dlee7283

Low End CPU guide
This is my AMD CPU guide to help potential buyers figure out which processor is right for them. I excluded the AMD64 X2 line such as the X2 5200 or the X2 6000 since they aren’t really part of AMD’s current roadmap and can be beaten at their price point by AMD’s current offerings. I also excluded the Phenom I 9xxx and 8xxx line because they are replaced more economically by the Phenom II and Athlon II line.
This guide is just a baseline and not meant as something in-depth testing wise. My goal is to help people understand the differences and help them make the best purchase for what they intend to do. Any major mistakes will be fixed per reasonable request. I encourage people to do further homework as in any big purchase.
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Sempron 140 –

The Sempron has been the bread and butter line for AMD for a while. The Sempron line is basically Intel’s answer to the Celeron line, which until the release of the Allendale and now the e3xxx series was always better and cheaper. The consumer is fortunate in this day in age to have such low end processors that aren’t total garbage like in the old times. Sure an enthusiast isn’t going to look for a Sempron as their main solution, yet it is perfect for the rest of the world like mom or dad or even grandma on an outdated Pentium 4 wanting to go to Win7. The 140 is based on the Phenom II/Athlon II architecture with a shrink to 45nm, a bump in cache from 512 to 1MB and support for DDR3. It is a single core but for the price and updated architecture it really isn’t a con and will also serve as a perfect HTPC CPU.

Sempron 140
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103698
GIGABYTE GA-M61PME-S2P
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128383


Athlon II X2 240

This processor is basically a better Kuma. It’s a dual core with a good default clock speed and a fair amount of cache and a shrink to 45nm. For people on aging Brisbane’s or Windsor’s it is a nice stopgap until the 940 and 965 eventually go down in price for true mass adoption. For 60 bucks you can’t complain because you are basically getting a nice performance boost and a processor that outperforms even the original X3 Phenom while also running much cooler. I would say across the board is a great CPU for people who still like to play some CS Source/WOW and are on a major budget. The Phenom II 550 is still the best dual core solution, but it is also $50 dollars higher, money you could spend to get a much better video card or other CPU component.

Athlon 240
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103688

ECS BLACK SERIES A780GM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813135075

HIS H485FM512H Radeon HD 4850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814161297



Athlon II x4 620-

This is basically AMD’s answer to Intel’s Q8200 at a more competitive price point. I like to call this the revamped Phenom I because of the shrink to 45nm and higher default clock meant to serve the same purpose the Phenom was meant to do as a multi-task CPU. This processor is for media encoding and multi-tasking so don’t buy it if your main focus is PC gaming which is why the Phenom I failed for the enthusiast. For gaming the Phenom II x2 550 is a much better solution even though the Athlon II X4 is more than capable for modern gaming in a lot of instances depending on how OCD you are about frame rates. This is what I would pen a “media preferred quad”. Similar to the original Phenom X4’s that were very snappy for multitasking but not meant for high end gaming which the Q6600 could eat for dinner. The Athlon II X4 is a 100 dollar quad meant for mid range gamers who likes to encode and also likes to have a lot of headroom in their multitasking.
I recommend a 4670 with this processor since it really isn’t a gaming CPU unless the main games you play aren’t hindered by a lower clock quad, but still great if you like to do light gaming alas Battlefield and even a little more.


Athlon II X4 620
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103706

GIGABYTE GA-MA770T-UD3P
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128392

GIGABYTE GV-R467D3-512I Radeon HD 4670 512MB 128-bit GDDR3
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814125244




Phenom II X3 720

The best Tri-Core solution out there currently. What makes the Phenom II X3 one of the best processors at it’s price point is the ability to overclock in the high 3’s. A lot of games at higher resolutions need that major GHZ boost as well as single encoded games where cores don’t matter and can even cause a bottleneck if it’s not running at a high enough speed. It’s basically a great COD4 and L4D type CPU that was meant to run with the 4870 for ultimate bliss IMHO. The main allure is its pairing with the 790 chipset with the ability to unlock the 4th core. I like this processor even over the well respected Q6600 because of how it does a little bit for everybody PC needs without lacking in any one particular area for the price.

Phenom II X3 720BE
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103649

DFI LANPARTY DK 790GX-M2RS AM2+/AM2 AMD 790GX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813136058

HIS H577F1GDG Radeon HD 5770 (Juniper XT) 1GB 128-bit GDDR5
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814161306

or
SAPPHIRE 100279-1GL Radeon HD 4870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102849


Phenom II X4 965

The best Phenom that AMD has to offer is slowly becoming overshadowed by the new i5 and of course the i7 920 from Intel. This processor is an excellent overclocker and a great CPU from AMD with a long lifespan in all its future “e” variations. If you need the best CPU for your AMD/Crossfire setup then this truly is it until hexacore AM3 arrives. The problem with this CPU is now the price. The main selling point of AMD is that you get something that isn’t as good as Intel’s top solution but the cost more than makes up for the difference. With the i5 practically the same price and the i7 1366 $20 bucks more in some cases it’s hard to recommend it as of October 2009. The advantage it has over the i5 currently is the 2 16x 2.0 lanes which will make it a better multi GPU solution than the i5 and will prevent those AMD users from switching to Intel P55 and will keep them waiting until Gulftown. The 965 vs i5 debate is far from over, but AMD needs to position itself to make sure they get all the buyers who can’t afford the 1366 platform by a lower price, it has to be done at this point or people will go ahead and fork over the money for the Intel solution.


AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103692

ASUS Crosshair III Formula
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131392

ASUS EAH5850/G/2DIS/1GD5 Radeon HD 5850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814121349

or
ASUS EAH4890/HTDI/1GD5 Radeon HD 4890 1GB 256-bit GDDR5
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814121308




Conclusions

Overall AMD has a lot of great solutions at a wide range of different price points as it always has. At the lower end I still like the new Celeron 3xxx series since it is based on Wolfdale which is an overclocker’s dream. The 1MB of level 2 cache compared to the traditional 512 along with a better clock per clock gives me a compelling reason to choose it over the Sempron Sargas despite being $52 dollars. If AMD can drop Sargas to 29.99 new on Newegg then I would switch allegiance back to the 140.
In the midrange is where AMD continues gets its shine back. The Athlon II series really hits Intel hard in many different areas. The e5200 was Intel’s prized economical gem that destroyed the Kuma when overclocked. The 240 makes that Intel victory less sweet as it improves every fault of Kuma and manages to be a good bit cheaper than the e5200. The Phenom X3 720 even makes the e7200/e7400 look less appealing as you get something that’s a bit better with an extra core, great overclocking capabilities and the potential to have a quad when all is said and done. The Athlon X4 620 basically takes over the original Phenom line pricepoint and manages to give us an improved
media quad for 100 bucks, a price the hard- to-overclock Q8200 won’t reach for a good while. The 620 vs the Q8200 is the true no brainer of the midrange.
In the high end range, the crown will be firmly planted on Intel’s head for a while. The Phenom II X4 series benefited from high 1366 prices for a good 7-8 months and managed to snag customers who refused to pay for the overpriced Intel q9xxx line. AMD had Intel corned in the mid-upper market until the release of the i5 which put the first real leak into the Phenom II’s successful pricing bubble.
The i5 is this quarters Phenom II, despite the worries about PCI-E lanes being potentially bottlenecked in a high end dual cpu config on next gen cards, Intel still has no reason to sweat. The large amount of customers who don’t care about SLI and Crossfire will just buy a single high end next gen card and be done with it. Besides, mobo makers will eventually make up for the multi-gpu issue at a good price. The i5 is simply architecturally better and the same price as a Phenom II is currently. When AMD doesn’t have price-performance to lean on, the Intel name will always win out.

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awaizy

Boards with the 750SB AND the 710SB have access to ACC to unlock cores.
So, for example, GIGABYTE GA-MA770T-UD3P, which has the 710SB, can indeed unlock cores.

Something you may want to add to the 720 portion of the guide.

dlee7283

bumped!

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jimibgood

Bottleneck.... on 720..I don't think so. Ample processor. 965 theory needs work too. 965 is a dissapointment. 650 answer to Q8200.... Like to see benchies on that. Its way too long also......... Simplify it and you get my thumbs up!

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High overclock 4.28GHz:
http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=756990

http://i435.photobucket.com/albums/qq77/AAdeath/oc2.png

http://www.overclock.net/gallery/dat...medium/186.jpg
http://www.overclock.net/gallery/dat...medium/267.jpg
Chicago Cubbies... a century of stink and still rolling!

-iceblade^

nice.

you should have mentioned the X2 550 but still, great easy to understand guide.

+

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dlee7283

I need to reword that

I was basically trying to tell people that it was able to reach a high clock speed as a safeguard for people on single coded games on high resolutions.

The Phenom 1 had problems getting a good MHZ increase.

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dlee7283

I did, I basically said the X2 550 was a better solution for games over the 240 if you will spend the money

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tipsycoma

The 965 should be completely removed and replaced with the 955. AMD is all about budget, and the 965 is not worth the 50+ dollars for the extra .2 ghz.

Other than that, great review. Starts with a budget solution for the average joe and moves onto the hardcore gamer. Like!

dlee7283

The gaming performance of Athlon II X4 620 is very similar to the Q8200. However the encoding performance of the Athlon II X4 620 is better than the Q8200 and both processors trade blows in the rendering department.

The 620 is also much cheaper

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dlee7283

The 965 has been able to get better overclocks all around over the 955

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