What upgrade would you get in my situation?

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

Ha, I just noticed that Axel and I gave pretty much the same exact advice and rationale without referencing each other at all.

LOL, yeah. It does make sense, though. Why would we recommend to him a cheap AM3 mobo he'll have to replace in the future if he wants BD, anyway? He could use the DDR3 RAM in the future, but those $50 extra for the mobo are essentially gonna be flushed down the toilet. If he got the Phenom II X4 instead it'd be lost money too because in the future it'll have to be replaced by a new BD CPU for more performance, or Sandy Bridge if he prefers to go that route.

The Phenom II X3 is still a lot faster than an Athlon X2. 65% faster in gaming, and around 100% faster in everything else overall. :awe:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/38?vs=83

 

[mfenn]

LOL, yeah. It does make sense, though. Why would we recommend to him a cheap AM3 mobo he'll have to replace in the future if he wants BD, anyway? He could use the DDR3 RAM in the future, but those $50 extra for the mobo are essentially gonna be flushed down the toilet. If he got the Phenom II X4 instead it'd be lost money too because in the future it'll have to be replaced by a new BD CPU for more performance, or Sandy Bridge if he prefers to go that route.

The Phenom II X3 is still a lot faster than an Athlon X2. 65% faster in gaming, and around 100% faster in everything else overall. :awe:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/38?vs=83

Oh yeah, I agree totally. I guess that's how the OP knows it's good advice!

 

[montypythizzle]

Poor Brisbane, he was the best overclocker and cheapest X2 when I got him years ago back when 300 was a huge blockbuster at the theater.
I remember those days.

Funny, Intel was still better performing with the core 2 duos xGGGGGG back then.

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

Poor Brisbane, he was the best overclocker and cheapest X2 when I got him years ago back when 300 was a huge blockbuster at the theater.
I remember those days.

Funny, Intel was still better performing with the core 2 duos xGGGGGG back then.

Hahaha, yeah. AMD didn't really expect Core 2 to be so insanely powerful. The good thing is you can pick up these CPUs so cheap and get a huge performance boost.

When does it arrive? It'd be pretty nice to see just how much faster it is.

 

[StrangerGuy]

Poor Brisbane, he was the best overclocker and cheapest X2 when I got him years ago back when 300 was a huge blockbuster at the theater.
I remember those days.

Funny, Intel was still better performing with the core 2 duos xGGGGGG back then.

I don't think AM2 ever worth buying during its heyday. An E6300 overclocked will beat the pants of an FX-62 for far less money even after the AMD price cuts.

 

[montypythizzle]

I don't think AM2 ever worth buying during its heyday. An E6300 overclocked will beat the pants of an FX-62 for far less money even after the AMD price cuts.

This guy.

Hahaha, yeah. AMD didn't really expect Core 2 to be so insanely powerful. The good thing is you can pick up these CPUs so cheap and get a huge performance boost.

When does it arrive? It'd be pretty nice to see just how much faster it is.

Supposedly Wednesday. Hopefully it gets here on said date so I can try it out/make sure it works, maybe even overclock before 25 man raid.

 

[montypythizzle]

Update:
Got it today, plugged it in, worked.

Messing around with it right now, seems to give a noticeable FPS increase, but haven't brought it to the real test, 25m raid.

Bumped up the multiplier just because I could (lol never had a EE or BE before).

It's at 3ghz right now no voltage. Pretty nice not having to really have good overclocking RAM, or having to lower HT multiplier.

 

[montypythizzle]

HMM, says its at 70C, load my 3600 used to get 45c, might have to see if the heatsink is seated right XG It goes from like 65-72 and heatsink is maybe hand warm, could be weird temp sensor with this beta BIOS.

BIOS says it hovers around 40c, the board's software temp goes wonky and is only around 56c now displayed on the software.

I am guessing it is just a bug or something, the processor isn't recognized in Windows, just the speed, it doesn't say Phenom II or w/e.

 

[mfenn]

Yeah, it sounds like the CPUID isn't being fully reported to the OS. Not surprising with a beta BIOS, but really no big deal. 70C under load isn't bad for a Phenom II, but of course it can't hurt to check the thermal paste and heatsink mounting.

 

[montypythizzle]

Yeah, it sounds like the CPUID isn't being fully reported to the OS. Not surprising with a beta BIOS, but really no big deal. 70C under load isn't bad for a Phenom II, but of course it can't hurt to check the thermal paste and heatsink mounting.

I downloaded some random drivers off the Internet for Phenom for XP and now it is reporting the correct temp, hovers around 45c with moderate load.

Oh, and over a 15-20 FPS increase in raids, going from unplayable to almost smooth, YES PLEASE.

 

[jaydee]

I downloaded some random drivers off the Internet for Phenom for XP and now it is reporting the correct temp, hovers around 45c with moderate load.

Oh, and over a 15-20 FPS increase in raids, going from unplayable to almost smooth, YES PLEASE.

I'd try bumping it up a little more. If WoW is all you really care about, I think you *may* have been better off spending $13 more going with a retail PII X2 555BE C3 (cranking it to the ~3.6Ghz range), as WoW seems to be more clockspeed dependant than core count. (http://www.anandtech.com/bench/CPU/62 you'll see the Athlon II X2 @3.3Ghz scores identically to the Athlon II X3 @3.3Ghz and they both score higher than Phenom II X6 @2.8Ghz)

That being said, if you can squeeze another couple hundred Mhz's out of the X3, you may yet obtain "smooth" and be perfectly happy with your purchase. How's your case airflow?

 

[montypythizzle]

Ya, I'm going to work on it, only reason I didn't want to push it too far is for stability in raids, but I got half a week to test it until next raid. But as far as airflow, 2 120mm in and out and for CPU cooler I got this one or something similar to it http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186010 It never really gets hot at all.

 

[montypythizzle]

Prime95 testing at 3.4ghz now, I think voltage is on auto though Forgot to uncheck that, oh well. Stable for 25mins or so now. Getting different Vcore readings in CPUZ and the board utility, Easy Tune. Now to determine what the stock vcore is, and then try upping the multiplier.

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

I'd try bumping it up a little more. If WoW is all you really care about, I think you *may* have been better off spending $13 more going with a retail PII X2 555BE C3 (cranking it to the ~3.6Ghz range), as WoW seems to be more clockspeed dependant than core count. (http://www.anandtech.com/bench/CPU/62 you'll see the Athlon II X2 @3.3Ghz scores identically to the Athlon II X3 @3.3Ghz and they both score higher than Phenom II X6 @2.8Ghz)

That being said, if you can squeeze another couple hundred Mhz's out of the X3, you may yet obtain "smooth" and be perfectly happy with your purchase. How's your case airflow?

The Phenom II X2 is the worst CPU AMD has launched since 2009. Unlocking is a hit or miss, and if it fails, you're left with a measly dual-core. If you care about gaming in the future, a dual-core: bad bottleneck (unless you're talking about a Core i3).

Horrible recommendation.

Prime95 testing at 3.4ghz now, I think voltage is on auto though Forgot to uncheck that, oh well. Stable for 25mins or so now. Getting different Vcore readings in CPUZ and the board utility, Easy Tune. Now to determine what the stock vcore is, and then try upping the multiplier.

Looking good. The ~70C temp. you mentioned is more than probably an error.

Seems to be a huge performance increase from your old Athlon X2. :thumbsup:

 

[montypythizzle]

Slowly speeding it up, at 3.5ghz right now, not much prime95 testing yet. Easiest overclocking I have done in my life. Took off CnQ see if that was messing with my vcore, and I checked out vcore and it said it was locked, as far as not on auto.
Hopefully we can get a little faster tomorrow when I work on it some more.

Seems vcore is going from 1.4-1.45, what is the normal voltage range you can put into these and what is the default?

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

Slowly speeding it up, at 3.5ghz right now, not much prime95 testing yet. Easiest overclocking I have done in my life. Took off CnQ see if that was messing with my vcore, and I checked out vcore and it said it was locked, as far as not on auto.
Hopefully we can get a little faster tomorrow when I work on it some more.

Seems vcore is going from 1.4-1.45, what is the normal voltage range you can put into these and what is the default?

The default v-core on a Phenom II is 1.32. 1.5V is the max you'd recommend for 24/7 use with high-end air cooling. With something decent like a Corsair A50, around 1.45V volts for 24/7. With a 92mm tower air cooler, around 1.4V.

What cooler are you using? Also, I recommend you leave Cool n' Quiet on. It doesn't really affect CPU performance at load and will greatly decrease your power consumption.

 

[montypythizzle]

This one, this is a review link to the exact one: http://www.anandtech.com/show/2429/3 Only got it because my old 3600 was OEM too

It's at 3500, with no vcore change for me, ever since I got this board I don't think CnQ ever worked, but I'd have to leave on some graphs to record if it did work because I never noticed it

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

This one, this is a review link to the exact one: http://www.anandtech.com/show/2429/3 Only got it because my old 3600 was OEM too

It's at 3500, with no vcore change for me, ever since I got this board I don't think CnQ ever worked, but I'd have to leave on some graphs to record if it did work because I never noticed it

Check in your BIOS to see if there's an option to enable it. Your electric bill will probably thank you.

3500MHz at 1.312V? Run a CPU stressing program and open CPU-Z and check the Core VID section. To check for complete stability, I recommend 8-12 hours of Prime95 and 20 instances of IntelBurnTest.

 

[montypythizzle]

CPUZ says 1.4 but I never changed it, as for CnQ there is an option, but I don't ever remember it lowering the speed or voltage

I think the option for voltage just says "normal" in the Bios.

But ya I left P95 on overnight and no errors. So either the overclock is stable at 1.4v or at stock voltage. Either way, it's 46c with moderate load.

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

CPUZ says 1.4 but I never changed it, as for CnQ there is an option, but I don't ever remember it lowering the speed or voltage

I think the option for voltage just says "normal" in the Bios.

But ya I left P95 on overnight and no errors. So either the overclock is stable at 1.4v or at stock voltage. Either way, it's 46c with moderate load.

I see. Well, 3.5GHz on a Phenom II X3 720 at 1.4V is pretty good. Too bad that Cool n' Quiet doesn't work.

Enjoy your new chip.

 

[montypythizzle]

Was getting a little unstable tonight, nothing changed. However after messing around and it really only booting at around 3ghz I decided to look around.

I looked on CPUZ noticed my BIOS was F7e, the latest one on Gigabyte was F7i. The BIOS program@BIOS only updated from the Internet to F7e. I downloaded it and updated with@BIOS manually, and back to smooth sailing.

Only negatives I got is that it won't let me change RAM timings, but who needs RAM timings when you can sit back and have your CPU do all the overclocking. (is it worth it to go to a lower multiplier and then push the FSB up for more bandwidth? I am guessing so but meh)

A good side-effect however is that Windows reports the correct processor.

Bad news is with P95 running its at 55c and it seems the heatsink is absorbing the heat, but just not dissipating it quick enough. CPUZ reports 1.42v, I guess this processor takes the work out of finding the right voltage. I am pretty sure the CPU voltage in BIOS is on "normal"

 

[mfenn]

55C isn't bad at all while priming. In fact, it's pretty good. You could probably play with the voltage a bit to get it lower, but eh it's working now.

 

[montypythizzle]

55C isn't bad at all while priming. In fact, it's pretty good. You could probably play with the voltage a bit to get it lower, but eh it's working now.

Is 45c idle bad? xD Doubt I will get an upgraded cooler though. Feels bad man.

 

[mfenn]

Is 45c idle bad? xD Doubt I will get an upgraded cooler though. Feels bad man.

If you had a chip with power gating, then yeah 45C idle would be pretty bad. Phenom II's don't have it though, so they don't have nearly as low idle power consumption (and temps) as ones that do.

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

Is 45c idle bad? xD Doubt I will get an upgraded cooler though. Feels bad man.

No. It's to be expected since Cool n' Quiet is turned off. If it were turned on, it would lower clock speeds and voltage, thus translating to a ~30-35C idle. Don't worry about it.