Give me a reason to get a Phenom 9600...

[batmang]

...over a E8400. I can't find one other than 4 cores over dual cores. Look what happens when you search Phenom on NewEgg (link). Balls of Fury? That alone makes me not want it...lol. Discuss!

EDIT
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Well, I'm set and I'm going ahead with supporting AMD and ATi. After comparing price, longevity, value, my needs, etc., I'm going with a Phenom rig. Here is my list of parts:

AMD Phenom 9600 Black Edition - 2.3GHz (link)
MSI K9A2 Platinum 790FX Motherboard (link)
HEC Black case with 585w PSU (link)
VisionTek Radeon HD 3850 512MB (link)
(I will eventually get a second one for CrossFire. 8800GTX performance for $380 ($190 a card) a card. (Proof) / (Proof 2))
Samsung SATA Black DVD Burner (link)
G.Skill DDRII 800MHz RAM - Four 1GB sticks (link)
20" Acer AL2016WCbd LCD, free shipping FTW (link)
Seagate 320GB 3.0GB SATA HD - Already have this sitting in my closet. (link)
OS will be Vista 64

Minus the hard drive, the total cost including shipping is $967.91. That is a damn good deal IMO. I plan to get the second card in a coulpe months unless I find one used cheap. I'm hoping to get the same exact make/model to keep things looking uniform. I really think this is a good setup for my needs. I will finally have a quad core setup that should last me a long while....AMD better not go belly up or I will laugh and cry at the same exact time.

I don't plan on OC'ing more than 200MHz. Overclocking is not something I really want to do. I'll mess around with it, but I don't think I'll do more than 100-200MHz.
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[covert24]

umm no?


lol balls of fury!

 

[nanaki333]

i just put together a phenom system and it's running solid. then again, i have no OS on it and i'm going to be putting vmware esx on it. so i guess i'll be seeing just how much of an issue the TLB is.

i guess they're great chips if they don't have to actually run anything

 

[covert24]

Originally posted by: nanaki333
i just put together a phenom system and it's running solid. then again, i have no OS on it and i'm going to be putting vmware esx on it. so i guess i'll be seeing just how much of an issue the TLB is.

i guess they're great chips if they don't have to actually run anything

lmao

 

[sutahz]

"Give me a reason to get a Phenom 9600..." to pay hommage to the once king of CPU's, AMD.

 

[nanaki333]

scratch that. i guess i spoke too soon. it was just sitting at the "select a driver to load" screen and i left it there for like 3 or 4 hours. i came back as i was leaving the office, right after i posted here, and there was some debug crap on the screen. said cpu1 error blah blah blah and had all sorts of address shit. so i powered it off, powered it back on, NO POST! turned it off for 10 minutes, tried again, NO POST! now i get to find out what the problem is. i have my money on the cpu. i guess the idle load was too much for it.

 

[v8envy]

It's been discussed. The only metric where the 9500 (not 9600) excels is being the cheapest quad core you can buy today. If that's good enough then go nuts.

If you need performance/$, performance/watt, performance/BTU, overclockability, reliability, e-peen length, extreme potency for gaming or anything else -- E8400 or Q6600.

 

[batmang]

Originally posted by: nanaki333
scratch that. i guess i spoke too soon. it was just sitting at the "select a driver to load" screen and i left it there for like 3 or 4 hours. i came back as i was leaving the office, right after i posted here, and there was some debug crap on the screen. said cpu1 error blah blah blah and had all sorts of address shit. so i powered it off, powered it back on, NO POST! turned it off for 10 minutes, tried again, NO POST! now i get to find out what the problem is. i have my money on the cpu. i guess the idle load was too much for it.

I'm definitely getting the 9600 now.... hehe

Originally posted by: v8envy
It's been discussed. The only metric where the 9500 (not 9600) excels is being the cheapest quad core you can buy today. If that's good enough then go nuts.

If you need performance/$, performance/watt, performance/BTU, overclockability, reliability, e-peen length, extreme potency for gaming or anything else -- E8400 or Q6600.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I'm going with the E8400. By the time quad cores become an actual care in my mind I will be building up a new rig anyway.

 

[shabby]

Native quad-core...

 

[covert24]

Originally posted by: batmang
Yeah, I'm pretty sure I'm going with the E8400. By the time quad cores become an actual care in my mind I will be building up a new rig anyway.

get the E8400!! amazing proc!

 

[aigomorla]

you want a machine which cant overclock for dog dookie?

Umm.. your a fan of the underdog?

You want the company's last product b4 they file for bankruptcy?

Your tired of intel?


I ono at this point you have to make stuff up on why you chose a phenom over a Kentfield even.

 

[Cogman]

IMC!!! yeah, ummm, because you like throwing money at the underdog and you feel bad for their huge net losses? Maybe I can convince you that intel is really a bunch of communists that will destroy the earth, and amd is like the captain america in the corporate world. So help captain America fight the evil (please realize this post was completely sarcastic, there is no reason at the moment to go with AMD. They made a gamble and lost.)

 

[batmang]

Originally posted by: Cogman
IMC!!! yeah, ummm, because you like throwing money at the underdog and you feel bad for their huge net losses? Maybe I can convince you that intel is really a bunch of communists that will destroy the earth, and amd is like the captain america in the corporate world. So help captain America fight the evil (please realize this post was completely sarcastic, there is no reason at the moment to go with AMD. They made a gamble and lost.)

So true. I was a huge AMD fan, then the Core 2 Duo's came out. I think we all know exactly how AMD feels right now. They feel exactly how Intel felt when the Athlon's came out. I do feel this weird urge to give AMD my money, but then I come back to reality and realize the E8400 is the best value alive right now.

 

[rchiu]

I wouldn't say there is absolutely no reason to go with 9600 right now. If you don't OC, 9600 at stock is decent compared to Intel Quad at stock in price/performance. Also AMD offers a good platform for gamers with the 790fx platform. DFI has a mobo for tri-crossfire that can work pretty well if the driver support is there.

 

[Extelleron]

The best thing to do right now if you're looking to buy AMD is wait until Q2 for B3 stepping and new models that should drive down the price of lower models such as the 9550/9650.

I'm looking to pick up a 9550/9650 in Q2 or if 45nm Phenoms will be out in Q3, wait until then. I really don't want to go with Intel and I'll sacrifice a tiny bit of performance to stay with AMD. I must say though, if AMD is still using the same architecture in 2009 and Intel is full steam ahead w/ Nehalem, I'll be forced to go Intel .

 

[crisium]

Unlike Intel a few years ago, AMD is selling less and has less. AMD was the company to go for back then, but Intel still sold more. We techies went for them, but most sold were still Intel. Intel then threw their overwhelming money into development and came out with a better CPU. And you expect AMD to respond the same way? The tables are not turned, if they were AMD would be selling more and making more than Intel despite having a slower product. It's worse - the tables are turned and upside down. AMD is in serious trouble.

The Phenom 9600 performs as good (if not better) as the Q6600 in Crysis. But of course this is at stock only.

AMD will not have a chance to return fire if no one buys them. Buying Intel now may get you an arguably better priceeformance. But if AMD go under next year because no one bought them, then Intel will be the only priceerformance, and that may mean escalated prices.

It's nice to wish AMD came out with a core 2 duo stopper, but without money it's not possible. I'm not encouraging enthusiasts who demand AAA performance to buy AMD no matter what, but if you want Quad-Core and don't want to spend a lot of money and have mercy for an old company, maybe you should.

My AMD 4200+ @2.64ghz plays Crysis all High (not Highest, not DX10) 1360x768 anyway, so I don't see the fuss about getting 4ghz core 2 duos anyway. I'm not entirely serious, but I'm not joking either. Going AMD doesn't cost you a lot of money, put that toward a video card which often matter more (if you game anyway, for other reasons maybe you should have Intel?)

 

[batmang]

Thanks for the responses guys. I have a soft spot in my heart for AMD. They were THE company to go to when you had a low amount of resources. The first machine I saved up for and built on my own was a AMD K6II 400 setup. It wasn't as good as the PII's but it was a much cheaper and performed well. I want to go all out and build up another AMD machine, but I don't think it will be too much cheaper now that the E8400's are around. I'm not in the market for a quad core setup because all I will be doing is casual gaming. The E8400 is just a really nice CPU for the money. AMD has the quad core catergory budget wise but the real gaming budget setup would be the E8400 for sure.

 

[taltamir]

Originally posted by: batmang
...over a E8400. I can't find one other than 4 cores over dual cores. Look what happens when you search Phenom on NewEgg (link). Balls of Fury? That alone makes me not want it...lol. Discuss!

It's not nice to kick someone (AMD) when they are down

 

[PolymerTim]

Originally posted by: batmang
Thanks for the responses guys. I have a soft spot in my heart for AMD. They were THE company to go to when you had a low amount of resources. The first machine I saved up for and built on my own was a AMD K6II 400 setup. It wasn't as good as the PII's but it was a much cheaper and performed well. I want to go all out and build up another AMD machine, but I don't think it will be too much cheaper now that the E8400's are around. I'm not in the market for a quad core setup because all I will be doing is casual gaming. The E8400 is just a really nice CPU for the money. AMD has the quad core category budget wise but the real gaming budget setup would be the E8400 for sure.

Hehe, I was just dusting out a KII-400 system I made for my gf (now wife) back around 1997 that is now owned by her parents. Still going strong with Win98! I remember at the time, I was still pretty new at builds and we were really happy we put one together using the cheapest parts we could find for less than $1,000 total (a great deal back then in the first age of emachine junk). Can you believe the thing is still running?

Anyways, I have a soft spot for AMD as well, but I think I'm still gonna go with the E8400. But since I'm not a hard-core gamer, I figure I can soften the blow going with a Radeon 3850 to pump a little money into AMD/ATI. They are much closer in price/performance in video cards than i processors right now.

 

[Tempered81]

just go with intel & nvidia. it will be the fastest pc. evil + evil = good.

buy my sig!

 

[lopri]

I've seen two very attractive Gateway systems at Best Buy the other day. They were something like:

Phenom 9600
3GB DDR2-667/800 (not sure what it was)
2x500GB (Can be configured RAID)
HD 2600
Blu-Ray/HD-DVD combo drive
DVD-RW
15-in-1 card reader
Card-type slot for removable HDD
Windows Vista Home Premium
Case, PSU, Mobo, etc..

Phenom 9600
3GB DDR2-667/800 (not sure what it was)
1x500GB
8800 GT
DVD-RW
Another DVD-RW
15-in-1 card reader
Card-type slot for removable HDD
Windows Vista Home Premium
Case, PSU, Mobo, etc..

One of them was $1,049 and the other was $1,099 iirc. For a Jo-nobody (or even an AT regular), I thought the value would be hard to beat.

 

[Nathelion]

The 9500 and 9600 can be good value for non-techies that don't OC. But for anyone on this forum? Core 2 all the way.

 

[RaulF]

A good probability that the new mobo and socket will support a newer AMD CPU without needing a new mobo inlike Intel?

 

[harpoon84]

Originally posted by: RaulF
A good probability that the new mobo and socket will support a newer AMD CPU without needing a new mobo inlike Intel?

You mean like how existing AM2 mobos have a 'good probability' of running Phenoms?

I bought my Asus P5B Deluxe back in 2006. It has BIOS updates that allows it to run 45nm Wolfdales and Penryns. Sure, Nehalem will need a new chipset, but by then I would have got a good 2 years out of my 'outdated' mobo without needing to upgrade to run a faster Intel CPU.

 

[taltamir]

Originally posted by: jaredpace
just go with intel & nvidia. it will be the fastest pc. evil + evil = good.

buy my sig!

If you get chipset and video card from different companies you can have an intel + AMD + nvidia system...
evil + evil + evil = ?

I am guessing not good though