Athlon II X3 or Phenom II X3?

[lifeblood]

I can get an Athlon II X3 2.9 GHz (Retail) or a Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition 2.8GHz (Open Box). My Motherboard can overclock but I've never overclocked. My CPU cooler is a Rocketfish Universal CPU Cooler which works fine on my current 65 Watt 4400+, but I don't know how well it will work on a 95W CPU.

So, play it safe and get the Athlon II, or take a chance and go for the Phenom II and overclock it?

 

[Hey Zeus]

I like the A2 better then the P2. When does the Phenom 3 come out?

 

[alyarb]

get the phenom ii black edition if you want to overclock. the extra cache does make it a better CPU overall too. does your motherboard have ACC?

 

[lifeblood]

does your motherboard have ACC?

It does have ACC. I was thinking of trying to use it to unlock the fourth core on either the P2 or the A2.

When does the Phenom 3 come out?

No idea. Are they even calling it a Phenom 3?

 

[mav451]

PhII easily. Don't bother with cache-castrated chips if you can afford the Phenom II's. It just doesn't make any sense.

 

[waffleironhead]

PhII easily. Don't bother with cache-castrated chips if you can afford the Phenom II's. It just doesn't make any sense.

The a2 actually beats the p2 in some applications. Surprising I know, but it is the case. Check out anand's test bench.

 

[konakona]

In games, PhII seemed universally better clock-per-clock if I remember correctly. Do you have fry's near you? I have recently upgraded from a stubborn x3 710 with 3 cores @3.2/2.5 to a c2 965 @3.9/2.8.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Athlon IIs will never have unlockable cores (to my knowledge), but Phenom IIs will if they are X2s or X3s. Your mileage may vary.

I could see the Athlon II, at stock, beating the Phenom II in some benches just due to the extra clock speed, but for anything that's cache/memory intensive, the Phenom II (at stock) will be the better buy.

 

[alyarb]

the Athlon II X3's unlock to X4's

 

[DrMrLordX]

the Athlon II X3's unlock to X4's

All of them? Even the X3 440?

 

[alyarb]

yes, as long as there are no physical defects on the locked core.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Ohh, now that's interesting . . .

 

[BD231]

Phenom II x3 would be faster on every level when overclocked, floating point performace is better and that's a big factor gaming. The added cache dose a lot for the AM2+/AM3 platform as well. The Phenom II is their flagship chip for a reason and you're sure to get a C2 stepping or better which will get you to 3.6ghz without issue.

 

[soccerballtux]

Definitely the x3; waffleironhead: you were probably comparing a DDR3 Athlon II to a DDR2 Ph2 720BE.

Overclocking with the BE will be as easy as increasing the multiplier and voltage for the CPU and the cpu-nb (L3 cache).

 

[lifeblood]

Interesting discussion.

The P2, being OEM, will require a new cooler. However, if I overclock it I would be wise to get a more efficient cpu cooler anyway. Assuming it still available I will go for the P2. If not, oh well. Either are still good CPU's.

Thanks for the advice.

 

[Z80]

Watch out for the "Open Box" processors, someone may have already tried to overclock and/or unlock it and returned it when it failed to unlock or turned out to be a lousy overclocker.

 

[InfoTiger]

I want the one you don't want.
Just drop me a message.

 

[nyker96]

I don't like x3s they are so close in price to x4s that is making them a bit pointless unless you are really pinching penny here.

 

[BD231]

I don't like x3s they are so close in price to x4s that is making them a bit pointless unless you are really pinching penny here.

I'd of said it myself but I figured it was common sense. The X3's are being phased out due to higher yields on the x4's and price's have gone up on the x3's considerably in the past few months. Its a get them while you can situation at this point.