AMD Phenom II X6 1055T

[Stayfr0sty]

New gen video cards are overpriced right now and unless he's buying top end he'd be getting ripped off in any lesser segment as the same performance can be had for half the cost going with a previous gen card. I definitely wouldn't go i5 @ $220, but I don't think that's the case here. OP wants i7 performance and the i5 is exactly that minus the hyper threading so I say he should go for what he really wants if he has a microcenter within distance which his original post suggests.

You don't have to spend much to get good gaming performance these days, even a simple overclocked GTX 460 is enough to max out any console port out there at a decent res which can be had for 150 or less retail.

Better to get the CPU now and wait for GPU price's to fall in line.

Uhh I dont think most serious PC gamers are playing console ports.
More like Battlefield 3, and that game is a massive video card hog along with CPU, it can use up to 8 cores. But like I said at high resolutions you would hardly see a difference between a 2500k and an amd x6.....

 

[BD231]

Uhh I dont think most serious PC gamers are playing console ports.
More like Battlefield 3, and that game is a massive video card hog along with CPU, it can use up to 8 cores. But like I said at high resolutions you would hardly see a difference between a 2500k and an amd x6.....

There are a ton of popular games played on the PC that don't require even 1gb of vram at high resolutions. OC the x6 to around 4ghz to get that great gaming performance and you're at 200 watts, whereas an oc of about 4.5ghz on the i5 will land you around 110 watts.

If the price is negligible why not go with the more energy efficient tech that will land you equal and more often better performance?

 

[mikeymikec]

Guys,

I'm upgrading my desktop soon & as much as I'd like to have an Intel I7, I really cannot afford it. On a tight budget here... A friend suggested I rather go for AMD which will give me equivalent computing power @ almost half the price. I've always wanted to try AMD & here is my chance but can your opinions on:

• Is AMD Phenom II X6 1055T good/better compared to Intel I7?
• Which would be a compatible motherboard for AMD Phenom II X6 1055T?
• What would be desirable amount of RAM for this?

Regards,
Mrugesh.

If you're on a tight budget, you may want to consider getting an Ivy Bridge compatible board with a Core i3-2100 and upgrade the processor when it's convenient and when Ivy Bridge CPUs are on the market. Sandy Bridge are good all-round processors, no-one can deny that. I very much doubt that Intel are going to screw up with Ivy Bridge. AMD on the other hand were lagging behind with the Phenom II versus SB, and Bulldozer wasn't a significant improvement.

Have a look at the 'bench' part of the anandtech site, the Core i3-2100 beats the X6 on just about every gaming benchmark. I assume that won't always be the case, assuming that games will become more multi-threaded and two physical cores won't cut it any more, hence the IVB CPU upgrade. Sell the Core i3 when you're done.

The Core i3 also consumes less power and its stock HSF is quieter than the X6. You'll be buying a slightly cheaper, quieter CPU and saving money on electricity

If I was building a new machine for myself now, that's what I would do.

RAM - unless you can get some decent 8GB RAM, I'd go with 4GB and add to it in a year or two. A few games need more RAM, so ask about those first.

Boards - I haven't used any of Intel's latest chipsets, but I've used the ASUS P8P67 PRO and P8H67-M EVO and PRO without any problems. Considering that ASUS have released a BIOS update for that last PRO in the list, I'm sure they will have done for the other two boards as well.

Note - I'm not an Intel fanboy. I'm using an AMD system right now (my main system) with an X4 960T with the extra cores activated, which I originally built in 2010 and managed to get a cheap processor upgrade a few months ago.

 

[guskline]

The "friend" who says go with AMD for 1/2 the price etc. may have been referring to some time ago before the SandyBridge chips but now the $$ gap has so narrowed that I would go Intel. I have 2 SB 2500Ks OC to 4532 and an AMD 1100T OCd to 4Ghz. The Intels are faster. No question. Price difference is @$20 per CPU. The advice to buy an Ivy Bridge MB and an entry level SB CPU is the most intelligent long term suggestion. RavenSeal, I respect you Buddy, but since I own BOTH an 1100T and 2500K I can tell you without a doubt the 2500K is faster. The 1100T is not a slouch but the truth is the truth.

 

[chubbyfatazn]

The "friend" who says go with AMD for 1/2 the price etc. may have been referring to some time ago before the SandyBridge chips but now the $$ gap has so narrowed that I would go Intel. I have 2 SB 2500Ks OC to 4532 and an AMD 1100T OCd to 4Ghz. The Intels are faster. No question. Price difference is @$20 per CPU. The advice to buy an Ivy Bridge MB and an entry level SB CPU is the most intelligent long term suggestion. RavenSeal, I respect you Buddy, but since I own BOTH an 1100T and 2500K I can tell you without a doubt the 2500K is faster. The 1100T is not a slouch but the truth is the truth.

Seconded (how's that 5770 treating you?).

I ran a 960T at 4GHz (with 6 unlocked, at 3.8GHz) and just doing a straight swap over to a 2500k showed a marked improvement in game performance. Even though the performance gain for every day use wasn't much, it'd be much more so if you were considering a completely new build from whatever you're using now. If you can score a great deal on a used 1055t/mobo combo, though, I'd still suggest going for that, unless you have a justifiable reason to go Intel.