Amd Phenom 9500 2.2Ghz vs Wolfdale E5200

[Guest]

I want to build a med range gaming computer. I have everything figured out except for the cpu. Tigerdirect has the AMD Phenom 9500 (Quad-Core) 2.2Ghz for $99.99 and the Intel Wolfdale E5200 (Dual Core) 2.5Ghz for $74.99. From everything I’ve read the E5200 can be over-clocked easily to 4.0Ghz. I haven’t found very many articles at all about the Phenom 9500 and its over-clocking potential. For those that know, is the 9500 worth the extra $25?

 

[yomamafor1]

Keep in mind that not everyone can overclock their CPU to their maximum potential. You would have to invest heavily in cooling devices, as well as time to tweak the machine in order to reach that potential. This is all not to mention that you will be significantly shortening the CPU's life by overclocking it.

Personally I would go with the E5200, due to problems usually associated with 1st generation Phenom B2 stepping. Its also more beneficial for gaming, since most games nowadays still don't take full advantage of quad cores.

 

[Guest]

I know this is old but here is what I found.

I got an oem 9500 with Gigabyte GA-MA770-UD3 motherboard with 4GB of OCZ DDR2-1000 ram

changed FSB to 230 and HT to 8x everything else stock and prime stable overnight....

I don't game so comment there..but I do a lot of MKV to AVCHD video encoding via Ripbot264, a program which supports 4 cores.

Comparing to my previous box which is an E2180@3.2G, The Phenom 9500@2.5G is faster for the above task..

Testing with same MKV files and settings...2 pass

E2180@3.2G
1st pass took 4 hours 11 minutes
2nd pass took 11 hours 43 minutes

9500@2.5G
1st pass took 3 hours 38 minutes
2nd pass took 7 hours 46 minutes.

 

[loneninja]

Phenom will multitask better, and perform better in some applications like 3ds max, however in most any game or task the average person does the E5200 will be noticeably faster.