athlon II 250 vs E7200? side-grade or upgrade?

[vexingv]

With the combo deals that Newegg has w/ the Athlon II 250, i'm tempted to swap out my current HTPC (s939 athlon x2 4200+ w/ 2gb DDR) with one of an Athlon II 250 and give the old X2 system to my parents. I'm sure the Athlon II is leaps and bounds faster than the X2 4200+, but in Anandtech's review it is not very far behind the E7400. My current desktop system is an E7200 (stock, clocked). Might it be better if I used this Athlon II as my desktop system (and then use the E7200 for HTPC)? Although I'm confused about which Phenoms can use DDR2 or DDR3 and whether DDR2 will still be viable in the platform's future (I can spare some DDR2 dimms, but DDR3 is a bit more than I want to spend at this moment), the AMD setup provides an upgrade path should I choose to while socket 775 is dead in the water.

Thanks.

 

[cusideabelincoln]

Compare them with AT's beta bench:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/default.aspx?p=96&p2=62

Would definitely be a side-grade or down-grade. At stock it looks like the 250 is slightly better for gaming but you won't notice the difference. At everything else (multimedia work) it looks like the E7200 is faster. Between these two chips I think power consumption will be very similar, but it can vary depending on what other components (motherboard) you use.

The 250 is definitely much faster than the 4200+ (look at the 250 vs the 4050e http://www.anandtech.com/bench/default.aspx?p=96&p2=38), and it should run cooler and use less power. The chip should also work with either DDR2 or DDR3, depending on if you get a socket AM2+ or AM3 motherboard.

 

[vexingv]

Thanks for the link to that Bench tool; I didn't realize AT had one (and the Tom's version isn't always current).

While my current HTPC setup is fine, with that information, if my parents do want a new system, I may indeed pick up the combo and give the old X2 to them. However, I might choose an Athlon II 240 or 245 instead of the 250 to cut costs. This way, it'll be part of my stable and if I choose to, I could upgrade to a Phenom in the future. I'm currently looking at the GA-MA785G-UD3H, which is AM3 and DDR2. From what i have gathered, the recent AM3 CPU's have both DDR2 and DDR3 memory controllers. Can anyone with knowledge of the AMD future/roadmap speculate as to the longevity of the AM3 platform and its DDR2 support?

 

[cusideabelincoln]

Well there is a bit of a misconception. True AM3 boards are a physically different socket than AM2+ boards and these AM3 boards will only work with DDR3 memory. That Gigabyte board is really just an AM2+ board, but it markets itself as supporting AM3 processors. The reasoning?

Well, AM3 processors are made to work and fit in both AM2+ and AM3 motherboards. However, AM2+ processors will not work nor physically fit in socket AM3 motherboards, because socket AM3 has fewer pins. AM3 processors do have both DDR2 and DDR3 memory controllers, which is the other reason why they work in AM2+ boards.

DDR3 is the future. DDR2 is not, but AMD has tried to appease people by including two memory controllers on their chips and allowing AM3 processors to work in both sockets. No one really knows how long this will last, but since you're only getting an Athlon II 240, even right now you have a huge upgrade path and could get any processor up to the Phenom 965.

I'd say that all Phenom II processors (yet to be released) will probably work in current AM2+ and AM3 motherboards. But anything beyond Phenom II is anyone's best guess right now.