I know nothing about AMD, is this good?

[andrei3333]

So i have an old computer sitting in the basement and found AMD Phenom IIx4 945 CPU for sale new locally for $80 dollars...

is it worth getting? sorry im an Intel guy and know nothing about AMD. google tells me its Quad core @3.0GHz

I would be using this on:
Asus M2N-E
Antec 450 W Psu
need ram + heat sink fan
with either a GTX 460 1GB or 8800GTS 512 thats i already own

parts from my rig in sig may also be subbed in

IS this CPU better than my E8400 Dual @ 3.6 GHz ? can it O/C well ? kinda want it but wife will kill me since i would spend money on ram + fan + psu if needed lol

 

[996GT2]

It will probably overclock to 3.5 GHz without much issue. As far as performance goes, it's a little bit slower than your Core 2 Duo E8400 clock for clock, but it does have 2 more cores. So, if you run a lot of multithreaded apps, then it would be worth upgrading.

Youl'll probably have to update the BIOS on that board before you install the Phenom II X4.

 

[richierich1212]

http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=NFlvt10av3F7ayQ9

Looks like the 945 is supported. That PSU should be fine.

 

[EliteRetard]

Cant you push your E8400 a little further, like 4GHz? Id do that first and run it till it blows...or untill then end of the year when even more new CPUs are out.

80$ wouldnt be bad for a new PhenomII X4...if you know you need 4 cores it could be worth it. For basic usage/gaming not so much...at least not if youd have to build a whole new rig for it.

 

[andrei3333]

yeah basically i have a case, mobo, psu (450w) a bunch of hard drives and a vid card, i would only need fan/heatsink and ram...and DVD drive

I have not tried pushing my CPU because my ram is at its limit already (cheaperrrr ram)

I dont "need" Quad core, just having an itch to improve gaming performance a little with extra cores. its either that or just get rid of those extra parts for dirt cheap ;-(

 

[Gigantopithecus]

I upgraded from an E6850 at 3.6ghz to a 945 last year. EliteRetard is right on - for basic usage and gaming, it wasn't too noticeable. However I also do a lot of scientific number crunching, and for those applications, the Phenom II beats the shit out of the E6850. For $80, I'd do it simply because the net upgrade cost should be minimal if you sell your Intel cpu, board, and RAM.

 

[andrei3333]

im planning to keep the rig in my sig, i have 2 video cards, and just need the above stated parts,

so basically its going to a be second PC, probably in the living room on the big screen

 

[SickBeast]

I'm very happy with my Phenom II, but my previous setup was a dual core Opteron 165, so it was a massive jump in performance for me. Mine overclocks to 3.75ghz.

For $80 it's hard to go wrong. I got mine new in a combo deal for $150 including the motherboard.

 

[Gigantopithecus]

Eh, no sense spending money on something you don't need, then.

 

[andrei3333]

Eh, no sense spending money on something you don't need, then.

and yet somehow some of us end up with 4 GHz+ OC quad cores on SLI GTX 580's with 16 GB ram and SSD storage LOL

yeah i could probly still survive on my old P4 @ 2.8 GHz..............if i was on an island LOL

just kidding, no i dont really, need it, you are right, i should just sell those parts i have in the basement for whatever i can get for them and just upgrade my main rig end of 2011 or beginning 2012 to a proper quad core SB or whatever comes after it...thanks, thats the kick in the arse i needed to stop it from itching for an upgrade (BTW you did a better job at it than my wife who would just yell at me lol)

 

[tweakboy]

Nice replies. the E8400 has faster cores but sine Phenom has 4 cores that makes things go on Phenoms side... If point blank someone asks me, bar non I would say the Phenom 4 core pownz the C2D in general.

 

[Gigantopithecus]

Well, I see spending a lot of money on cutting edge parts for a main rig as something entirely different than spending money on a secondary PC that sees little or very specific non compute-intense usage. I had a secondary PC for a few months, but for the little use it saw as basically an mp3 and dvd player, I sold it off and spent the money making my main rig that much more capable.

 

[andrei3333]

yeah i understand what you mean, im torn.

i might just get some ram and a heatsink and just OC the CPU thats in there now, AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800 ( i think its stock @2.0 or 2.2 GHz). That should keep me busy trying to OC that old sucker

 

[flexcore]

If you have a use for it thats one thing. If not, you should get some money back out of it while you still can.

 

[BoomerD]

The 945 isn't listed here, so I ran the comparison with the slightly faster 955:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/88?vs=56

The Newegg price for that one is $135, so if it's not FUBAR'd, it's a decent price.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103675

 

[BD231]

That would be quite an upgrade, go for it.