greenninja64

Honorable
Dec 12, 2012
15
0
10,510
Hey all! So since my current system board seems to be unworthy, I have looked and found this combo that would fit my small budget. I am want to get some advice as to compatibility and functions.


CPU - AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition AM3 CPU HDZ965FBGMBOX - 3.40GHz, Socket AM3, 6MB Cache, 2000MHz (4000 MT/s) FSB, Retail, Processor with
Fan


SYS Board - GIGABYTE GA-78LMT-S2P AMD 760 Motherboard - Micro ATX, Socket AM3+, AMD 760G Chipset, 1333MHz DDR3, SATA II (3Gb/s), RAID, 7.1-CH
Audio, Gigabit LAN, USB 2.0

Can someone give me some words of wisdom on this combo before I go through all the trouble of purchase, build and trial n error.

Thanks,

Christyna
 

Scott_D_Bowen

Honorable
Nov 28, 2012
837
0
11,060
For $200 that looks alright if you are set on AMD.
- Have you considered the more modern GIGABYTE GA-970A-D3?, the AMD970 is a better chip-set than the old AMD760G
- I don't know if the AMD760G has a PCI Express v2.0 x16 or v1.1/v1.0 x16 slot...

I'd check out the LGA1155 motherboard prices first, as they just dropped the price at the source by 3% to 7%:
- http://www.scorptec.com.au/computer/19/916/?order=price

A $69 to $89 dollar LGA1155 motherboard and a $119 Core i3 at 3.3GHz might be better if you're planning on gaming on it.
- That's $10 more or less than what I suspect you are looking to spend ($200).

A 2.90 GHz Intel Core i# processor is likely to outperform the power hungry AMD Phenom II X4 965 even with it running at 3.40GHz.

Feel free to look up benchmarks to double check.

Plus you can upgrade to a Core i5 or even a Core i7 down the track
- Socket AM3+ has limited upgrade options (that make any sense...).

Update:
- Yeah, the Core i3 is a better performer, even at the same price point and at a lower clock speed (and thus noise level and power consumption will be lower too!).
- http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/102?vs=677
- Even at 100MHz lower clock speed it performs about +27% better in games when push comes to shove.
- I'm assuming you're a gamer as you're here...