Intel E7400 or AMD Phenom 2 X3 710

[xsever]

A P4 and a 9600GT. That's not that bad of a combination.

I will sit and wait now and see how the prices fluctuate. You never know, nVidia might drop its prices and the whole equation would change.

 

[kal20mx]

Nice I am getting me the same processor next week but Im getting me a single 4870 1gb Do you think It will bottleneck a little or not at all

 

[rangers]

if you could unlock the 4th core and didn't you would have to be a fool

 

[misry]

The Asrock AOD790GX/128 with a SB750 cost $105. BIOS v. 1.3 does the job nicely.

 

[xsever]

Have the people who unlocked the 4th core having any stability problems so far? Could time be a factor? Like after a certain amount of time, the CPU would go dead because it was not designed for this operational state. (power consumption or voltage for example)

 

[sid_nag17]

people with e8400 run a 4870 without any problems and the 720 be beats ity in most benchies so why should it bottleneck the gpu??? jus overclock the proccy and u should be fine! it also depends on wat resolution ur gaming at

 

[misry]

My success is summarized here, http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/page-258421_28_300.html one of the last few posts.

Yes, there are unstable 4th cores out there so don't buy expecting anything but stock. Time would theoretically have no more impact than with any other overclock. To get 3.7G with 3 cores I went to 1.55v and hit 45c when I stopped Prime. However given that I haven't even touched the FSB or HT clocks I think my current setup is a no brainer.

 

[xsever]

I have read your post MISry and I have some questions. Did you run the CPU at stock with the stock HSF at any given time? If you did, could you please tell me what your idle/load temps were?

I plan on buying the processor and using the stock HSF but with ARCTIC COOLING MX-2 thermal compound. Any idea how far in terms of overclocking that will get me while keeping safe temps in mind?

Thanks

 

[misry]

I never tested it at stock speed. The fan it comes with remains in the box. Basically I'm not comfortable OCing anything without heatpipes anymore. They are out there in the $30 range but if you go for $40 you can pick up anything from a Vanquisher/Vendetta tower style to a lower profile Ninja class and have speed control as well as peace of mind. I've chatted with someone running 4.0 @ 1.7v and getting 60c under load. He's running liquid. The white papers say a topend of 1.55v and 60c. With the stock fan I would shoot for 3.2 and anything better in your comfort zone is gravy.

 

[xsever]

Thanks for the numbers MISry. I think I can settle for a 3.2 until I buy a better HSF. Are you doing all your overclocking with AMD's Overdrive utility or BIOS?

 

[misry]

BIOS. I looked at both the AMD and Asrock ones and was completely underwhelmed.

 

[xsever]

So I can conclude that the 720 is way better than the E7400 and competes with the E8400?

 

[sid_nag17]

yes its better than the e7400,has and xtra core which kicks in when u need it to and competes with the e8400 which is more costly which means we have a winner!

 

[tnakos]

Nope. I am perfectly fine with 3 cores. As you can see, I am looking at Gigabyte motherboards which cannot unlock the 4th core!

I hope you know u can unlock them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! on my gigabyte ud4h i can press crtl f1 to bring up advanced bios options then you got into the M.I.T and go per core and set each core calabration at -2% i got my 4th core no problem on this board running like a dream. Only problem is this board has a quirk with the CPU multiplier. It cant go past 13x which is AMD 710 x3 standard. My cpu is seen as a AMD 10 x4

 

[Dekasav]

L2 Cache > L3 cache

If i had to buy a budget processor. The E5400 would be bought before any Amd

And every one of your posts is blatant fanboyism.

The AMD X3 710/720 have a better upgrade path, cheap (and very good) motherboard compatibility, and a third core for the future, and things like GTA 4. Both overclock very well, and to similar speeds, and clock-for-clock they're pretty close, also. I'd go for higher future performance, which is the X3.

 

[sid_nag17]

+1^

 

[mountie]

I think I can agree that the x3 720 is a better choice than the e7400 at the given price level, however, every other post suggesting a e7400 always ends up going in the direction of the e5400 which is a less expensive processor @ $96 on the egg and when OCed has basically the same performance as an OCed e7400 (-1 MB in cache = no biggie). Depending where your budget is, it is definitely worth a look to save cash and potentially get you up there to a better graphics card...

In terms of "fanboyism" all I have seen on this post is a bunch of dude's playing ookie cookie with the 720...

My question to AMD is why does it take 3 processors to match the core 2 e8400's performance? It seems very sketchy to me... I have read on this post several times that the 720 when "OC'ed" beats the e8400, but is the e8400 also OCed during these benchmarks?? I have heard that the e8400 can reach 4.0 ghz easily. And depending upon usage, games don't show a noticeable improvement above 3.4ghz but other progs will...

I have been in the same predicament as xserver (OP) for quite some time with no resolution on a processor... I really like the price and 3rd core on the 720, I can't go e5400 b/c I want virtualization (check out youtube vids) so I'm stuck between the e8400 and 720 while trying to find money for the q6600.

 

[xsever]

Hey Mountie,

I have found the E8400 on Dell home for 142$ with a coupon code. I am not sure if it is still available. Let me know if you are interested. As for me, I am going the 720 way because it seems to be more future proof.

 

[mountie]

Thanks for the coupon xserver, but I've decided to wait... New processors are coming out April 20th, and prices should go down on everything (hopefully).

The x3 720 is a good choice and has the AM3 feauture which is nice. Great combo deals at the egg right now too. Best of luck with the 4th core if you're up for it!

 

[xsever]

I am waiting too till after April 20th. Do you know what is going to be launched? I have not read any news about that. Could you please tell me more about it? Is it an Intel or AMD launch?

 

[cruiseoveride]

I just bought a new setup cos my old machine died 🙁

Using the stock cooler X3 710, runs real cool, no matter how much you push it, always below 40degC. And my box has 5 hard drives and a HD4870, so lots of heat and no cable management.

Look for some of those boards (Biostar, Asrock?) that will allow you to unlock the 4th core.