X3 710 $99 @ Newegg

[lektrix]

Is this CPU the best bang for the buck right now? Is there any reason why it is so cheap?

 

[wolfman11]

It's a good chip. Just put one in a build for my wife. They had a nice combo with a Gigabyte Radeon HD4350 w/ 512 for $88.99 after rebates and combo discounts... Chip is quick and she noticed a significant difference compared to her old 2.0 gigahertz single core P4.

If you overclock, for $20 more you might want to consider the 720 black edition...

 

[Stoneburner]

I just replaced my 710 with a 550 and the 550 is vastly superior. Both unlocked but the 710 goes up to 3.1 ghz whereas the 550 goes up to 3.6ghz.

This is still a hot deal, except for me since I have to sell my used 710 and it's competing with 100 dollar new ones 🙂

 

[Eureka]

It looks like AMD CPUs are going on sale... 940 and 955 are getting pretty cheap as well (I just got my 955 + 1tb hard drive for $245 total before rebates and eBm).

 

[Hacp]

Originally posted by: Stoneburner
I just replaced my 710 with a 550 and the 550 is vastly superior. Both unlocked but the 710 goes up to 3.1 ghz whereas the 550 goes up to 3.6ghz.

This is still a hot deal, except for me since I have to sell my used 710 and it's competing with 100 dollar new ones 🙂

Maybe you needed to lower your Hypertransport and northbridge multipliers? Lots of people get stuck at 3.1ghz on that chip cause they can't get above 240mhz on the HTT.

 

[Stoneburner]

Originally posted by: Hacp

Originally posted by: Stoneburner
I just replaced my 710 with a 550 and the 550 is vastly superior. Both unlocked but the 710 goes up to 3.1 ghz whereas the 550 goes up to 3.6ghz.

This is still a hot deal, except for me since I have to sell my used 710 and it's competing with 100 dollar new ones 🙂

Maybe you needed to lower your Hypertransport and northbridge multipliers? Lots of people get stuck at 3.1ghz on that chip cause they can't get above 240mhz on the HTT.

Nah, it was the chip. Maybe it was just the fourth core (did nto try to overclock in x3 mode) but I loosened memory, lowered the multi on ram, nb, and HT, nothing. In fact, I tried it on my asus m4a78-e (same board that took my 920 x4 to 3.68) and it gave me about the same result as my biostar ta790gx.

3.1 ghz and 4 cores is still an extra core plus 500 mhz.

 

[reallyscrued]

Originally posted by: Stoneburner
I just replaced my 710 with a 550 and the 550 is vastly superior. Both unlocked but the 710 goes up to 3.1 ghz whereas the 550 goes up to 3.6ghz.

This is still a hot deal, except for me since I have to sell my used 710 and it's competing with 100 dollar new ones 🙂

Thank you, I will be buying a 550 Black Edition now.

 

[Eeqmcsq]

Originally posted by: lektrix
Is this CPU the best bang for the buck right now? Is there any reason why it is so cheap?

Possibly to clear room for an upcoming X3 740.

 

[alkemyst]

X3 720 and X2 550 are the direct head to heads...I picked the 720. It's a tossup to unlocking and overclocking if that's your thing. If you are running stock the 550 is the best overall for the average user is seems.

 

[Eureka]

Originally posted by: alkemyst
X3 720 and X2 550 are the direct head to heads...I picked the 720. It's a tossup to unlocking and overclocking if that's your thing. If you are running stock the 550 is the best overall for the average user is seems.

Well I've heard that the 550 unlocks pretty well too, you may end up with a quad 550 (950?).