Triple Core Worth It ?

[Junior2613]

Hi again. I recently got some cash and I was wandering is it worth while replacing my E2140 with a Phenom X3 the 2.4Ghz edition ??

[CoffeeFiend]

For the price of a new motherboard and the new CPU, you might as well just get a new quad core that fits on your existing motherboard. Faster (especially since it's not a Phenom II X3) and basically the same price.

Nevermind that even if you were going AMD for some reason, you could get a significantly faster Athlon II X4 620 (quad core too) for like $10 more.

Personally I'm still using a overlocked E2160 (@ 3.4GHz) in my main box. It does everything I throw at it just fine (with the exception of not having VT)

[Junior2613]

There was actually an issue with the other upgrade I did . My brother flipped the voltage switch at the back and blew the PSU to bits

[Junior2613]

Basically I was looking at a Phenom X3 2.4Ghz an AM2 mobo and 1gb RAM for £90 then a PSU for £40

[CoffeeFiend]

Basically I was looking at a Phenom X3 2.4Ghz an AM2 mobo and 1gb RAM for £90 then a PSU for £40

Why an old generation triple core with so-so single threaded performance (will be no faster than the E2140 at most tasks in the end, doubly so as you'll just about never use all 3 cores)? Why would you pair any CPU with so little RAM? That will make it crawl regardless of what CPU it is (unless you're the kind that won't upgrade past XP, and don't do anything besides checking email like most grandmas). I'd much sooner pick a cheaper/slower CPU and more RAM. Mobo wise, I'm not sure if I even want to know what's in that bundle...

Edit: Oh, so you're assuming the old RAM survived that?

[Junior2613]

I forgot to mention I was throwing iin my old 2gb stick in to make 3gb sorry about that. I was hoping to use the X3 to pair it up with maybe a 4670 or 4770 ATi something like that

[puntoMX]

Mobo wise, I'm not sure if I even want to know what's in that bundle...

For sure a nVidia 6100/430 based mobo, AM2"+" ready, stuff is just WAY to outdated (as you were not sure if you wanted to know ).

Junior2613,

Indeed, leave the Phenom where it is and only go for a Athlon II (AM2+/AM3) or Phenom II (AM3) with Chipset on the motherboard a 760G, 785G or 790xx (If you have a PCI-E video card around).

So, what parts were damaged?

[pointertovoid]

With 1+2GB, will you have dual-channel?

Dual-channel over 1+1GB? (I'd prefer that)

Or Single channel at the last GB of memory addresses?

Or single-channel over 3GB?

I expect it to be fairly important, especially if you achieve to use several cores at a time (I mostly don't), and especially since such Amd processors achieve to use dual-channel efficiently for having no Fsb bottleneck.

[puntoMX]

I don't get your point there pointertovoid, you are placing questions in your post and want answers on that or you are just being sarcastic?

I think you already know that the latest chipsets can use different sized RAM modules to team up to get a 128bit bus up to the size of the smallest module. AMD even has the option on their 790G and 785G to set the memory that will be used for video to the beginning of that memory on at the end. I only see much benefit for onboard video to have a 128bit memory bus and not so much for the CPU as AMD CPUs will not use the FSB to get the memory data to the CPU (at least that's what I always thought).

[noguru]

Nevermind that even if you were going AMD for some reason, you could get a significantly faster Athlon II X4 620 (quad core too) for like $10 more.

That quad core is lacking a L3 cache compared to the X3. For gaming the X3 is better.

[puntoMX]

Dat klopt, for now that is, until games use the multiple cores better.

For the OP; All AMD AM3 Athlon II at this moment lack the L3 Cache, the AM2+ versions do have the L3 Cache but are based on the Phenom design (not the Phenom II).