Low budget AMD CPUs

[Exardious]

OK, im out for new HW again, and im scanning the market. Im always buying low budget. I have other things to spend my money on. The last computer i got together was a Phenom X3 8650 based system, with a total upgrade price of $200.

I saw that AMD recently released some products i didnt know about.

1) AMD X2 7850 BE
2) AMD Athlon 2 X2 250
3) AMD Phenom X2 550 BE

My question is, how does these 3 compare to each other and would the have any benefit over a X3 8750? I haven't really been able to find any tests where all the CPUs are in there.

/Edit: Oh and i forgot to mention. It will be used for gaming (Warhammer online, Starcraft 2, Diablo 3 etc), surfing the net, and some development (Visual Studio 2008, SQL Server 2008).

 

[Eureka]

http://anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3572

http://images.anandtech.com/gr...060109222115/19376.png

Enjoy.

Edit: If you really needed the upgrade, I'd say the 250 seem to be the best one. It is in the same price range as the 7850 but also overclocks to 3.7ghz decently. I wish I waited for this instead of a 7850... on the other hand the 7850 is dirt cheap with a motherboard.

I don't think they're much better than a Phenom X3 though.

 

[Sylvanas]

Have a read of AT's review. Do NOT buy any of the rebadged older Phenom 1's (7850, 8750) they're a terrible buy. Both the AthlonX2 250 and 550BE are good overclockers , so it depends on your budget.

 

[Eureka]

Originally posted by: Sylvanas
Have a read of AT's review. Do NOT buy any of the rebadged older Phenom 1's (7850, 8750) they're a terrible buy. Both the AthlonX2 250 and 550BE are good overclockers , so it depends on your budget.

That's very true, with the 250/550 out, the 7850 is a nonissue.

Thanks for making me feel better about my purchase, AMD.

 

[TurtleCrusher]

Originally posted by: Eureka

Originally posted by: Sylvanas
Have a read of AT's review. Do NOT buy any of the rebadged older Phenom 1's (7850, 8750) they're a terrible buy. Both the AthlonX2 250 and 550BE are good overclockers , so it depends on your budget.

That's very true, with the 250/550 out, the 7850 is a nonissue.

Thanks for making me feel better about my purchase, AMD.

It wasn't a bad purchase at all. You did in fact have their best dual core at one point.

Its like owning an Intel Extreme processor. They suck the next year but damn its still pretty cool.

 

[hans007]

well the Athlon II x2 250 is $78.50 at newegg right now. I think its a very good value.

 

[ShawnD1]

Exardious, be sure to read up on the Phenom II X2. Apparently it's possible to unlock it into a quad core.

http://xbitlabs.com/articles/c...on-ii-x2_15.html#sect0

But luckily, not all mainboard makers complied with AMD?s wishes. For example, new BIOS updates for the Gigabyte MA790FXT-UD5P mainboard that we use in our testbed even got an additional option that offers you to choose between two BIOS versions: new one without the option for unlocking blocked processor cores and old one with this option.
[...]
We managed to activate both blocked cores on our Phenom II X2 550 sample and turn it into a fully-functional quad-core CPU without any effort. By the way, it immediately overclocked to 3.8GHz.

Don't get your hopes up, but at least try it if you can.

 

[Denithor]

Or grab a PhII X3 710 or 720 with a cheap motherboard + RAM and enjoy.

 

[Exardious]

Hey all

Thanks for the help. I've been reading alot up on the different CPUs. Xbit labs had a great article where they compared the different CPUs at the same clock speed (3.0). That was a great article.

I've decided to go with the Athlon II X2 250. It seems like a nasty little f*cker with great overclockability. Almost the same performance clock for clock with the P2 X2 550. The difference is that it doesnt have L3 cache, instead it has more L2 cache. But the abscense of the L3 cache appearantly makes it easier to clock the HT frequency, bumping it up to 2.6ghz instead of the stock 2.0ghz. I think that must have some effect on "Snappy-ness".

I don't know about the pricing in the states, but here in DK, the difference between Athlon II and P2 X3 is about $50. It may not be much, but im really going for the most bang for the buck.

I saw the part about unclocking cores in the X2, but as far as i've read, the chances of that happening are pretty small.