Which AMD CPU to purchase?

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
A

alex_ferguson

Honorable
Jun 4, 2012
8
0
10,510
Hi,
I want to purchase an AMD processor for about $125-$130 tops. I will pair this with an ASUS AM3 970 Evo motherboard and 8gb of Corsair DDR3 memory.
The current choices online or at a local Microcenter store are -
1. AMD Phenom II x4 965BE - $99
2. AMD Phenom II x6 1045T - $99
3. AMD FX 6100 Black Edition - $119

Please also note that i can wait a month or so if a new CPU from AMD is around the corner.

My usage is normal browsing and light gaming.

Thanks in advance!
 
Solution
Viking2121
I'm not sure if you are familiar with bois, But if you can boot into the bios and search fro somthing like "Storage" "Sata Configuration" and set it to IDE Mode. Some of them Asus boards default to AHCI Mode and some HDD's just don't like the setting. Save and restart and see if you can boot into windows.

I don't think its RAM Related, Usually that will blue screen if a stick or dimm is bad..
Sort by date Sort by votes
The AMD Piledriver series will be available for Desktops in August/September... so they say. If you can wait that long. But any of the choices you mention are more than adequate for 'light gaming' and browsing. Remember, any serious gaming requires a discrete graphics card.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote


Out of the Phenom x6 1045 @2.7Ghz or 965 BE which one would you recommend. I'm reading too many complaints with the FX series here.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
The PHIIX4 965 is faster. Unless you need 6 cores for some reason, I would choose the quad core. If you decide to do more serious gaming (with a good graphics card), the quad would be a better choice. Most games utilize 3 - 4 cores max. The 6 core processor would effectively end up being a slow quad core for gaming. And for browsing, anything will work.

What do you consider 'light gaming'?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You are comparing a high end 4x core to a mid level 6x core.

Ask if they have the 960T, it's a 4x core with 2x cores disabled, so sells for 4x core money. Also with certain mobo's (read: almost everyone) you can 'unlock' the 2x locked cores and have a 6x core. They are very rare and not supplied in large numbers, a small quiet word may be of assistance here to the manager of the shop.

Disregarding the 960t, the 965be is a very nice processor, also with an after market cooler the ability for overclocking may give you a nice, but usually not necessary boost for performance.

The Entry level x6 will primarily be of (little) benefit in multithreaded applications. Bear in mind, thanks to the iX series by Intel, it has become in the best interest of Game makers to produce multithreaded games and applications that can use the iX series to their full potentially.

But that benefit would be negligable (10-15fps) in a real world situation.

Go with the 965be (or 960t) as myself (going from an X2 250 (3ghz) to a 960T 6x) you will not be disappointed. The difference is night and day.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote


Thanks for the advice. I am upgrading from the phenom II x4 840.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote

I do not have a cooler. Can the cores be unlocked on this one too?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Wont be to much of an upgrade from the 840, Don't go for the FX-6100, they are not as fast as the Phenom II Quads, and To be honest I don't think they are really true six cores. I could be wrong. Better off upgrading to a 965 or the 960T and unlock it. If it don't unlock, It OC vary well from what some people say, and OC to the 965 clock speed or higher.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote


Not many games are even capable of using 4 cores either.

The vast majority of games only use 2 cores. While the number of games capable of using more than two cores is on the rise, the percentage will still be small compared to just two cores for at least the next 5 - 7 years. And that's being optimistic for quad cores.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom