jim said:
I'm looking at the AMD Athlon X2 Dual-Core, but a willing to change if
another processor gives a better price/performance combination with
this MB.
First of all, always check the motherboard maker's CPUSupport chart,
to make sure the processor is supported. Sometimes, a BIOS update
is needed, to support the very latest processors. Also, the high
end processors can use 125W vcore power, and the motherboard selected
must be able to support those power levels. Here is an example of
a company making known that its newest designs are good for those
power levels. If all you care about, is using some 45W or 65W
(cheap) processor, then this is not an issue at all for you.
Virtually any motherboard can supply power for a 65W processor. But
if a 125W processor is in your future, then it is a consideration
when selecting a motherboard.
http://event.asus.com/mb/140w/
You can examine the AMD products on Newegg, to get some idea of price
and performance.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...343 50001028&bop=And&Order=PRICE&Pagesize=100
A dual core Brisbane is $48. OEM means it comes with no heatsink/fan for the CPU.
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ Brisbane 2.3GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM2 65W Dual-Core Processor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103221
A triple core processor is $104. Retail includes a heatsink/fan.
Clock speed is slightly lower than the other one. Total compute
power only becomes evident if multithreaded programs are used.
AMD Phenom 8450 Toliman 2.1GHz 3 x 512KB L2 Cache 2MB L3 Cache Socket AM2+ 95W Triple-Core Processor - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103254
This quad is $149 and comes with a heatsink/fan. Note that some
of the early Phenom quads have a TLB bug. The "9600" number means
it is an early revision. A "9650" would be a revision with a fixed
TLB.
AMD Phenom 9600 Agena 2.3GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 2MB L3 Cache Socket AM2+ 95W Quad-Core Processor $149
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16819103244
This is a 9650, meaning it is "fixed". But in terms of pricing, the
9650 is $199, while the 9850 is $210. For an extra $10, a better processor.
9650 2.3GHz quad 95W $199
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103288
9850 2.5GHz quad 125W $210
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103286
The additional cores help if a single program happens to use
internal multithreading. For example, Photoshop can split a
problem into four pieces, and then four cores can work on the
problem at the same time. A number of other, relatively new,
multimedia programs are like that also.
Something like Microsoft Office, is more likely to be single
threaded for any significant activity, which means the highest
clock rate you can achieve may be more useful to you. So it
is not always clear that a quad core is the answer for everybody.
It depends a lot on the software used (multimedia might have more
multithreading), and the usage pattern (lots of movie conversions
going on in the background, while you edit email).
Perhaps a dual can have a higher overclock than a quad. Then,
for a single threaded program, you get faster answers.
This 6400+ runs at 3.2GHz, so is a bit better than a 2.3Ghz one.
This is the best you might do, for a single threaded world.
But this is a 125W processor, and AMD power goes up pretty fast
as you overclock. So if you get this, get a decent third party
heatsink and one of those 140W capable motherboards. Because
this particular one is OEM, there is no heatsink/fan provided.
On some lesser motherboards, installing a processor like this
can lead to Vcore failure, and that fact should also be
expressed in the motherboard manufacturer's "supported CPU" list.
This is $119, but the savings can be eaten up, in the beefed up
infrastructure you provide for it.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16819103290
Oh yeah, Intel makes processors too
And some of those don't use
as much power. AMD makes more sense at the low end.
Have fun,
Paul
