Athlon II X4 vs Phenom II X3 or x2

[protokiller]

I am giving my Core 2 to my father and he will buy me one of these cpus+cheap mobo however I don't know which to buy.

I can go for unlocking cores on the Phenom or get the guarantee of 4 cores but possibly mediocore performance of the Athlon II, can somebody lend some input?

 

[xaira]

i think the best of all worlds fits snugly into the athlon II x4 630

 

[robin banks uk]

xaira is right but if you got the money you could try unlocking cores on phenom ii 550

if you dont want to take a risk go for xaira +xaira a Veteran

 

[ericpol]

if you live near a microcenter they have an athlon x4 630 for $99 and a cheapo mobo for a 1 cent I snagged it no complaints yet.

 

[protokiller]

I wish I did live by a Microcenter, I never get any of those stores that have awesome deals on motherboard and cpu combos. The only store remotly near me that sells tech stuff is Best Buy and we all know how much of a rip off their computer stuff is. (My friend bought a 2600PRO for $200 bucks there a few years back)

I'll probably go to the egg and get the componets. I'm kind of leaning towards the Phenom II X3 as it guarantees me more than two cores with the possibility of 4 and yet still has the l3 cache to perform excellent in cpu hungry games.

Here is what I'm looking at so far:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103652&cm_re=phenom_II_x3-_-19-103-652-_-Product

And

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128394

 

[enzo matrix]

It depends on your uses. If you are gaming, the 3 core 720 is perfect. 6mb L3 cache. 3 cores (most games can only use this many right now), good clockspeed, unlocked multiplier for overclocking... BUT you need to get an aftermarket cooler because the link you gave us is for an OEM CPU. This means no heatsink and fan included. That being said, I have an athlon IIx4 620 at 3.25GHz and am loving it.

 

[JDFan]

It depends on your uses. If you are gaming, the 3 core 720 is perfect. 6mb L3 cache. 3 cores (most games can only use this many right now), good clockspeed, unlocked multiplier for overclocking... BUT you need to get an aftermarket cooler because the link you gave us is for an OEM CPU. This means no heatsink and fan included. That being said, I have an athlon IIx4 620 at 3.25GHz and am loving it.

I'd agree --- Also remember that the OEM chip you linked also has no warranty through AMD (only a 30 day Newegg warranty!!) -- but for $99 it is a great buy (I've got the retail version of the Chip that they used to sell and have been running it for 6 months @ 3.2 Ghz. with the 4th core unlocked and it has been rock solid - though the stock cooler it included was a waste - I bought a cooler master TX3 to add on and it is doing fine.