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i5 2nd Gen vs i3 4th Gen vs Amd Phenom X6

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dharmil007

Member
Hi,

My Current System Configuration is :
Amd Phenom X6 1055T
Gigabyte 880GM-UD2h
6GB DDR3
1TB HDD
Antec 450W SMPS

The Mobo+processor were purchased in Feb-2011
The motherboard of my current system is not working and needs to be replaced.
The local shopkeeper is giving me a new basic MSi Mobo @ Rs.3300.
But I am skeptical, as should I purchase a new Mobo investing this much money ?

Now I have 3 other options :

Amd Phenom X6 {old processor} + MSi Mobo {new Mobo}= Rs. 3K
i3 4th Gen+mobo = Rs. 11k
i5 2nd Gen+mobo = Rs. 13K


The system is only going to be used for Internet Browsing, some occasional small games.

Guys, please suggest as to which option should I go with.
 
IMHO, new motherboard is your best bet here. It's by far the cheapest option upfront and for what you do with the system, the Phenom X6 should be plenty sufficient.
 
The Phenom IIs are rather decent processors. My 965 BE handles Skyrim with 3x mods and an intensive ENB (customized Natural Lighting & Atmospherics). Yet I'm still held back by my 7850 2GB; the ol' CPU has grunt to spare.

Since you're not playing any hardcore, open-worldy, bloom-ified games, your current CPU is rather overkill, if anything.
 
Arachnotronic said:
IMHO, new motherboard is your best bet here. It's by far the cheapest option upfront and for what you do with the system, the Phenom X6 should be plenty sufficient.
Click to expand...

richierich1212 said:
^^^

What he said...for your use there is no reason to splurge and the 1055T is still very capable.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your replies.
But I feel as the processor is quite old > 4 years.
and its emitting too much heat and power consumption is also too high 125W.
Will I be able to use it for another 4-5 years as compared to Intel ?
 
MajinCry said:
The Phenom IIs are rather decent processors. My 965 BE handles Skyrim with 3x mods and an intensive ENB (customized Natural Lighting & Atmospherics). Yet I'm still held back by my 7850 2GB; the ol' CPU has grunt to spare.

Since you're not playing any hardcore, open-worldy, bloom-ified games, your current CPU is rather overkill, if anything.
Click to expand...



I am concerned more from a longevity perspective then performance.
Because as per my use all three would give same performance.
 
dharmil007 said:
I am concerned more from a longevity perspective then performance.
Because as per my use all three would give same performance.
Click to expand...

Longevity? As long as you haven't superclocked it whilst using a cooler made from a beer can and wood glue, it should last you a long (that's not vague at all) time, just like any other processor.
 
i really liked my amd phenom x4 955 which served me really well. bought amd fx 4300 which could only just about equal the amd phenom x4 955.
 
Last edited:
dharmil007 said:
Thanks for your replies.
But I feel as the processor is quite old > 4 years.
and its emitting too much heat and power consumption is also too high 125W.
Will I be able to use it for another 4-5 years as compared to Intel ?
Click to expand...

I think you should be just fine, and the money you save today can be used to buy something significantly better when it does come time to upgrade.
 
dharmil007 said:
and its emitting too much heat and power consumption is also too high 125W.
Click to expand...

If you only want it for internet and small games you can go with a haswell celleron(or wait for skylake celeron for better igpu) they have very small power consumption and the gain in single core performance will be a nice boost to your performance,for these simple tasks.

If you do anything heavy of course it would be stupid to switch to a celleron.
 
You can always underclock and undervolt the processor if you are worried about heat and power consumption. AMD tends to give CPUs more volts than they need for a particular bin. My opteron 165 lasted more than 4 years before I sold it, and it should work even longer still. CPUs are built to last 10 years without overclocking and if they keep temps below 80C
 
Your processor has a very good aftermarket sell-value, which would make up part of the difference. Personally, I found it extremely worthwhile moving from Core2 to a more modern architecture, as it reduced the amount of heat dumped into my computer space.
 
That Phenom x6... Is really a good chip.

Sadly if you are looking for a really low level works like web browsing or very small games, you can sell the processor and get a Pentium N3700. Yeah, Intel Braswell in few words.
 
dark zero said:
That Phenom x6... Is really a good chip.

Sadly if you are looking for a really low level works like web browsing or very small games, you can sell the processor and get a Pentium N3700. Yeah, Intel Braswell in few words.
Click to expand...

If you're going to go that far, why not just advocate for him to disable a few of the cores, under-volt (I'm running @ 1.275v @ 3.4ghz, stock was around 1.325v IIRC) and/or under-clock.

He'd have to buy a new motherboard to go with the new CPU. And then there's the pain of reinstalling Windows. Bleh.
 
dark zero said:
That Phenom x6... Is really a good chip.

Sadly if you are looking for a really low level works like web browsing or very small games, you can sell the processor and get a Pentium N3700. Yeah, Intel Braswell in few words.
Click to expand...

I'd bet that a Phenom II X6 will provide a substantially better user experience than a Braswell...
 
Arachnotronic said:
I'd bet that a Phenom II X6 will provide a substantially better user experience than a Braswell...
Click to expand...

That is a fact. Any big Core chip and even AM1 gives better experience than Braswell.

Bad sadly even undervolting and disabling won't get the power consumption the Atom has
 
Eh? The X6 is junk. A Haswell i3 would slaughter it in single threaded grunt and do it with half the power use. You do know how hot and humid India gets? I'd sell it in a heartbeat. Haswell Celerons or those SoC chips are rubbish, they will stutter on 60p media online and are sluggish desktop wise compared to an i3. OP will also get a modern platform. Why spend that much on a dead platform mobo instead of a new setup? D:
 
With the 4th gen i3 setup, he could upgrade quite a bit in a couple years if he needs to, just by dropping in an i5/i7 chip.
 
escrow4 said:
they will stutter on 60p media online and are sluggish desktop wise compared to an i3.
Click to expand...

He?60p ? If you mean 1080p@60fps with html5 then maybe,but there are always GPUs for hardware accelleration.

(Not to mention browsers like explorer that don't add any filters so they are faster,plus you can switch your browser back to flash which is lighter,plus you can use vlc for your streams which completely bypasses any added slowness due to html5/flash and just plays it as a simple video)

The slowest haswell celleron has a ~30% faster core, if anything on light workloads it will feel faster.
 
escrow4 said:
Eh? The X6 is junk. A Haswell i3 would slaughter it in single threaded grunt and do it with half the power use. You do know how hot and humid India gets? I'd sell it in a heartbeat. Haswell Celerons or those SoC chips are rubbish, they will stutter on 60p media online and are sluggish desktop wise compared to an i3. OP will also get a modern platform. Why spend that much on a dead platform mobo instead of a new setup? D:
Click to expand...

Remember how the OP said he's doing web browsing and light gaming?

His issue is power usage and the lifetime of the CPU. All he needs to do is disable a few of the cores, under-clock (won't need to do that, really) and then under-volt for major power savings.

Spending, what, £120 just to save money, and then reinstall Windows...

It's going to take a good number of years for him to just break even from the energy savings. And by the sounds of it, he doesn't need the performance.
 
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