AMD Phenom II X2 and Athlon II X2 CPU's on sale!

[Mul.]

I've been keeping my eye on these for a few weeks now and yesterday they finally appeared on sale. Two new dual core processors based on the current architecture of CPU. The AMD Athlon II X2 processor is actually a new core altogether featuring no L3 cache at all but offers 2 x 1024kB of L2 Cache over the Phenom II's 2 x 512kB. The Phenom II X2 however is a Deneb quad core with two of them disabled, leaving 512kB cache per core and 6MB of unified L3 cache. With the two CPU's clocked at 3.0GHz and 3.1GHz respectively, they are very good performers.

The best part is price, as the Athlon II X2 250 and Phenom II X2 550 are priced at £67 and £79 respectively, which is $92 and $108. This pitches the Athlon II against the Pentium Dual Core E6300 2.80GHz (not to be mistaken with the 1.86GHz Core 2 Duo part) and the Phenom II X2 against the Core 2 Duo E7400 2.80GHz.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct....rodid=CP-248-AM

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct....rodid=CP-249-AM

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16819103680

http://www.mwave.com/mwave/skusearch_v3.as...riteria=BA61040

Even though the Athlon II X2 250 is a solid performer, the Phenom II X2 at just $10/£10 more is a much better buy for it's large L3 cache, ease of overclocking and the potential to unlock the other two cores. The following reviews show the $108 Phenom II X2 550 exchanging punches with the $170 / £140 Core 2 Duo E8400 3.00GHz CPU. The Core 2 Duo will only come into it's own once overclocked, due to it's larger headroom.

http://www.guru3d.com/article/athlon-ii-x2...550-be-review/1

http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/pii550/

So it would seem that AMD have done it again, bringing some much needed competition to the table. A Phenom II X2 550 + 790GX combo for £150 sounds very promising and I hope to try these out some time!

 

[Rastalovich]

A Phenom II X2 550 + 790GX combo for £150

That's hard to argue against.

What would be a decent job Mul. is if some1 like urself was given the quoted setups above and scrutinized every facit of their use, Intel & AMD, right through the rigs, mobo/cpu/memory. From i/o operations, stock use, power use. Would be a good OC3D thing too.

Massive exercise.

Myself, I still think AM3 mobos are almost being held back when u look at them vS an Intel counterpart. A study such as above could quash that feeling or justify it.

 

[Mul.]

That's hard to argue against.

What would be a decent job Mul. is if some1 like urself was given the quoted setups above and scrutinized every facit of their use, Intel & AMD, right through the rigs, mobo/cpu/memory. From i/o operations, stock use, power use. Would be a good OC3D thing too.

Massive exercise.

Myself, I still think AM3 mobos are almost being held back when u look at them vS an Intel counterpart. A study such as above could quash that feeling or justify it.

I'm trying to arrange something along these lines over the next 8 weeks by buying in a couple of Intel and CPU Motherboard/CPU combinations and testing them hands on. I just need to get them at the right price and be able to secure people to sell them on to such that it doesn't cost me too much!

I very much agree with what you're saying about the AM3 DDR3 boards. The CPU's are cheap but I for one would rather not spend £100+ on an AM3 motherboard. The best value for money motherboard for Phenom II in my opinion is the Biostar TA790GX series, which starts from £70 and they are great performers and very stable. They are however DDR2 boards and many would rather have that piece of mind that they'll be able to upgrade RAM in the future without trying to source discontinued modules.

 

[GavX]

REALLY tempted by the Phenom II and a 790X motherboard myself, debating between that or a P45 and E5200. The latter might be faster, but the first means I can get 1 part first and still have a useable PC...

Saw some benchies for the Phemon II and for £75 is seems pretty damn good to me

 

[Ghosthud1]

i've just ordered my x2 550

 

[GavX]

Lucky git! Might get mine next week, motherboard first then CPU as I doubt the new chip will like my 570a AM2 board much, bit of a relic

Any word on how these overclock? I want 4Ghz damnit!

 

[Ghosthud1]

Lucky git! Might get mine next week, motherboard first then CPU as I doubt the new chip will like my 570a AM2 board much, bit of a relic

Any word on how these overclock? I want 4Ghz damnit!

in many reviews i' ve seen they all seem to be hitting 3.9ghz easily