Phenom II purchased now

[richough3]

I'm going from a socket 939 X2 3800+ to the Phenom II 940 and here's why I did it now instead of waiting.

1. Price. Right now the Phenom II 940 can be had for as little as $229. The AM3 versions will most likely cost more. Plus, DDR3 is more expensive than DDR2 and the AM3 motherboards will probably cost more as well. In regards to going with the Core i7 920, the upgrades I picked were $120 cheaper than what I specc'd with the Core i7 920 setup.

2. AM3 CPU compatibility. The AM2+ socket motherboard I got will support the AM3 processors, so I can wait for the AM3 processor to come down in price.

3. Releases. The highest speed CPU AMD will release, from what I've seen of their roadmap, this year, is a 3.1 GHz AM3 Phenom II, so I won't lose any big speed race.

Upgrading this way I can eventually use all the components I have now to upgrade another PC while being able to do incremental upgrades for myself. As for the performance difference between the Core i7 920 and the Phenom II 940, well, I'm coming from an X2 3800+ so either platform is a significant performance improvement. I also like to support the underdog when I can because competition helps keep the consumer prices down.

 

[richough3]

And let's not forget that Intel is releasing a new socket soon, so future upgrade options may be more limited for the current Intel socket. At least AM3 CPUs will be backward compatible with AM2+ motherboards, so there's a more viable upgrade path with lower costs involved.

 

[Flipped Gazelle]

Originally posted by: richough3
And let's not forget that Intel is releasing a new socket soon, so future upgrade options may be more limited for the current Intel socket. At least AM3 CPUs will be backward compatible with AM2+ motherboards, so there's a more viable upgrade path with lower costs involved.

You could certainly look at it that way. However, the performance ceiling of Phenom II X4 will not exceed that of C2Q, so there's no advantage for going AMD from a performance standpoint.

Future AM3 CPU's that have more than 4 cores will not run on AM2+.

 

[Denithor]

Originally posted by: richough3
And let's not forget that Intel is releasing a new socket soon, so future upgrade options may be more limited for the current Intel socket. At least AM3 CPUs will be backward compatible with AM2+ motherboards, so there's a more viable upgrade path with lower costs involved.

Um...where the heck did you hear that?

Intel's sockets right now:
Socket 775 - C2D/C2Q - being phased out but probably not for at least a year or more (they won't just drop it like AMD did with Socket 939)
Socket 1366 - Core i7 - brand spankin' new - high performance & server systems
Socket 1156 - Core i5 - coming soon - mainstream systems

Read this article for more details.

 

[RaptureMe]

Makes sense to me plus as I hear it Am3 945BE wont even come out till apr or may.
Amd is only releasing 910-925 with in the next 2 weeks so there will be a short wait till BE's hit the market..
Also there are Bios issues right now with am3 and DDR3 mobo's so waiting those extra 2 months for them to iron out the buggs and go through a few mobo revisions isnt all that bad of a thing..
The way I see it if I buy something new say a cpu or mobo I want it to work out of the box without issue's so I dont have to work my self into insanity from F'ing with bios upgrade this and Rma that..
Other then that Amd is finally getting on the right track so lets keep our fingures crossed that the new launch of am3 goes as planned and on time..

 

[SlowSpyder]

I'm sure you will see a big improvement from a 3800+ to a PhII, I'm sure you'll be happy with it. I think most people here would tell you to go with Intel since you're buying a motherboard as well, but seeing as you made do with a 3800+ for so long I do think you'll be quite happy with any modern quad core you bought.

I can't wait to upgrade, my current chip is a-ok for me, but PhII 940's are pretty cheap.

 

[dennilfloss]

I'm just waiting for an invoice cheque for services rendered and then I too will get a PhII 940+mobo+RAM to replace the ones listed in my sig. $270Can seems like good value in terms of price/performance in my opinion (plus some of us have to buy AMD products to keep prices competitive).

http://www.ncix.com/products/i...romoid=1058&quantity=1

 

[aigomorla]

im sorry it seems like you want us to give you a cookie on why you bought a PHII?

Because im not seeing any performance numbers, or any questions.

Originally posted by: richough3
1. Price. Right now the Phenom II 940 can be had for as little as $229. The AM3 versions will most likely cost more. Plus, DDR3 is more expensive than DDR2 and the AM3 motherboards will probably cost more as well. In regards to going with the Core i7 920, the upgrades I picked were $120 cheaper than what I specc'd with the Core i7 920 setup.

2. AM3 CPU compatibility. The AM2+ socket motherboard I got will support the AM3 processors, so I can wait for the AM3 processor to come down in price.

3. Releases. The highest speed CPU AMD will release, from what I've seen of their roadmap, this year, is a 3.1 GHz AM3 Phenom II, so I won't lose any big speed race.

If these are your questions then:

1. i dont factor budget, i usually get what i want, and PHII is not something i want.

2. Im on LGA1366, i dont have to worry about compatibility for a LONG TIME. LGA1366 will probably be around 2-3+ more years, which is more then you can say for AM2+

3. You lost the speed race by going PHII. So what racing are you doing?

 

[error8]

Worthless thread. If you don't post any benchmarks or any impressions about what did this upgrade improved for you, then why are you even posting? You've made a monologue in which you're justifying your action, like you feel somehow guilty about what you've done. Or maybe you want to be kissed and hugged because you got the Phenom?

And intel's new socket it's a mainstream socket and it will not affect the longevity of the current i7 platform.

 

[dennilfloss]

Shut up you Emo Intel Debbie Downers! He's happy with his purchase and wants to share his good feelings with us.

:thumbsup: to OP.

 

[superunknown98]

Originally posted by: richough3

If these are your questions then:

1. i dont factor budget, i usually get what i want, and PHII is not something i want.

2. Im on LGA1366, i dont have to worry about compatibility for a LONG TIME. LGA1366 will probably be around 2-3+ more years, which is more then you can say for AM2+

3. You lost the speed race by going PHII. So what racing are you doing?

1. Not everyone is lucky enough to buy whatever they want. I'm sure the OP would buy an core i7 if money was no object. And even though The C2Q of the same price is faster than the Phenom 2, the intel motherboard will certainly be more expensive.

2. It's nice that YOU have a Core i7 and I'm sure it will be viable for years to come but the OP doesn't. And as far as any public roadmaps show, the AM3 platform will outlast socket 775, period. Intel may choose to release faster C2Q's but seems unlikely as core i5 is being released. So to that end maybe he should wait untill core i5? Otherwise a AM3 CPU isn't a bad choice.

3. Is this Talladega nights or something? If you ain't first, your last. The core i7 920 must be worthless because it's not the fastest CPU, right?

Granted Phenom 2 is not the fastest, but it's price including motherboard pared with the projected life span of the AM3 platform, makes it a decent value. If the OP is going to build a system and never upgrade it for 5 years then a C2Q makes sense (assuming he can afford it), otherwise AMD isn't so bad.

 

[Idontcare]

hmmm...this thread is borderline flamebait as an OP alone, yet I find myself thinking the same thought (flamebait) about nearly all the replies to it as well.

What are we doing here folks? Do we really want to start our weekend with a pissy thread at the top of the front page?

I suggest we just all put down our pitchforks and walk away from this one.

 

[error8]

Originally posted by: dennilfloss
Shut up you Emo Intel Debbie Downers!

That is just low, man. :laugh:

 

[aigomorla]

Originally posted by: superunknown98

Originally posted by: richough3

If these are your questions then:

1. i dont factor budget, i usually get what i want, and PHII is not something i want.

2. Im on LGA1366, i dont have to worry about compatibility for a LONG TIME. LGA1366 will probably be around 2-3+ more years, which is more then you can say for AM2+

3. You lost the speed race by going PHII. So what racing are you doing?

1. Not everyone is lucky enough to buy whatever they want. I'm sure the OP would buy an core i7 if money was no object. And even though The C2Q of the same price is faster than the Phenom 2, the intel motherboard will certainly be more expensive.

2. It's nice that YOU have a Core i7 and I'm sure it will be viable for years to come but the OP doesn't. And as far as any public roadmaps show, the AM3 platform will outlast socket 775, period. Intel may choose to release faster C2Q's but seems unlikely as core i5 is being released. So to that end maybe he should wait untill core i5? Otherwise a AM3 CPU isn't a bad choice.

3. Is this Talladega nights or something? If you ain't first, your last. The core i7 920 must be worthless because it's not the fastest CPU, right?

Granted Phenom 2 is not the fastest, but it's price including motherboard pared with the projected life span of the AM3 platform, makes it a decent value. If the OP is going to build a system and never upgrade it for 5 years then a C2Q makes sense (assuming he can afford it), otherwise AMD isn't so bad.

Well you have good points in everything.

But as i said the OP came in with no questions, no performance.
Sounded to me like a justification thread.

Im not very nice to people trying to justify something they bought. I see it as only two ways, you buy it cuz you want it, or cuz its what you can afford.

There is no justification required. (its your money, if anyone needs to be happy its you)

Had he come in with some questions, or performance numbers, im sure my response would be much different.

 

[superunknown98]

Originally posted by: aigomorla

Originally posted by: superunknown98

Originally posted by: richough3

If these are your questions then:

1. i dont factor budget, i usually get what i want, and PHII is not something i want.

2. Im on LGA1366, i dont have to worry about compatibility for a LONG TIME. LGA1366 will probably be around 2-3+ more years, which is more then you can say for AM2+

3. You lost the speed race by going PHII. So what racing are you doing?

1. Not everyone is lucky enough to buy whatever they want. I'm sure the OP would buy an core i7 if money was no object. And even though The C2Q of the same price is faster than the Phenom 2, the intel motherboard will certainly be more expensive.

2. It's nice that YOU have a Core i7 and I'm sure it will be viable for years to come but the OP doesn't. And as far as any public roadmaps show, the AM3 platform will outlast socket 775, period. Intel may choose to release faster C2Q's but seems unlikely as core i5 is being released. So to that end maybe he should wait untill core i5? Otherwise a AM3 CPU isn't a bad choice.

3. Is this Talladega nights or something? If you ain't first, your last. The core i7 920 must be worthless because it's not the fastest CPU, right?

Granted Phenom 2 is not the fastest, but it's price including motherboard pared with the projected life span of the AM3 platform, makes it a decent value. If the OP is going to build a system and never upgrade it for 5 years then a C2Q makes sense (assuming he can afford it), otherwise AMD isn't so bad.

Well you have good points in everything.

But as i said the OP came in with no questions, no performance.
Sounded to me like a justification thread.

Im not very nice to people trying to justify something they bought. I see it as only two ways, you buy it cuz you want it, or cuz its what you can afford.

There is no justification required. (its your money, if anyone needs to be happy its you)

Had he come in with some questions, or performance numbers, im sure my response would be much different.

Oop's messed up with my quoting. But anyway yes richough3 was just making general statements, however I am in the same situation as he. I currently have a x2 3800+ and would need to buy a motherboard to upgrade. I am interested to hear why richough3 decided to buy a AM2+ and not wait for the AM3. There were not facts to really speak of but it helps me include all opinions in my choice.

 

[SChow]

It may be a justification thread, but that doesn't mean it's without merit. There are people conflicted about the PhII and whether to just hop on AM2+ or wait for AM3. FWIW, I went with the former. (PhII + Motherboard) from NewEgg was an absolute steal.

 

[SlowSpyder]

Originally posted by: aigomorla
im sorry it seems like you want us to give you a cookie on why you bought a PHII?

Because im not seeing any performance numbers, or any questions.

Originally posted by: richough3
1. Price. Right now the Phenom II 940 can be had for as little as $229. The AM3 versions will most likely cost more. Plus, DDR3 is more expensive than DDR2 and the AM3 motherboards will probably cost more as well. In regards to going with the Core i7 920, the upgrades I picked were $120 cheaper than what I specc'd with the Core i7 920 setup.

2. AM3 CPU compatibility. The AM2+ socket motherboard I got will support the AM3 processors, so I can wait for the AM3 processor to come down in price.

3. Releases. The highest speed CPU AMD will release, from what I've seen of their roadmap, this year, is a 3.1 GHz AM3 Phenom II, so I won't lose any big speed race.

If these are your questions then:

1. i dont factor budget, i usually get what i want, and PHII is not something i want.

2. Im on LGA1366, i dont have to worry about compatibility for a LONG TIME. LGA1366 will probably be around 2-3+ more years, which is more then you can say for AM2+

3. You lost the speed race by going PHII. So what racing are you doing?

Let's not kill this guy, I think his intentions with this post were innocent enough... I think so anyway.

I wish I could buy like you, but the wife would kill me if I kept buying more computer parts everytime something was released. While we're hardly rich, we have plenty of disposable income for me to enjoy this hobby, but like 99% of us I do have to set a reasonable budget. This guy got a capable, though slower than many of Intel's offerings, for what I think most of us would agree is not too much money.

I don't know what is on the roadmap for Core i7, but no doubt you'll have a very useful and long life out of LGA1366... it was just released and i7 is already quite the performer, I would imagine 32nm versions will work on it too when released making it a great option for anyone who buys it today. But AM2+, while not as new as LGA1366 still has some life in it as well. I would say AMD may have a minor advantage over Intel's socket 775 as far as upgradability goes, but certainly not LGA1366. And I say a 'small advantage' only because I doubt we'll see much else released for 775, but I bet that any current 775 processor can probably overclock to levels that would keep it comparable (maybe even faster) then anything that will be released on AM2+, but because not everyone overclocks this could be a small advantage for AMD. Of course Intel has the advantage again with LGA1366... more will be released in the future and it is already faster with what you can buy for it.

I think all he meant was he wasn't losing anything compared to what AMD will be releasing in the immediate future... not vs. what Intel is going to release in the upcoming months. He's not buying somehting now that will be obsolete from in 2 months due to AMD releasing 4+GHz PhII's. I don't think (hope) that he was trying to compare this to what Intel will be releasing, that wouldn't make a whole lot of sense.

Anyway, I think this was just a 'give me a cookie, I bought new hardware' type thread. This poor guy was stuck on a 3800+ for a long time, it's time for an upgrade I would think.

When and if I get a PhII I promise not to let you guys know.

 

[richough3]

I am merely indicating why I went with the Phenom II now. My basic criteria was true quad core and 3.0 GHz and minimizing cost. As for benchmarks, well, I should hope a 1.8 GHz X2 3800+ is beaten by a 3.0 GHz Phenom II. In fact, with the price drop in the Core i7 920 down to $229 until March, I might have gone with that solution had I not already purchased my parts and they been shipped already. Sure the benchmarks are all nice and everything but I don't plan on overclocking, so who am I competing against except myself and coming from the chip I have, I think I'll notice a definite improvement. It's also meant to point out that buying a Phenom II now isn't a dead end as it will allow me to trickle in upgrades over time instead of having to do a complete upgrade again and the performance is still decent. There's always going to be something better on the horizon but I'm going with what I can afford, especially in these times.

 

[soonerproud]

Originally posted by: SlowSpyder
This poor guy was stuck on a 3800+ for a long time, it's time for an upgrade I would think.

I wouldn't consider myself stuck on my X2 4400+ since it is still very snappy, runs the games I play well and does most things I like to do on my PC well. I will admit, I have been extremely tempted to upgrade to either a new PhII or C2Q system since the prices have come down. My more practical side tells me to wait another year for Nahalem based systems to become mainstream (i5) and to move to Win 7 at the same time. We will see over the next couple of months if my practical side wins that battle or not.

When and if I get a PhII I promise not to let you guys know.

When and if I get a PhII system, I could care less if people approve or disapprove. I will proudly add it to my sig because if I made a purchase based on the best my budget could afford, I have no reason to be ashamed of my choice. The big question I am trying to answer for myself is the timing of my upgrade.

I am open to opinions if I should wait a year or pull the trigger in the next month or two.

 

[Idontcare]

Originally posted by: SlowSpyder
When and if I get a PhII I promise not to let you guys know.

Oh you gots to let me know! I'm not done extracting benchmark data from you.

 

[aigomorla]

Originally posted by: SlowSpyder

When and if I get a PhII I promise not to let you guys know.

ROFL...

awwww comon.. you need to let me pop your ballon too! LOL.

 

[Gillbot]

Originally posted by: Idontcare
hmmm...this thread is borderline flamebait as an OP alone, yet I find myself thinking the same thought (flamebait) about nearly all the replies to it as well.

What are we doing here folks? Do we really want to start our weekend with a pissy thread at the top of the front page?

I suggest we just all put down our pitchforks and walk away from this one.

I agree, Everyone put down the flame suits and calm down. I'm watching this one with my finger on the ban button.
Anandtech Moderator
Gillbot

 

[richough3]

Overall, I went more budget mided than maximum performance. Here's a bit of a price breakdown on why I went Phenom II over Core i7.

Phenom II - $229 (was $235) vs Core i7 920 - $229 (was $295)
4 GB 1066 DDR2 - $49.99 vs 4 GB 1333 DDR3 - $84.99
790 GX MB - $104.99 vs X58 LGA1366 MB - $199

Total - $383.98 vs $512.99

Price difference is $129 but was $189 at time of purchase.

Even though it's only speculative, I don't see the AM3s significantly outperforming the AM2+ chips but since it will be a new chip, it will be more expensive as will the new motherboards but probably not significantly given the pricing pressure from Intel. And currently, DDR3 is more expensive, so once again, the overall cost of an AM3 system would be more expensive.
I know now that I was also off about Intel going with a newer socket. Sorry, was looking at the wrong info. And since we are reading about performance issues, which should be fixed in BIOS updates and whatnot, if I did wait for the AM3 Processors to come out, I would probably still buy the AM2+ chip because their prices should be even lower, but if I didn't , I would go Core i7 because it has been out for a bit so the kinks in its system have been worked out more. And finally, I wanted good onboard video performance for when I do pass it on as I don't like to have to buy a new video card for another PC and I have had a video card fail on me, so I had to live with onboard video while I waited on the RMA.

 

[zenguy]

And that makes some Sense.....

i7 definitely costs more for a minimally priced system.
More performance, but not everyone needs/wants to pay more for it.
And if your system idles alot, the PII will use less power under low usage conditions.

C2Q vs PII

More of a toss-up here with the PII falling somewhere between the Q8xxx and Q9xxx series in price w/o a really significant gap to either side with performance sort of following price. So the PII could make a nice middle choice. However, I'm not really too sold on the "Socket Longevity" thing very much since the next major CPU change by AMD is going to require a socket change and they will not be going to 32nm on their current socket. The result is you may see some slightly better chips coming out, likely nothing that will say - "Hey my Upgrade is gonna rock my world." But at least AMD is very legitimately in this discussion.

 

[richough3]

I do often wonder what performance considerations people are talking about when they state that performance is gimped between a Phenom II 940 and Core i7 920. Once again, my thoughts on the matter regarding overall system performance for my personal use.

Casual games, e.g. Sims - Really doesn't even require a quad core.

Latest and greatest high end game - I don't have a dual SLI or Crossfire system, so my 8800GT video card is gimping performance more than any processor.

MMOs, e.g. World of Warcraft - Seems like a better video card would be needed or even something to reduce the latency so your kill registers with the home server first.

FPS - If I recall, people dialed down extraneous details and capped FPS so they would have the ability to do certain moves consistently instead of leaving FPS uncapped where it would fluctuate a lot. A latency reducer here would be tremendous as well.

Video encoding - If it's not encoding at 120 FPS, it's going to take a long time either way. Yes, I would like to be able to encode a full movie within 10 minutes, if we're talking about what we want performance wise. Otherwise, I don't think I'll be encoding too often so a few extra minutes on something that will probably take over 30 minutes is no big deal. I'll be slowing it down even more by multitasking. C'mon that's what multi core is for right, so you can do you stuff like encode video and play games.

Video Editing - Ah now, here's where better performing processors help, but I didn't get get the 15K RPM SCSI drives to max disk throughput as well. I don't even hava a SATA RAID set up so I guess I'd have to buy a couple of Raptors and have my paging file set to an uber fast SSD if I wanted to increase my performance with minimal costs. And since I don't do video editing, processor difference doesn't mattter.

3D CAD - Not having a workstation card hurts more than a processor difference. And I don't ever do 3D CAD, so no loss for me.

So, other than benchmarks, I haven't figured out where I'm losing out by not going with a Core i7.