# Cheap 4-core upgrade



## blue.dot (Jun 17, 2011)

I want to upgrade my current PC - with as the new CPUAMD Phenom II X4 955. I would like to OC it, so I think good MB is necessary. I wanted to buy MB with new AMD 970 chipset. But since official AMD roadmap says the next generation (Komodo) of CPU's will switch to FM socket and AM3+ will die next year, I find buying this as a waste of money (UEFI sounds great but I can live without it)? Next year I'm going on University and there I will use notebook, not my home PC.
So again, I want this cheap and I want to run BFBC2 fluently on high. My GPU is, I think, enough for my screen, only the CPU doesn't catch.
Some advice on MB+RAM? AM3 socket? Or I should buy AM3+ (I wont upgrade my PC after this for some time, and Zambezi is expensive)?
AMD Phenom II X4 955 BE will cost me ~100€, so for MB and RAM I can spend not more than 150€.
Thanks


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## Dent1 (Jun 18, 2011)

blue.dot said:


> I want to upgrade my current PC - with as the new CPUAMD Phenom II X4 955. I would like to OC it, so I think good MB is necessary. I wanted to buy MB with new AMD 970 chipset. But since official AMD roadmap says the next generation (Komodo) of CPU's will switch to FM socket and AM3+ will die next year, I find buying this as a waste of money (UEFI sounds great but I can live without it)? Next year I'm going on University and there I will use notebook, not my home PC.
> So again, I want this cheap and I want to run BFBC2 fluently on high. My GPU is, I think, enough for my screen, only the CPU doesn't catch.
> Some advice on MB+RAM? AM3 socket? Or I should buy AM3+ (I wont upgrade my PC after this for some time, and Zambezi is expensive)?
> AMD Phenom II X4 955 BE will cost me ~100€, so for MB and RAM I can spend not more than 150€.
> Thanks



Find the cheapest Athlon II X4. It's only slightly slower than the Phenom II X4 at stock and with a small overclock the Athlon II X4 can be just as fast or even faster.

Check out my spec, I max out BFBC at about 50-80 FPS @ 1440x900 (non-crossfire mode)


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## blue.dot (Jun 18, 2011)

Thanks for reply
But the cheapest AMD Athlon II X4 640 is only slightly cheaper then PII 955. And won't be Phenom better at OC (I mean more MHz)?


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## Fourstaff (Jun 18, 2011)

Phenom II is indeed better, the price difference is small enough to warrant the purchase of the Phenom II over the Athlon II in some cases. However, given that you will be changing your rig again next year, I strongly suggest you review whether upgrading is necessary. My train of thought tells me that you will get a new rig now, let it sit around doing nothing for the next 3+ years and then by the time you are done with higher education you will need to build a new rig from scratch again. Another alternative is to get a decent laptop now and then last through your uni. 

Another alternative is to scrounge around for 2nd hand budget boards and also a budget processor to tide you over, but I understand its a bit harder to find these in Slovakia.


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## Mindweaver (Jun 18, 2011)

I would get the pII 955 chip and a am3+ board (GIGABYTE GA-990FXA-UD5 AM3+ AMD 990FX around 90€ and some cheap ddr3 1600 2x2gb 50€.. and be done with it.. You're only gaming on a 19" monitor. This upgrade would last you for some time and be a huge upgrade from the 3800+.

EDIT: I was off a little on my conversion.. heheh the board above is around 132€.. so, maybe just go with a am3+ 8xx board for around 100€.


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## Dent1 (Jun 18, 2011)

blue.dot said:


> Thanks for reply
> But the cheapest AMD Athlon II X4 640 is only slightly cheaper then PII 955. And won't be Phenom better at OC (I mean more MHz)?



Then get the cheaper athlon X4 620. Overclocking an Athlon II X4 is equally overclockable as a Phenom II X4 non BE.


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## Mindweaver (Jun 18, 2011)

Dent1 said:


> Then get a cheaper athlon X4 620. Overclocking a Athlon X4 id equality overclockable as a Phenom II X4 non BE.



Yea i would go with a AMD Athlon II X4 630 ($79.99 / 55.87€) they are $33 dollars cheaper then a pii 955 on newegg. I've got one and it's overclockeds to 3.4gz with cheap cooling.. I've had it crunching 24/7 for months now.


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## blue.dot (Jun 18, 2011)

Fourstaff said:


> My train of thought tells me that you will get a new rig now, let it sit around doing nothing for the next 3+ years and then by the time you are done with higher education you will need to build a new rig from scratch again.



Yes I want it just like you said now!



Fourstaff said:


> Another alternative is to get a decent laptop now and then last through your uni.



I want to buy laptop next year, not now, mainly because when I buy it now, I don't think it will be enough for next 3-5 years (speaking of mid-priced).



Fourstaff said:


> Another alternative is to scrounge around for 2nd hand budget boards and also a budget processor to tide you over, but I understand its a bit harder to find these in Slovakia.



Yeah, was thinking about this too. It's not hard to find/buy 2nd hand budget mobo here, but:
1) It's hard not to be scam'd/trolled 
2) I gues budget mobo is not that good for OC?



Mindweaver said:


> I would get the pII 955 chip and a am3+ board (GIGABYTE GA-990FXA-UD5 AM3+ AMD 990FX around 90€ and some cheap ddr3 1600 2x2gb 50€.. and be done with it.. You're only gaming on a 19" monitor. This upgrade would last you for some time and be a huge upgrade from the 3800+.
> 
> EDIT: I was off a little on my conversion.. heheh the board above is around 132€.. so, maybe just go with a am3+ 8xx board for around 100€.



Yes, only a little 



Dent1 said:


> Then get the cheaper athlon X4 620. Overclocking an Athlon II X4 is equally overclockable as a Phenom II X4 non BE.





Mindweaver said:


> Yea i would go with a AMD Athlon II X4 630 ($79.99 / 55.87€) they are $33 dollars cheaper then a pii 955 on newegg. I've got one and it's overclockeds to 3.4gz with cheap cooling.. I've had it crunching 24/7 for months now.



Hmm ok but:
1) Can't find these 620/630 here in Slovakia
 - I saw some but only very limited - and - with higher price that PII 955!
2) You, people in USA/UK and other countries with big economies don't have problems with budget upgrading . But here, its sometimes really horrible. We are slowly getting there (but the future doesn't look bright). 
 - For example, Athlon II X4 640(there isn't lower model) is around 85€! Thats really big difference to 56€

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So, I ended with this basket (can change):
 - AMD Phenom II X4 955 Quad-Core BOX Black E - 95.93 €
 - ASUS M5A97 PRO - 93.32 € - Out of Stock currently, but should come around 1st of July so maybe even the price will drop
 - ADATA OC Gaming DDR3 1600G 4GB (2x2GB) CL9 - 38.45 €

For CPU cooling, I'll use my current AC Freezer 64 Pro
Btw, will be my 400W Fortron PSU enough for this all?

/Ah and sorry for my english if you don't understand something


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## Mindweaver (Jun 18, 2011)

Very nice! You can't go wrong with that upgrade.  You will notice a big improvement over your current system. That's a kickass board for the price! Dave aka "cadaveca" just did a review on that board here.


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## blue.dot (Jun 19, 2011)

Yup I read that, the only difference between EVO and PRO are some switches and few connectors...
Will be my 400W Fortron PSU enough for this all? Thanks


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## blue.dot (Jun 23, 2011)

What is differnet between C2 and C3 revisions of PII 955?


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## BarbaricSoul (Jun 23, 2011)

blue.dot said:


> Yup I read that, the only difference between EVO and PRO are some switches and few connectors...
> Will be my 400W Fortron PSU enough for this all? Thanks



if it handled your system before, I'm pretty sure it'll handle this upgrade. The athlonII shouldnt use much more power than your 3800


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## HossHuge (Jun 23, 2011)

blue.dot said:


> What is differnet between C2 and C3 revisions of PII 955?



The C3 revision uses less power (95w vs. 125w)


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## blue.dot (Jun 23, 2011)

Except Black Edition?


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## happita (Jun 23, 2011)

blue.dot said:


> So, I ended with this basket (can change):
> - AMD Phenom II X4 955 Quad-Core BOX Black E - 95.93 €
> - ASUS M5A97 PRO - 93.32 € - Out of Stock currently, but should come around 1st of July so maybe even the price will drop
> - ADATA OC Gaming DDR3 1600G 4GB (2x2GB) CL9 - 38.45 €
> ...



If your not going to overclock at all, I think the 400w should be able to power up this system. If there are instability issues, you might have to undervolt and downclock the processor so that the PSU can handle the power delivery. But if you just want to be safe, you might have to tag on an extra expense of getting a new power supply.


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## blue.dot (Jun 25, 2011)

What about RAM? Is there any significant performance difference between 1333MHz and 1600MHz? 
Btw, which of these two would be better?
ADATA OC Gaming DDR3 1600G 4GB (2x2GB) CL9 or 4GB DDR3-1600 Kingston non-ECC CL9 HyperX XMP GreySeries 2x2GB? They both costs the same


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## claylomax (Jun 25, 2011)

How about this one just released?: http://www.scan.co.uk/products/amd-phenom-ii-x4-quad-core-850-am3-330ghz-2mb-cache-95w-retail


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## Nesters (Jun 25, 2011)

That one is an Athlon i believe, it doesn't have L3 cache.


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## blue.dot (Jun 25, 2011)

claylomax said:


> How about this one just released?: http://www.scan.co.uk/products/amd-phenom-ii-x4-quad-core-850-am3-330ghz-2mb-cache-95w-retail



Not available here, only 840



Nesters said:


> That one is an Athlon i believe, it doesn't have L3 cache.



Yup plus costs only a few € less than 955


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## JrRacinFan (Jun 25, 2011)

blue.dot said:


> ADATA OC Gaming DDR3 1600G 4GB (2x2GB) CL9 or 4GB DDR3-1600 Kingston non-ECC CL9 HyperX XMP GreySeries 2x2GB? They both costs the same



The 1600's do help but where you will notice that help more is if you were to overclock your cpu's IMC northbridge frequency. What really really help these chips are latency mixed with bandwith for example:

1333 CL6 or 7 > 1600 CL9 at stock cpu-nb frequency.



Nesters said:


> That one is an Athlon i believe, it doesn't have L3 cache.



IIRC, The 8xx series has 4MB L3 cache.


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## Hayder_Master (Jun 25, 2011)

Agree with athelon II X4, many of my friends bulit them systems with this cpu, the 640 model can easy overclock it up to Y
3.2ghz on same voltage or a bit more.


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## Nesters (Jun 25, 2011)

JrRacinFan said:


> IIRC, The 8xx series has 4MB L3 cache.


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## JrRacinFan (Jun 25, 2011)

Nesters said:


> http://tpucdn.com/reviews/AMD/Phenom_II_X4_840/images/stock.jpg



M y bad. After looking further I remember when the chips were announced to have 4mb. Amd must have canned the thought of doing that. Winder why they are marketed as ph2 though.....


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## blue.dot (Jun 28, 2011)

Mobo is finally available, but I still don't know which RAM to buy. Single or Dual channel? 1333 with smaller latency or 1600 with bigger latency?
If someone has time, look *here*. The cheaper the better, thanks


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## JrRacinFan (Jun 28, 2011)

If Phenom II, stick with 1333 and try to get the lowest latency possible in dual channel. From the link you posted it looks like all that is available is Kingston ram anyways.


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## blue.dot (Jun 28, 2011)

4GB DDR3-1333MHz Kingston HyperX XMP CL7 kit 2x2GB, can be?


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## JrRacinFan (Jun 28, 2011)

blue.dot said:


> 4GB DDR3-1333MHz Kingston HyperX XMP CL7 kit 2x2GB, can be?



Sounds good!See if you can find some 1600 CL8 or 7 kits. 

EDIT:

Cause if you can you *might* be able to get 1333 cl6 out of them.


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## blue.dot (Jun 28, 2011)

Found some, but they are nearly twice the cost of 1333.


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## JrRacinFan (Jun 28, 2011)

blue.dot said:


> Found some, but they are nearly twice the cost of 1333.



Oh well don't worry man. faster ddr3 only makes a very very little difference in all-around performance anyways. Try for those 1333 cl7's though. Also once you get everything running, look into overclocking the cpu-nb (IMC) frequency of the cpu.


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## blue.dot (Jul 30, 2011)

Can there be a significant difference in 4GB vs 8GB RAM? Would 8GB perform better in games and multitasking? I'll have some extra €(around 100) now and I don't know where to put them. In X6? 8GB RAM? Or perhaps new VGA (but still only on 19" screen)?

/I think I can upgrade VGA later...


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## JrRacinFan (Jul 30, 2011)

multitasking yes. gaming, no but soon.


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## blue.dot (Jul 30, 2011)

So I should save that money for new graphic card?
When I will have 955, Mobo and 4GB RAM home and set up, Ill try max out graphics on BFBC2. 
I guess even with new VGA, my 400W Forton will be still enough. My current PC pulls about 140W at max. With new upgrade, I could get up to about 210W?


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## JrRacinFan (Jul 30, 2011)

Sorry I should have been more clearer. Get the 8GB if eventually going crossfirex should help with the overhead


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## blue.dot (Jul 31, 2011)

No I wont go for crossfire, Ill sell 4670 if it will be slow and buy new VGA
4GB is enough


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