Would getting a Phenom II X3 710 be a good idea?

[Borealis7]

for performance figures just read the Anandtech article about the new AMD CPUs. then rate them according to price and pick the one which is the best price/performance ratio where you live.

 

[Keysplayr]

For 20 dollars more, getting the unlocked version (720BE) shouldn't even be a question. Well worth it for not having to mess with board overclocks. Simply change the multiplier and if necessary, up the voltage slightly til you get where you need to be where temps and stability permit. 720BE without a doubt. I'm going from a Phenom X4 9550 to a 720BE.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Originally posted by: keysplayr2003
For 20 dollars more, getting the unlocked version (720BE) shouldn't even be a question. Well worth it for not having to mess with board overclocks. Simply change the multiplier and if necessary, up the voltage slightly til you get where you need to be where temps and stability permit. 720BE without a doubt. I'm going from a Phenom X4 9550 to a 720BE.

$20 isn't much, but uh, what's wrong with board overclocks?

I did a little research for a post I made in the motherboard forum and found out that the cheapest motherboard on NewEgg - a $45 POS ECS board - has tweakable HTT settings and not much else but could probably get the X3 710 to at least 3.3 ghz which is where Anandtech was able to get it without raising vcore (something the ECS board does not support). That's as far as a 720 BE would go on the same board.

I can't seem to find that magic cheap board with tons of OC options but no HTT headroom where the 720 BE would be easier to overclock than the 710.

If you've got a board that supports CPU multiplier tweaks for BE processors, NB speed/voltage tweaking, memory overclocking/overvolting, and so forth, you've also probably got a board that will hit 300 HTT or higher without breaking a sweat, so this issue of HTT overclocking just doesn't seem to be an issue at all.

But, it is just $20 . . .

 

[Keysplayr]

Originally posted by: DrMrLordX

Originally posted by: keysplayr2003
For 20 dollars more, getting the unlocked version (720BE) shouldn't even be a question. Well worth it for not having to mess with board overclocks. Simply change the multiplier and if necessary, up the voltage slightly til you get where you need to be where temps and stability permit. 720BE without a doubt. I'm going from a Phenom X4 9550 to a 720BE.

$20 isn't much, but uh, what's wrong with board overclocks?

I did a little research for a post I made in the motherboard forum and found out that the cheapest motherboard on NewEgg - a $45 POS ECS board - has tweakable HTT settings and not much else but could probably get the X3 710 to at least 3.3 ghz which is where Anandtech was able to get it without raising vcore (something the ECS board does not support). That's as far as a 720 BE would go on the same board.

I can't seem to find that magic cheap board with tons of OC options but no HTT headroom where the 720 BE would be easier to overclock than the 710.

If you've got a board that supports CPU multiplier tweaks for BE processors, NB speed/voltage tweaking, memory overclocking/overvolting, and so forth, you've also probably got a board that will hit 300 HTT or higher without breaking a sweat, so this issue of HTT overclocking just doesn't seem to be an issue at all.

But, it is just $20 . . .

Come on dude, I never said there was anything "wrong" with board overclocks did I?
Going by your research above, do you think it would be easier getting to 3.3 with the unlocked multi 720, or take your chances on the 710 getting to 3.3 if and only if you get the board that can actually do it?

I merely meant it is soooo much easier with an unlocked multi. Not dissing board o/c'ers whatsoever.

And for 20 bucks more, for a guy like me who hates messing with mobo settings for a respectable o/c, its a pretty simple choice. Yes, I know others feel differently, but the value of overclocking a cheaper CPU isn't really the same here. For only 20 bucks, I don't think it's worth the headache to get the 710. IMHO

 

[DrMrLordX]

To each their own I guess. What kind of issues crop up from board overclocks on AM2+/AM3 systems? I haven't tweaked one yet so I'm curious.

Going by your research above, do you think it would be easier getting to 3.3 with the unlocked multi 720, or take your chances on the 710 getting to 3.3 if and only if you get the board that can actually do it?

Thing is, since I'd have to pay around $70-$75 minimum to get a board that would have the BIOS settings necessary to tweak the CPU multi on a BE processor, if I stuck a 710 in the same board, I'd probably be hitting 3.3 ghz (or higher) due to all the other nice BIOS settings and general board quality. Besides, that's an HTT setting of 253 mhz. Even the $45 ECS monstrosity can do that (but you can't tweak HT multi apparently). Of course, like all ECS boards it might asplode or be DOA but you get what you pay for.

On a feature-rich board, like the asus m3a78-cm (a $75 board by most accounts), I'm pretty sure the 710 would have a fair chance of hitting the same speeds as a 720 BE unless silicon quality on the 710s is consistently worse.

None of this is really an issue if you've already got a nice AM2+ board that you know will support CPU multiplier tweaking with BE processors.

 

[Keysplayr]

Hmmm. Good points there. I have the M3N-HT in my sig. I'll have to double check the CPU compatability list for it now. Thanks for the heads up on that.

 

[Keysplayr]

By the way, is the Phenom II 720 available yet? Newegg doesn't seem to have them yet, unless I'm a dolt and missed them.
I haven't been following this launch while tooling around with my Q6600.

N/M. I found it at the egg. 154.00.

Linky Pie

 

[richierich1212]

Originally posted by: keysplayr2003
By the way, is the Phenom II 720 available yet? Newegg doesn't seem to have them yet, unless I'm a dolt and missed them.
I haven't been following this launch while tooling around with my Q6600.

N/M. I found it at the egg. 154.00.

Linky Pie

Newegg finally lowered the price a bit. Initial release was $159.99, then up to $165.99 for a couple of days, to back down to $154.00. They need to drop it down to retail with free shipping, just like their other processors.


Also, the 710 comes with a X13 multiplier, which means if you were trying to go even higher you would have to use a really high bus speed, which can hinder your overclocks.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Originally posted by: richierich1212

Also, the 710 comes with a X13 multiplier, which means if you were trying to go even higher you would have to use a really high bus speed, which can hinder your overclocks.

That's actually a really high multi for any AMD processor. Most boards will do 240-250 mhz htt minimum if they have the ability to overclock at all.

I don't know what the peak HTT is on that asus board I mentioned above, but even super-cheap budget overclock boards that were favorites of the Brisbane overclocker crowd were hitting HTT speeds of 280 or higher. HTT speeds just aren't that much of a limitation; chances are the chip would top out before the board would.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Originally posted by: keysplayr2003
Hmmm. Good points there. I have the M3N-HT in my sig. I'll have to double check the CPU compatability list for it now. Thanks for the heads up on that.

Glad to be of assistance. I'm sure that if it supports all the unique overclocking features of Agena processors (NB tweaking, CPU multiplier tweaking on BE Agenas, etc) that it should do the same for an X3 720 BE. BUt I could be wrong . . . BIOSes are weird like that.

Originally posted by: richierich1212

Also, the 710 comes with a X13 multiplier, which means if you were trying to go even higher you would have to use a really high bus speed, which can hinder your overclocks.

That's actually a really high multi for any AMD processor. Most boards will do 240-250 mhz htt minimum if they have the ability to overclock at all.

I don't know what the peak HTT is on that asus board I mentioned above, but even super-cheap budget overclock boards that were favorites of the Brisbane overclocker crowd were hitting HTT speeds of 280 or higher. HTT speeds just aren't that much of a limitation; chances are the chip would top out before the board would.

 

[poohbear]

Originally posted by: DrMrLordX
To each their own I guess. What kind of issues crop up from board overclocks on AM2+/AM3 systems? I haven't tweaked one yet so I'm curious.

Going by your research above, do you think it would be easier getting to 3.3 with the unlocked multi 720, or take your chances on the 710 getting to 3.3 if and only if you get the board that can actually do it?

Thing is, since I'd have to pay around $70-$75 minimum to get a board that would have the BIOS settings necessary to tweak the CPU multi on a BE processor, if I stuck a 710 in the same board, I'd probably be hitting 3.3 ghz (or higher) due to all the other nice BIOS settings and general board quality. Besides, that's an HTT setting of 253 mhz. Even the $45 ECS monstrosity can do that (but you can't tweak HT multi apparently). Of course, like all ECS boards it might asplode or be DOA but you get what you pay for.

On a feature-rich board, like the asus m3a78-cm (a $75 board by most accounts), I'm pretty sure the 710 would have a fair chance of hitting the same speeds as a 720 BE unless silicon quality on the 710s is consistently worse.

None of this is really an issue if you've already got a nice AM2+ board that you know will support CPU multiplier tweaking with BE processors.

these are excellent points u make. I didnt realize the 710 had a 13x multiplier, that's insane! any mobo should be able to overclock it just as far as a 720.

Thing is, the price difference for people outside the states is'nt always just "$20". In places like Australia where hardware is ridiculously overpriced, im sure its a much bigger diff than $20. Where i currently work (Seoul) i noticed there's a $30 price difference between the 2, and w/ a 13x multiplier its really not that much harder to overclock a 710 especially since the biostar mobo i wanna get can support such a FSB overclock no probs.