Decisions, decisions...

[Tenzo]

I'm helping a friend to choose a CPU for his new rig (gaming pc) and i'm not sure what i should pick between :
AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition 3.10 GHz skt AM3 box
HyperTransport 1800 MHz
Cache level 1 128 KB
Cache level 2 512 KB
Cache level 3 6144 KB

and
Intel Core2 Duo E7500 2.93GHz Box

Front Side Bus 1066 MHz
Cache level 2 3072 KB

I could also buy myself one of these two when i'll have the money.
So, what do you guys think?
I'm tempted to go with AMD because of it's 6Mb L3 cache and the price of course but i don't know if it's the wise choice.

 

[Optional]

The AMD chip has something pretty useful for overclocking: unlocked clock multiplier. At $100, that makes it a good deal (assuming you're overclocking).

That E7500 is probably a bit better, but at that price point ($120), it's not worth it. There are chips that perform as good or better on either end of the $110-$150 spectrum.

My advice: spend $100 on the X2 550, or bite the bullet and upgrade to the Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition at $165. Whichever you have the money for, go with that one.

 

[Tenzo]

The AMD chip has something pretty useful for overclocking: unlocked clock multiplier. At $100, that makes it a good deal (assuming you're overclocking).

I read about something like that on forums, how some guys unlocked their X2 AMDs and got something similar to a X4. But they had stability issues.

I have to admit that the Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition is great on both frequency and cache memory. If it weren't that much difference in price i would have chosen it over the x2.

Anyway, thanks for the support.

 

[Mkilbride]

What's the total budget?

 

[Tenzo]

What's the total budget?

Sorry for the delay.
It's about 550$ (Monitor,HDD,case,DVD-RW excluded).

I came up with two versions for this budget.
The Intel version:

Intel Core i3 530 2.93 GHz box (4Mb L3 cache)
Gigabyte GA-P55-US3L (mobo)
Gigabyte Radeon HD4770 1GB DDR5 128-bit HDMI
Fortron Saga II 500W power supply
KingMax 2GB DDR3 1333MHz CL9

Amd version:

AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition 3.10 GHz skt AM3 box(6Mb L3 cache)
MSI 770-C45 (mobo)
Gigabyte Radeon HD4770 1GB DDR5 128-bit HDMI
Fortron Saga II 500W power supply
2 x KingMax 2GB DDR3 1333MHz CL9

The Amd version is cheaper, i can get 4Gb or ddr3 ram with it and i can unlock the other two cores with the right mobo and a skilled guy (I'm pretty reticent about the unlocking thing).
On the other hand, the Intel Core i3 has 2 core 4 threads which makes it superior to Amd Phenom II x2 550 BE. (I think )

What do you guys think about these two configurations?

 

[Cypeq]

amd should good overclocker well i suppose that i3 with 32nm process would oc better
but amd still win in cache department.
if ur friend is planning upgrading to 4 cores on same mobo i'd suggest to go with intel.
btw. differences in gamming on this cpu's wolud be like 2-4 fps average if any?
yet 2GB of ram vs 4GB is a big difference in smothnes of gameplay and loading times.

edit:
any stronger processor than this two selected would have huge bottleneck by selected gpu

 

[Tenzo]

Actually my friend opted for the Intel version with this video card: Gigabyte GeForce 9800GT SilentCell 1GB DDR3 256-bit.
Tomorrow he'll get the parts and assemble the pc. I'll let you know how it runs.

 

[Tenzo]

Pc assembled and running. He is satisfied with it.(Plans to buy another 2gb of ddr3 in the near future)
(Srry for double posting).