Input on my build? Cheap and (seems) powerful!

[mnewsham]

4 and 8 i think, and no confirmed price, it is said to be Q2 of this year so within the next few months

 

[f4phantom2500]

I just looked up the Bulldozer CPU, and I am wondering: Is it supposed to be an 8 core? Or another generation of 6 cores? And is there any confirmed price?

at this time, it is said that bulldozer will have 8 and 4 core variants. it is a completely new design from the ground up, comprised of 2-core nodes (so conceivably they could release 2- and 6- core variants) the current phenom ii processors are ultimately derivatives from the original athlon 64 cpu's, which, iirc, were restructures of the athlon xp cpu's...i could be wrong on that last point though, i'm sure someone will correct me if that is the case.

i don't know what you mean by athlons being "long gone". an athlon ii cpu is nearly identical to a phenom ii, the only difference being the athlon ii doesn't have L3 cache, but this is a relatively minimal difference. as i said, i've owned an athlon ii x3 (2.9ghz, oc'ed to 3.3), and i presently own a phenom ii x3 (unlocked to a fully functional phenom ii x4 and oc'ed to 3.2ghz). i don't game much, but i do game at 1680x1050, a substantially higher resolution than you, and i do a good bit of multitasking other than that but nothing individually that's too demanding...for you i truly believe that the athlon ii x3 will be a great processor.

let me put it this way, there are 2 ways to look at it.

1. you're coming from a p4, so anything modern will be a substantial upgrade...i'm sure you remember how the athlon 64's more or less trounced their p4 equivalents? the athlon ii x3 is a triple core version of a much updated version of the athlon 64. so...yeah.

even though the phenom ii x4 would be faster, you would still be very satisfied with the athlon ii x3, but on the performance end of perspective (rather than the value end)

2. why drop $300 on a dead platform now, when, if you really think that the phenom ii x4 will be that much faster than an athlon ii x3, which it won't, you can get something to "tide you over" (which, again, will completely decimate your p4 rig) until bulldozer comes out, which will show a much larger discrepancy between itself and the phenom ii x4 than that between the phenom and the athlon?

so, the way i see it, whether your goal is value or performance, it simply does not make sense to drop that kind of cash on a phenom ii x4. and, who knows? you very well may be totally satisfied with the athlon, and you could just use that extra $ you saved to buy a nice ssd (i'd take athlon ii + ssd over phenom ii + hdd any day), or just pocket it!

 

[mfenn]

It won't fit my board.

I've just realized: my board sucks horribly. No PCI 2.1 slots or anything.

What nonsense is this? The TA880GB+ most certainly does have a PCIe x16 slot.

 

[mfenn]

. I hate Intel though, and never plan on getting anything from them until they learn price is important.

This is a silly statement to be honest. Once Sandy Bridge board are available, the i5 2500K at $200 trounces anything that AMD can produce at any price. $60 more than the 955 is hardly a dealbreaker IMHO.

That being said, I do agree with f4phantom that you should just grab a cheapie Athlon II at this point in K10's lifecycle.

 

[fffblackmage]

Eh, I can't tell if that was sarcasm or not, since you said it in a regular tone, but I do think it was sarcasm because the onboard HD 4250 is a 3 year old GPU.

But seriously, do I need to boost the PSU or not? If not, what should I bump up?

I was being sarcastic, and it has nothing to do with the age of the HD4250. IGPs and low-end graphics cards just don't require that much power.

Also, you should be looking to keep costs low for an AMD CPU + mobo, otherwise, Intel i5 + P55/67 is simply a better buy. Seriously, Intel has the upper-hand when it comes to performance right now, and of course you have to pay more for it.

 

[f4phantom2500]

I hate Intel though, and never plan on getting anything from them until they learn price is important. I don't know what Bulldozer is either. Is this build bad or something? It seems a shitton better than my current P4 2.4 GHz.

i have to agree with mfenn...intel *does* realize that price is important, that's why the 2500k, which sells at $200, performs as well (or better) in anything that's not heavily threaded as their 6 core, 12 thread $1000 monstrosity. that's also why it trounces all over amd's $200 chips. it's not that intel is expensive, it's that amd is cheap and can't really compete at this time. don't get me wrong, i always buy amd in desktops because i always look for *cheap* performance, but if my choices were $200 2500k + $100~$150 motherboard (not that you can presently get a p67 motherboard for that cheap, but assuming intel didn't release a bugged chipset and things were as they "should" be) or $140 phenom ii x4 + ~$100 motherboard, i'd definitely go with intel on that one...which is another reason why i suggested the athlon ii. if it were a choice between $200 i5 760 and ~$100 motherboard and aforementioned phenom ii combo, i'd proooobably go with intel to be honest :\.