Microcenter B&M: AMD Athlon II X2 250 and Biostar A780L3G mATX Motherboard, $58

[Rockinacoustic]

Are these CPUs any good?

Probably the best bang for your buck if you're looking to build a HTPC or Office PC on the cheap. I'd step up to the $96 deal with the X4 640 if you're looking to game or do video/image editing.

 

[IgoByte]

Probably the best bang for your buck if you're looking to build a HTPC or Office PC on the cheap. I'd step up to the $96 deal with the X4 640 if you're looking to game or do video/image editing.

Thanks. The price alone makes the combo a tempting choice.

 

[blackdogdeek]

Probably the best bang for your buck if you're looking to build a HTPC or Office PC on the cheap. I'd step up to the $96 deal with the X4 640 if you're looking to game or do video/image editing.

if you add this mobo to the phenom ii x2 555 it's $88 total for the combo and i think you should be able to unlock the other two cores for quad core performance at less than $90.

 

[magomago]

its not a 555 anymore....its a 560.


looking at AT bench on a x2 560 vs a X4 645...unless i'm doing heavily threaded apps, i'd rather take a x2 560. they both perform pretty similarly in single threaded apps, but the lack of L3 does seem to prevent it from taking the lead in anything. in fact, so as long as you are fine with a dualcore and willing to accept that it may only be a dualcore, you can always try to unl0ck it as a quadcore....

i wonder if the newer chip is any better; i'm pretty sure they are continuously trying to improve their proceses, so the new wafers on this new stepping (is it? what stepping are the 560s?) will hopefully have a lower defect count. means a higher chance (note: chance, not guaranteed) to have a chip that can unlock and be stable with little voltage increase

 

[yottabit]

Just in case anyone is wondering the x2 250 and biostar 760g can play WoW catacylsm pretty comfortably on all low settings at 1360x768. 60+ fps in normal scenes and probably 30-45 in intense ones

 

[Queasy]

Thanks OP. Was able to get this yesterday and currently running it. Wanted to get a Sandy Bridge setup but an unexpected expense on Friday put me behind on that. I'll get the Sandy Bridge later and this will turn into a WHS build when I do.

 

[Cardio]

It doesn't seem to let you change the MB to any other than the Biostar as of today. Charges the full price for any different MB. Yesterday it worked..not today for me anyway. The 560 for less than a hundred is still pretty nice.

 

[hondaf17]

I've done two builds with various of these combos and all have been great. Can't beat the price/performance ratio.