful one.

The Athlon II chips overclock like champs, from my experience and everything I've seen so far. I had an x2 245 (2.9 stock) that hit 3.77 GHz on air, with less than stock volts, and I'm sure it could have gone higher if I could have gotten the HTT faster on my motherboard. Same chip underclocked to 2.5 GHz needed only 1.008v to be Prime stable, so I was impressed with it.

That being said, I sold the chip and got a Phenom II 550BE, and am about to try my hand unlocking it. Motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-MA-785GM-US2H and BIOS is the new F6 beta, which I chose because it will allow me to try only 3 cores if all 4 aren't stable. Wish me luck...
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Well thanks to Blizzards patchs/additions and shit coding the game isn't what it used to be. It's heavy on the CPU now more than Vid Card and she has an ATI 4850, which should be fine.

I think I'll give the 550 BE a try. It's a little cheaper and beat the 720 in almost every bench I saw. Even thought like I said they were basically the same. It's all the same specs too save for 1 core. She doesn't multitask enough for that to even be a factor I'd wager.

Thanks for the input. We'll see how it goes.

Good luck, lol.

Well now I'm reading this thread and even more confused. If I get her a quad-core maybe this would help even more - http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1035004963#post1035004963
 
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Oh, I haven't played WoW in a couple of years, so I was unaware that it was so CPU intensive. I do recall hearing about how the coding has gotten really bad, though.

Anyways, my 550BE unlock was a success! Stock voltage, turned on Hybrid ACC +2 to all cores, and to my surprise, Vista booted up and I was able to run the AMD Overdrive stability test for about an hour and 20 minutes before I ended it. I honestly wasn't expecting this CPU to unlock, and had mentally prepared myself for an unsuccessful unlock, so I wouldn't feel let down if it didn't. Everything I had seen indicated that "FPMW" batches (mine is 0940 FPMW) almost always failed to unlock, and there wasn't really any data available for this particular batch number. I haven't tried overclocking it, but I can't complain even if it doesn't run 1 MHz over stock because I got a 3.1 GHz quad for under $100 shipped (used the "BLACKFRIDAY" code at SuperBiiz).

+1 for the 550BE based on my successful unlock with it. Nothing guarantees that a chip will unlock, but if you're willing to take the risk, it's worth it. Plus, it's not a bad chip as a dual core, and should OC pretty well.
 
Well it's more of just my theory. Because it's like a 4 year old engine and was designed in the first place to run on a wide spectrum of systems. Doesn't matter though. I'm gonna evaluate the price differences again. The Athlon X4's don't seem worth it. Performance isn't the best.
 
Gym Rat said:
A 550 clocked at 3.8 should have no problem with any application you throw at it even if you only get 2 cores. And it should perform better in gaming than the 620.
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Yup yup. I have my 550 oc'd to 4.1ghz. I have absolutely no trouble with gaming. I would recommend getting the 550 now and oc the crap out of it. Then later, when you got more cash, you can always upgrade to the Bulldozer without having to change the mobo. :D Besides, 98% of the games out there aren't threaded for 4 cores so a higher clock speed will have a greater impact for now.
 
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