Which Phenom II?

D

Devnull

[H]F Junkie
Joined
Apr 21, 2000
Messages
8,486
I recently have been doing a little more gaming and some games are slightly slower than I would like.

I currently have Phenom X4 9850 BE @ 2.8ghz(might be able to go higher with a better cooler though)
Gigabyte GA-MA78M-S2H mobo
4GB Kingston hyperx ddr2
PCP&C Silencer psu(can't remember how many watts, 650? 700? This thing seems solid anyways)
XFX 5870 XXX edition
Antec p180 case

For a while I have been wanting to upgrade but couldn't save enough to buy mobo, ram, cpu all at once. Recently realized that my mobo will take an AM3 Phenom II.

So I will probably get a phenom II, but can't decide which one. I can not imagine that any game I will play in the next year or two will use more than 4 cores or that I would need more than 4 cores... But I don't know, I usually try to get the "best" cpu I can possibly afford at the time to be the most future proof. Then there is also the option of getting a cheaper cpu so I can get new mobo and ram in a few months.

Games I am playing right now are BC2, which seems to be somewhat cpu limited. Also playing some planetside in anticipation of planetside next. Planetside is a complete piece of crap game that is so poorly optimized and is not multithreaded so I would benefit from something where each core is gonna be faster by itself. I occasionally play some eve, but even with multiple clients this game is not very stressful on the cpu.

In the future I will be playing planetside next(still don't even know what engine it uses or what the requirements will be.) Maybe some BF3? Not much of a betafield fan but looks like it may be good.

I don't often do much video encoding or anything like that these days. Or anything that obviously benefits from 6 cores. Maybe folding to keep my room warmer at night?

So I need to decide somewhere between the phenom II X4 955 and the Phenom II X6 1090t. Or hell I could even afford the 1100T if I really wanted it. These are some "cheap" CPU's these days. I think I paid more than $300 for my first dual core processor and some of my old single core processors did cost more than that.

Even if I got the 955 it would still be slightly faster clock for clock than my phenom I and a decent bit faster even before overclocking(which I do intend to do).
 
Last edited:
if you go 6 core, the 1090T(for the BE bit, unless your good with OCing the old school way), for 4 cores, the 955, all depends if you want to spend the extra, BC2 will benefit slightly from the 6 core
 
I don't know whether I would consider FSB overclocking the old school way. Both have been around for ages. But besides the price, the unlocked multiplier is definitely the big plus for amd to me. Having an unlocked multiplier or being able to unlock it sure makes overclocking much more of a pleasure.

I know its not as problematic now, but I definitely had some serious problems in the past with fsb overclocking. Ended up getting some troubling dividers on the pci bus and such with much older mobos. Bad memories.
 
That's why I love AMD. Unlocked multipliers on budget processors, not just top-end processors. And not a huge price premium over locked processors.
 
well I guess I will just order the 1090T and hope for the best :) mobo and PSU should be able to accept it.

free amazon prime membership(they are giving another round of free memberships) +27$ gift card I got from putting a bunch of change into a coinstar machine = processor will be on my doorstep tomorrow for a total of $176.44

No CA tax, $5 overnight shipping. Suck it, newegg :p

Now perhaps should consider an aftermarket HSF? Not sure which but I see a lot of people paying like $60 for air cooling, yeah right!!!! don't they have like a mini water cooling setup for $100 now?
 
Last edited:
quit making me jelous (i paid $300 or something like that on release day for the 1090T ;) )

If you can afford the H50 it does a great job pushing a 1090T, especially since your going to OC, correct ?
 
yeah I will definitely be OCing. H50 a good fit in the P180 case?
 
Last edited:
Yes definetly go with a BE black edition processor. You can still do the fsb upping and HT etc etc with the added benifit of being able to play with your multiplier as well... worth the extra cost.

Personally I'd go either one of two ways.
Get the 1090 or 1100 BE it's the six core and calll it end of life for that board and setup.

If you can't afford it etc, go cheap route get a 550BE dual core and try to unlock cores. Worst comes to worse you'll get two cores at 4GHz. And there is generally a 10 day return, or exchange it for a 1090T they would probably do that in a heart beat.
 
Lol, I got my 1090T the day it was released for $217, gotta love Bing + $50 mail-in rebate. I actually bought both the 1090T and the 1055T release day, ended up selling the 1055T for a profit :D
 
Phenom II 955 is the best bang for the buck. Most games out there will never use all 4 cores, let alone 6 so why spend the extra money if you don't have to. The whole X2-X3 core unlocking is a shit shoot at best. Some unlock and some don't. Just save yourself the time and money and go with the 955. I bought a 965 C3 revision and it was a waste. My C2 rev. 955 matched it clock for clock on all the overclocking, gaming and so on. The C3 revision just didn't need as much voltage to hit the same clocks, Meh. And the extra $20 wasn't worth all that to me. My wife has the 965 in her computer now.
 
Well, considering most of the Phenom II 955's out there right now on the market are C3 revision, your point is moot. AMD released the C3 revisions at the same price point as the C2 revision. So OP might as well get the 955 C3.
 
Tsumi said:
Well, considering most of the Phenom II 955's out there right now on the market are C3 revision, your point is moot. AMD released the C3 revisions at the same price point as the C2 revision. So OP might as well get the 955 C3.
Click to expand...

Not necessarily moot, I was attempting to point out the 955/965 is the same performance regardless of revision. ;) Save that money because the gaming performance is almost the same all the way from my 2009 C2 955 to the newer 1100T's out there now. Not enough of a difference in the performance to justify that extra $100 difference in the cost just for gaming. Newegg has the 955 for $139 and the 1100T is currently $239.
 
Well I got my 1090T. Amazon did a terrible job of packaging it. Box was dented right where the cpu is. The chip seems fine, though.

Problem is that the stock cpu fan seems to basically be the loudest fan I have ever heard. and I used to have a very loud delta cpu fan and a extra loud oversized 120mm blowhole. This is way louder than anything I have heard in a PC. Doesn't sound like it is just a really fast fan, sounds more like the bearings are completely without any kind of lube.
 
Yeah my PII 955 fans is the same way. I will probably replace it when I get a new motherboard since I can't be bothered to take everything out to attach a new back plate.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top