Phenom II or Intel Core 2 Quad 9650?

[Chrisped]

Hey all, I have priced out a system and was wondering if I would notice a difference between a
Phenom II with a DFI LP DK 790FXB
OR
a Core 2 Quad 9650 with an ASUS Striker II LGA775 nForce 780i ??

I game, surf, edit photos, and make movies. The price difference between the 2 systems is $155.00.
I will be getting a SSD shortly so I need to save as much as possible for that and I am just not sure if I would notice a difference between these 2 setups. I currently run an AMD X2 6400 with a MSI K9n Diamond.
Yes I like AMD as their existence is competition in the market place, and they keep CPU pricing in check when it comes to both Intel and AMD, I just don't want to get a system that I will want to be upgrading in a short time.
Thanks in advance!!

 

[SunnyD]

Core 2 Quad. --> I game, surf, edit photos, and make movies

Of course if you're going so far as to build a new platform - would you be able to swallow the jump to a Core i7 920? For photo/video editing you'd be getting a lot more horsepower out of the i7 than a Core 2 Quad.

Edit: Aw hell, just looked - for the money you're paying for the motherboard and CPU, get a Core i7 920 and a decent motherboard and some DDR3.

 

[Markfw]

No contest... The 9650. The Phenom II 940 get beaten by my old Q 6600's in many things....

 

[SChow]

Both will preform more than adequately. It's up to you. If that's all you do the you're not going to feel the need to upgrade the Phenom II anytime soon, and while the C2Q is faster it is not so significantly faster that it'll last you a few extra years, they'll both start to age at about the same time, but you will get better performance in the now.

If you can easily afford the $155 and it falls within budget then there's no reason why not, if you feel that the $155 could be better spent elsewhere you're not screwing yourself by going with the Phenom II.

 

[Flipped Gazelle]

Originally posted by: Markfw900
No contest... The 9650. The Phenom II 940 get beaten by my old Q 6600's in many things....

That's interesting, as all the PhII reviews I've checked out (including AT's) show the PhII 940 beating the Q6600 in most cases - not that they should be considered direct competitors.

I agree that the 9650 is more powerful than any PhII, but at that point may as well go Core i7.

 

[zenguy]

Microcenter and Frys (B&M Only for both( are going to have the i7 920 on sale for $229 which is over $100 less than the Q9650 if either are close to you.........

 

[n7]

UD3R/P + Q9550.

No need to spend so much on the mobo or even the Q9650 (unless you want a guaranteed 4 GHz).

$230 i7 920 sounds hawt too, though mobo pricing + DDR3 pricing won't as hawt usually.

 

[Markfw]

Originally posted by: Flipped Gazelle

Originally posted by: Markfw900
No contest... The 9650. The Phenom II 940 get beaten by my old Q 6600's in many things....

That's interesting, as all the PhII reviews I've checked out (including AT's) show the PhII 940 beating the Q6600 in most cases - not that they should be considered direct competitors.

I agree that the 9650 is more powerful than any PhII, but at that point may as well go Core i7.

Well, since I do primarily F@H, thats what it wins in, so I am biased.

 

[heyheybooboo]

Tough to top the Phenom II 940 / Asus M3A78-T combo: $338

Or a Q9550.

I'm on the fence as far as waiting for AM3 - maybe worth a look in the Fall as DDR3 prices come down, sb800 debuts and mobos come down in price. You could wait a week or so and see what the initial AM3 procs with dual IMCs will cost and how they might perform.

On the fence with SSD, too. I think the G.SKILL 64GB is probably your best bet especially if you open your bag of tricks on minimizing drive writes, including moving your page file (maybe part to a thumb drive?).

 

[SunnyD]

Originally posted by: n7
UD3R/P + Q9550.

No need to spend so much on the mobo or even the Q9650 (unless you want a guaranteed 4 GHz).

$230 i7 920 sounds hawt too, though mobo pricing + DDR3 pricing won't as hawt usually.

There was a combo deal posted in Hot Deals for a Gigabyte motherboard + 6GB of DDR3 for ~$250. i7 920 + this combo would be ~$500, for what the OP is considering paying for motherboard and CPU for the C2Q&Asus Striker II, I would go with the i7 over the C2Q in a heartbeat for the workload he's expecting on placing.

 

[SlowSpyder]

There is no question that the Q9650 is certainly faster, but not sure if it's $150 faster to you, only you can answer that. Really you'll just have to look at the benches and decide if that extra money is worth it or not. And like others have said you look into Core i7 at that price and again decide what'll work best for the software you use.

 

[Chrisped]

Yes, I have looked into i7 and it seems all the motherboards are above $200 and the DDR3 is ridiculously expensive. I just seems that the pricing for i7, since it is so new, is of course, overinflated. When I also think of the whole, "good to have AMD in the marketplace so there is competition so I should support them", I lean towards the Phenom II 940 with an overclock.

Also, I am trying to save some money for an OCZ Vertex 128GB solid state drive. Align the partition, run steady state and have a ram disk, and that should really fly.

Decisions decisions......

Thanks all!

 

[SunnyD]

Originally posted by: Chrisped
Yes, I have looked into i7 and it seems all the motherboards are above $200 and the DDR3 is ridiculously expensive. I just seems that the pricing for i7, since it is so new, is of course, overinflated. When I also think of the whole, "good to have AMD in the marketplace so there is competition so I should support them", I lean towards the Phenom II 940 with an overclock.

Also, I am trying to save some money for an OCZ Vertex 128GB solid state drive. Align the partition, run steady state and have a ram disk, and that should really fly.

Decisions decisions......

Thanks all!

??? Seriously ???

The Asus board you are looking at is $239 After rebate... The DFI board is $169 (Newegg prices). I'll admit that DDR3 is substantially more expensive right now. But considering the i7 920 is cheaper than the Q9650 and would significantly outperform both the Q9650 and Phenom II 940 (Even overclocked) for what you're planning on throwing at it, it really is the no brainer.

It sounds like you made your decision before you asked though (reiterating your comment about AMD). I'm guessing cost is your biggest issue, which means you should go with AMD.

Again - if you want to consider pricing (if you're in the US):

i7 920 + Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R - $479.98 - $15 MIR = $464.98

G.SKILL 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 - $159.99

(If you bother to shop around, you can actually find much better prices on RAM)

Total = $624.93

---

Your Asus Striker II - $269.99 - $30 MIR = $239.99

Intel Core2Quad Q9650 - $339.99

Asuming you'd reuse your ram (though you'd probably want to buy new DDR2-1066)...

Total = $579.98

---

Youre DFI 790FX board - $169.99

Phenom II 940 - $229.00

Assume you'd reuse your ram (though you'd really want to buy new DDR2-1066 if you're overclocking).

Total = $398.99

(Disclaimer : This post is intended to highlight pricing differences only)

 

[Idontcare]

Originally posted by: SlowSpyder
There is no question that the Q9650 is certainly faster, but not sure if it's $150 faster to you, only you can answer that. Really you'll just have to look at the benches and decide if that extra money is worth it or not. And like others have said you look into Core i7 at that price and again decide what'll work best for the software you use.

There is a calm, steady, persistent rationale to your posts. I can only hope that it is appreciated and heeded by the many lurkers of these forums.

 

[Chrisped]

Thanks SunnyD, I see your point. Didn't have my coffee this morning and couldn't visualize the layout of costs in my head. Looking like i7 is more the way to go as a little more $$ spent now will outperform both cpus and also possibly get more life out my system in the long run.

Funny this is, it seems ingrained in me to always took at processor speed 2.66 Ghz vs 3.0 Ghz and not think 2.66 is so slow....but benches say otherwise.

 

[soonerproud]

Originally posted by: Markfw900
Well, since I do primarily F@H, thats what it wins in, so I am biased.

Invest in a good GPU then and do F@H with that instead. Most mid range and upper range GPU's run circles around any CPU on the market doing F@H.

 

[solofly]

Originally posted by: Markfw900

Originally posted by: Flipped Gazelle

Originally posted by: Markfw900
No contest... The 9650. The Phenom II 940 get beaten by my old Q 6600's in many things....

That's interesting, as all the PhII reviews I've checked out (including AT's) show the PhII 940 beating the Q6600 in most cases - not that they should be considered direct competitors.

I agree that the 9650 is more powerful than any PhII, but at that point may as well go Core i7.

Well, since I do primarily F@H, thats what it wins in, so I am biased.

I wonder what your monthly power bill is...😉

 

[spdfreak]

I'm in the motorcycle business and I run into similar questions all the time about Sportbikes. Since most people never, or can't, use even a fraction of what one of those bikes is capable of, I usually tell them to go for the best deal and not worry about the tiny bleeding edge performance that one might have over the other. For a lot of guys, computers and overclocking is a hobby or "sport" (I use the term loosely). That's OK, but lets face it- even a mid-range system has far more power than most people will ever need. So, if money is an issue, go for the best deal since I really doubt you will ever be able to "feel" the difference in any system that is running 4 cores at 3GHz! You will get a lot more "computer pleasure", to coin a term, from a nicer monitor and a really good chair!

 

[Chrisped]

Thanks everyone and especially for the tip on Frys. I am about 1hr away from one and just looked at their ad and $229 for a i7 920 processor and $177 for a Gigabyte UD3R. Thats the way to go! Forum ppl here rock!!!!

 

[SunnyD]

Originally posted by: Chrisped
Thanks everyone and especially for the tip on Frys. I am about 1hr away from one and just looked at their ad and $229 for a i7 920 processor and $177 for a Gigabyte UD3R. Thats the way to go! Forum ppl here rock!!!!

Good deal. Now all you need to do is find some reasonably priced DDR3 and you're golden!

Let us know how it turns out!

 

[Idontcare]

Originally posted by: solofly

Originally posted by: Markfw900

Originally posted by: Flipped Gazelle

Originally posted by: Markfw900
No contest... The 9650. The Phenom II 940 get beaten by my old Q 6600's in many things....

That's interesting, as all the PhII reviews I've checked out (including AT's) show the PhII 940 beating the Q6600 in most cases - not that they should be considered direct competitors.

I agree that the 9650 is more powerful than any PhII, but at that point may as well go Core i7.

Well, since I do primarily F@H, thats what it wins in, so I am biased.

I wonder what your monthly power bill is...😉

I can directly attribute $90/month of my electric bill to my six quads running fully loaded 24x7...so Mark's has got to be closer to $120-$150.

 

[theAnimal]

Originally posted by: soonerproud

Originally posted by: Markfw900
Well, since I do primarily F@H, thats what it wins in, so I am biased.

Invest in a good GPU then and do F@H with that instead. Most mid range and upper range GPU's run circles around any CPU on the market doing F@H.

From his sig:

An assortment of 17 8800 GT's, 9800 GT's, 9800 GTX+ and a GTX260 on various boxes doing F@H

 

[Markfw]

Originally posted by: Idontcare

Originally posted by: solofly

Originally posted by: Markfw900

Originally posted by: Flipped Gazelle

Originally posted by: Markfw900
No contest... The 9650. The Phenom II 940 get beaten by my old Q 6600's in many things....

That's interesting, as all the PhII reviews I've checked out (including AT's) show the PhII 940 beating the Q6600 in most cases - not that they should be considered direct competitors.

I agree that the 9650 is more powerful than any PhII, but at that point may as well go Core i7.

Well, since I do primarily F@H, thats what it wins in, so I am biased.

I wonder what your monthly power bill is...😉

I can directly attribute $90/month of my electric bill to my six quads running fully loaded 24x7...so Mark's has got to be closer to $120-$150.

Try $300. Those video cards are real heaters, and take a lot of juice.

 

[Idontcare]

Originally posted by: Markfw900

Originally posted by: Idontcare

Originally posted by: solofly

Originally posted by: Markfw900

Originally posted by: Flipped Gazelle

Originally posted by: Markfw900
No contest... The 9650. The Phenom II 940 get beaten by my old Q 6600's in many things....

That's interesting, as all the PhII reviews I've checked out (including AT's) show the PhII 940 beating the Q6600 in most cases - not that they should be considered direct competitors.

I agree that the 9650 is more powerful than any PhII, but at that point may as well go Core i7.

Well, since I do primarily F@H, thats what it wins in, so I am biased.

I wonder what your monthly power bill is...😉

I can directly attribute $90/month of my electric bill to my six quads running fully loaded 24x7...so Mark's has got to be closer to $120-$150.

Try $300. Those video cards are real heaters, and take a lot of juice.

Holy crap :shocked:

 

[Duvie]

Originally posted by: soonerproud

Originally posted by: Markfw900
Well, since I do primarily F@H, thats what it wins in, so I am biased.

Invest in a good GPU then and do F@H with that instead. Most mid range and upper range GPU's run circles around any CPU on the market doing F@H.

You are not telling him anything he hasn't know for quite sometime....He has 15 gpus running and 2 on the way....

the nice thing about the phenom 2 is that it has for pci-express slots capable of 8x so he could run 4 cards and bypass the fact the phenom is subpar folder compared to intel cpus....Bottomline....that doesn't change....

In his case since he only has a 700 watt power supply and not likely to be abel to run 4 cards he will run 2 gpus and then run an smp...so the slower performance of the 940 hurts him because he could have had it on a cheaper Q8200 setup and done slightly better...