Best AMD Processor for..

H

Hot Sauce

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 10, 2005
Messages
154
Under/Around $100?

It will be accompanying:

Corsair VX550W 550W ATX 12V 41A 24PIN ATX Power Supply Active PFC 120MM Fan
GeForce 8800GT OEM 600MHZ 512MB GDDR3 1.8GHZ PCI-E Dual DVI-I
OCZ Platinum XTC PC2-6400 4GB 2X2GB DDR2-800 CL5-4-4-15 DDR2 240PIN Dual Channel Memory Kit

Thanks.
 
5000 BE can OC to like 3.2ghz roughly. I'd go for that if you MUST go AMD.
 
5000+ BE like the others said. I've never seen a case where it can't hit 3.0GHz on stock V just upping the multiplier. 3.2GHz is a hit or miss situation these days.
 
Great, thanks guys.

Is this the one?

AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Dual Core Processor Socket AM2 2.6GHZ Retail Black Box No HSF Unlocked
 
MrHood22 said:
5000 BE can OC to like 3.2ghz roughly. I'd go for that if you MUST go AMD.
Click to expand...

:rolleyes:

this guys statement does have some merrit tho. Maybe a smudgin or two. I'm an anti-CPU-bottle-neck guy, I think that term is thrown around way too often and is blown the hell out of perportion (people seem to forget graphs after 6 months), but buying a new mobo and Core 2 might be a good idea.

That said, an AX2 5000+ BE is on par with a 2.0-2.4GHz 4mb L2 Core 2. pushing it to 3.1GHz brings it up to E6550 type performance. It hardly dents the Core 2 E8300.

Hot Sauce said:
Great, thanks guys.

Is this the one?

AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Dual Core Processor Socket AM2 2.6GHZ Retail Black Box No HSF Unlocked
Click to expand...

Thats the one. Note the lack of HS/F! They expect you to overclock that CPU and as such EXPECT you to use an aftermarket cooler. You'll be OK a stock cooler from another AM2 cpu if you have it though, just don't expect much of an overclock.

If you need a cooler, the Freezer 7 pro for $20 is an excellent buy, but that pushes you out of $100 doesn't it. I guess an X2 4800+ might be a good idea.
 
$20 for a cooler is fine by me. I believe in paying extra for extra cooling, if necessary. However, I've never overclocked a processor before, nor do I know how. But if it's easy and safe then I'd give it a shot. What are the benefits of overclocking a processor, and how hard is it to do?
 
Free performance. No cost.

One of my favorite stores is plugging a Core 2 800MHz FSB allendale (core 2 duo E2000 series) into an Abit AW9D motherboard. I got it off ebay for cheap and the motherboard didn't recognize the allendale as having an 800MHz FSB and instead ran it at 1066. The multiplier is locked. So if I had never pointed it out to my friend he never would have known that on stock cooling, and stock voltages, he had is Core 2 Duo overclocked. It was supposed to run at 1.8GHz, it was instead running at 2.4GHz. Thats how easy and safe overclocking is these days.

The X2 5000+ is designed as AMDs current inproduction best overclocker. Its small Cache size and small die size keep thermal restraints easily managable.

Before we get into the nitty gritty, what motherboard will it be going into?
 
The benefits are free performance and there really isn't much risk at all unless you do something stupid like give it insane volts or some such.
 
Now, a whole bunch of people are about to chime in "BUY A CORE 2 DUO"....

So I'll head em off at the pass. Here is a review of the Core 2 Duo E4300. Here is a review of the Core 2 Duo E2160 and E2140. If you go the Core 2 Duo route your going to buy the Gigabyte P35DS3L or Abit IP35V which both go for ~$100.

So now your at a fork in the road. At stock speeds, the X2 5000+ really will blow the E2200 out of the water. At overclocked speeds, a 3.2GHz (pretty easy OC) E2200 will blow a 3.2GHz (never tried myself but it looks like most hit this speed) X2 5000+ out of the water. So, do you want to overclock or not? Thats the question.
 
I'm willing to overclock if it is an easy process to do, and if the risks are relatively low. I'm wondering how much I'd actually need the overclocking though, since my current CPU is a 2200+ so it will already be a huge jump.

But if I had to make a decision.. by your descriptions I'd say the X2 5000+ best suits my situation.

Now all I need is an AMD motherboard and my PC should be ready to be built!
 
A combination I've been using a good bit recently:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Black Edition
Arctic "Freezer" CPU cooler
Gigabyte M770 DS motherboard

The whole combo costs a shade above 200, but it's a great combination. Every one of the dozen builds I've done has been stable at 3.2 GHz, just by changing the multiplier from 13.0 to 16.0. No voltage increase needed, and the CPU temperatures hover around the mid-upper 30's.

I especially like the motherboard. Rock solid construction, all solid capacitors, and plenty of options.

The way I see it, it's a great stop-gap measure until the 9850's start getting manufactured on the 45 nm process.
 
Anything that can go above 3.0ghz easly. You dont want anything under 3.0 with that 8800GT.

I would recommend INTEL, but your set on amd it seems :)
 
I'm willing to go with INTEL, but since I'm shopping at my local store, I don't have as many options as opposed to NewEgg.

For my price range theres:

Intel Pentium Dual Core E2200 Dual Core Processor LGA775 2.2GHZ 800FSB 1MB Retail

AMD Athlon X2 BE-2300 Dual Core Processor Socket AM2 1.9GHZ 2X512KB 45W 65NM SOI Retail Box

AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Dual Core Processor Socket AM2 2.6GHZ Retail Black Box No HSF Unlocked

So I have to ask the question: Is the average experienced computer user able to overclock a processor with ease?
 
Hot Sauce said:
So I have to ask the question: Is the average experienced computer user able to overclock a processor with ease?
Click to expand...

Yeah, pretty much. There are only a few BIOS settings to adjust, for basic overclocking theres only ONE setting, and its either the FSB (for Intel) or multiplier (with the unlocked 5000+ BE).

As already mentioned, Intel is the better option if you're overclocking, an E2200 (or, even better, an E2160, which is cheaper but will get the same result) overclocked to 3GHz+ would substantially outperform an X2 5000+ BE @ 3GHz+.
 
MrWizard6600 said:
So now your at a fork in the road. At stock speeds, the X2 5000+ really will blow the E2200 out of the water. At overclocked speeds, a 3.2GHz (pretty easy OC) E2200 will blow a 3.2GHz (never tried myself but it looks like most hit this speed) X2 5000+ out of the water. So, do you want to overclock or not? Thats the question.
Click to expand...

LOL actually a stock E2200 is faster than a stock X2 5000+, its about equal to an X2 5200+. ;)

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/dualcore-shootout_9.html#sect0
 
So right now I'm looking at the E2160 ($79CA), the E2180 ($97CA), the E2200 ($105CA), or the X2 5000+ ($98CA). I'll also be using the Arctic 7 Freezer Pro, a Corsair VX550, and OCZ Platinum XTC PC2-6400 4GB 2X2GB DDR2-800 CL5-4-4-15 DDR2 240PIN Dual Channel Memory Kit. The motherboard will depend on which processor I decide on (I want to spend around $200 for the CPU and MoBo). I'll be doing trying for 3.0 ghz+ and gaming at 1280x1024 on an 8800GT. The more I read these forums, the more my mind changes..
 
All those chips should have no difficulty hitting 3GHz, so you may as well save some money and go with the E2160. Perhaps you can even get a 8800GTS with the savings on the CPU. ;)
 
At 3.2GHz, I seriously doubt you will be able to tell the performance difference between the two when it comes to gaming.
 
AceCR42 said:
At 3.2GHz, I seriously doubt you will be able to tell the performance difference between the two when it comes to gaming.
Click to expand...

1280 x 1024 is quite CPU bound, so I'd say there will be some difference, 10 - 20%. Whether that is noticeable or not depends on how high the framerates are already.
 
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