Fry's has a Phenom combo 9500 w/ ECS motherboard for 199.99

[chillie7]

Like title reads Frys has the quad Phenom 9500 and ECS motherboard for 199.99. Is this a good price for a quad core combo?

 

[kidsafe]

Cheapest I've seen is $189 at NewEgg and MicroCenter for the CPU alone, so this is an okay deal if you're looking for the cheapest quad possible and have zero intention of overclocking.

 

[dehemke]

Good price for a Quad? Yes.

9500 and Q6600 are relatively close in performance at stock speeds. Q6600 will set you back ~250+~99 for the MB.

If you plan to overclock or are concerned about future CPU upgrades, then you might still want to consider the Intel side, but at the price the AMD chip is not an incredibly obvious bad buy.

 

[kidsafe]

Originally posted by: dehemke
9500 and Q6600 are relatively close in performance at stock speeds. Q6600 will set you back ~250+~99 for the MB.

Fry's often has the Q6600 coupled with a cheap ECS G31 based board for $279, so it's closer to an $80 price difference rather than a $150 one...

 

[proro]

Yes they usually have that combo every couple of weeks but if you were to buy it youd have to buy another board immediately cuz that board is junk. 2 memory slots? WTF !!
At least this board should be a decent performer and no need to worry about overclocking too much since Phenoms arent great overclockers anyway. For $200 with a mobo you dont have to throw away its a very good deal.

 

[imported_magicmycote]

The phenoms are a better choice for people who want future versatility since the AM2+ design will be around for a long time and is backwards compatible.

 

[kidsafe]

Originally posted by: magicmycote
The phenoms are a better choice for people who want future versatility since the AM2+ design will be around for a long time and is backwards compatible.

My old S939 X2 3800+ system begs to differ.

 

[Nessism]

I bought this combo at Christmas time when it was $220. Been using it as a video editing machine and very happy so far.

I don't see two ram slots are a big drawback considering 2GB sticks of ram costs less than $40 these days. 32 bit OS's only recognize 3GB anyway. Only four SATA ports is a drawback but not tragic considering 500GB HD's can be had for less than $100.

The board is AM2+ so it will have a future upgrade path; AMD will get their stuff together eventually. It's not an overclock board but it's nice and stable for what it is and supports PCI-E Gen.2 and HT3.0.

Thumbs up from this user!

 

[imported_magicmycote]

Originally posted by: kidsafe

Originally posted by: magicmycote
The phenoms are a better choice for people who want future versatility since the AM2+ design will be around for a long time and is backwards compatible.

My old S939 X2 3800+ system begs to differ.

Key word is old, as the AM2+ will support AM2 cpus, AM2+ cpus, and AM3 cpus...so you can upgrade CPUS for a pretty long time to come if you get an AM2+ board. Whether this is the board you want, it's up to everyone to decide!

 

[kidsafe]

Originally posted by: magicmycote

Key word is old, as the AM2+ will support AM2 cpus, AM2+ cpus, and AM3 cpus...so you can upgrade CPUS for a pretty long time to come if you get an AM2+ board. Whether this is the board you want, it's up to everyone to decide!

I don't think you know the history of socket 939. Socket 939 was supposed to last as many product cycles as you are claiming AM2/AM3 will last. With AMD's future uncertain, we have no idea what changes they will make to their roadmaps.

I will not consciously build another PC to be futureproof again.

 

[Nessism]

Originally posted by: kidsafe

Originally posted by: magicmycote

Key word is old, as the AM2+ will support AM2 cpus, AM2+ cpus, and AM3 cpus...so you can upgrade CPUS for a pretty long time to come if you get an AM2+ board. Whether this is the board you want, it's up to everyone to decide!

I don't think you know the history of socket 939. Socket 939 was supposed to last as many product cycles as you are claiming AM2/AM3 will last. With AMD's future uncertain, we have no idea what changes they will make to their roadmaps.

I will not consciously build another PC to be futureproof again.

AM2+ was just recently released to support Phenom. It won't last forever but should last for a good while as Phenom ramps up in clock speed. Get this combo now and upgrade to a faster Phenom in a year or so. That's what I'm going to do.

 

[Basilisk]

Originally posted by: chillie7
Like title reads Frys has the quad Phenom 9500 and ECS motherboard for 199.99. Is this a good price for a quad core combo?

Let's see...
- No links in the OP
- No clarification of the precise ECS m/b, either
- No precise reference to venue: online or B&M Frys
- The original post seems more focussed on asking a Q than on providing a deal

- No information corresponding to this Deal was to be found on Outpost.com
- First four Google hits point to -this- dead-end thread
- Ahhh, at last: SlickDeals.net has the courtesy/sense to link the newspaper advertisement and clarify that this is a B&M deal.

Might be an interesting deal for those with a Frys available, but a better post would include the basic details: sale location, product (m/b) id and links.

An even better post would have noted that the ECS board has unenthusiastic owner reviews on NewEgg -- and "unenthusiastic" may be an overly-positive description.

'Wouldn't touch this board as it appears to offer a fairly-to-massively painful experience... so the deal evanesces for me. Those more masochistically inclined or more adventurous might enjoy the board's challenges, however. Enjoy!

 

[synic]

Originally posted by: kidsafe

I will not consciously build another PC to be futureproof again.

Yep. It's just a waste of time, really. By the time you want to upgrade your CPU you will likely need a whole new motherboard (for new socket) and RAM to go with it.

 

[Nessism]

Originally posted by: Basilisk

Originally posted by: chillie7
Like title reads Frys has the quad Phenom 9500 and ECS motherboard for 199.99. Is this a good price for a quad core combo?

Let's see...
- No links in the OP
- No clarification of the precise ECS m/b, either
- No precise reference to venue: online or B&M Frys
- The original post seems more focussed on asking a Q than on providing a deal

- No information corresponding to this Deal was to be found on Outpost.com
- First four Google hits point to -this- dead-end thread
- Ahhh, at last: SlickDeals.net has the courtesy/sense to link the newspaper advertisement and clarify that this is a B&M deal.

Might be an interesting deal for those with a Frys available, but a better post would include the basic details: sale location, product (m/b) id and links.

An even better post would have noted that the ECS board has unenthusiastic owner reviews on NewEgg -- and "unenthusiastic" may be an overly-positive description.

'Wouldn't touch this board as it appears to offer a fairly-to-massively painful experience... so the deal evanesces for me. Those more masochistically inclined or more adventurous might enjoy the board's challenges, however. Enjoy!

The Fry's motherboard/cpu combos are almost always exclusively B&M. I'm surprised an apparently well versed Hot Deals maven like yourself didn't know that.

Can't argue with the poor reviews other than to say my board is working flawlessly.

 

[foghorn67]

Originally posted by: kidsafe

Originally posted by: magicmycote

Key word is old, as the AM2+ will support AM2 cpus, AM2+ cpus, and AM3 cpus...so you can upgrade CPUS for a pretty long time to come if you get an AM2+ board. Whether this is the board you want, it's up to everyone to decide!

I don't think you know the history of socket 939. Socket 939 was supposed to last as many product cycles as you are claiming AM2/AM3 will last. With AMD's future uncertain, we have no idea what changes they will make to their roadmaps.

I will not consciously build another PC to be futureproof again.

I'm with you on that. The short cycles of AMD sockets made my head spin.

 

[proro]

Originally posted by: Nessism

Originally posted by: kidsafe

Originally posted by: magicmycote

Key word is old, as the AM2+ will support AM2 cpus, AM2+ cpus, and AM3 cpus...so you can upgrade CPUS for a pretty long time to come if you get an AM2+ board. Whether this is the board you want, it's up to everyone to decide!

I don't think you know the history of socket 939. Socket 939 was supposed to last as many product cycles as you are claiming AM2/AM3 will last. With AMD's future uncertain, we have no idea what changes they will make to their roadmaps.

I will not consciously build another PC to be futureproof again.

AM2+ was just recently released to support Phenom. It won't last forever but should last for a good while as Phenom ramps up in clock speed. Get this combo now and upgrade to a faster Phenom in a year or so. That's what I'm going to do.

not to hijack the thread but isnt AM3 going to be DDR3? Thats why they had to change the socket from 939 to AM2, to prevent people from sticking their s939 ddr processor in an AM2 board. Having the memory controller on the CPU die is great for performance but it sucks for longevity cuz every major change u have to change the socket. the most annoying thing for me is i cant use my 570sli board with the Phenom. One little BIOS update. i wouldnt care if i couldnt access some of the hardware features of AM+, just be nice if i can drop the Phenom in and go. Anyway the deal is a good deal people.

Nessism - I was talking about the Intel Quad, everytime Frys has a combo they bundle it with some stupid board. The board with the Phenom is ok, its ECS but it could be worse.

 

[kidsafe]

Originally posted by: proro

not to hijack the thread but isnt AM3 going to be DDR3? Thats why they had to change the socket from 939 to AM2, to prevent people from sticking their s939 ddr processor in an AM2 board. Having the memory controller on the CPU die is great for performance but it sucks for longevity cuz every major change u have to change the socket. the most annoying thing for me is i cant use my 570sli board with the Phenom. One little BIOS update. i wouldnt care if i couldnt access some of the hardware features of AM+, just be nice if i can drop the Phenom in and go. Anyway the deal is a good deal people.

Actually that's not really how it's supposed to work, but it's funny that this is happening anyway. I mean the same kind of thing is happening on the Intel side. While the LGA775 socket has been in use since Prescott was introduced, even incremental updates have required new chipsets. 965 won't officially support Penryn. P35 won't officially support 1600 MHz FSBs. We'll need X48 and P45 for that...

K10.5 is supposed to have simultaneous support for DDR2 and DDR3, but we'll see...

 

[MysticMan1]

AMD found that its quad-core microprocessors for servers and desktops contain an erratum, which correction causes performance degradation

Did AMD fix that problem yet?

I have to wonder if the new Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 45nm Penryn overclocked in the 4.00GHz plus range would out perform this AMD quad Phenom CPU. MMMMMMMM :light:

 

[Nessism]

Originally posted by: MysticMan1

AMD found that its quad-core microprocessors for servers and desktops contain an erratum, which correction causes performance degradation

Did AMD fix that problem yet?

I have to wonder if the new Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 45nm Penryn overclocked in the 4.00GHz plus range would out perform this AMD quad Phenom CPU. MMMMMMMM :light:

Not fixed yet - should hit with the next stepping in a couple of months. My understanding is that the issue is not likely to occur on a Phenom running slower than 2.5GHz. Also, it's very unlikely to occur under any circumstances unless some very specific criteria are met.

Question about the E8400 is a good one. My guess is that the Intel chip would bet the Phenom on many of the benchmarks. Not the best comparison in terms of a Hot Deal though since the Phenom combo comes with a motherboard and one would have to buy a good overclocking board to take the E8400 up to 4.0 GHz - add $60-100.

 

[nomadh]

Originally posted by: synic

Originally posted by: kidsafe

I will not consciously build another PC to be futureproof again.

Yep. It's just a waste of time, really. By the time you want to upgrade your CPU you will likely need a whole new motherboard (for new socket) and RAM to go with it.

Yea but its fun to watch others try it. Watched a guy here at work do it twice in a row and never get anything out of it.