Overclocked 960T vs i3-2100?

[pauldun170]

ahh thx.. never knew u that...
thought as long as the mobo handles the stock wattage of chip, your fine even when o/c cause the mobo has built in tolerances

I personally carry a little skepticism for any mobo that has been deemed worthy of a bundle. If you do go with a bundle, check the specs on the manufacturer website and then dig through newegg reviews on it.

 

[daveybrat]

ahh thx.. never knew u that...
thought as long as the mobo handles the stock wattage of chip, your fine even when o/c cause the mobo has built in tolerances

Not true, if you look at Gigabyte's website, the 6-Core thuban's and 125Watt Phenom II's are not supported. The board supports a maximum of a 95Watt cpu.

You can probably still overclock or unlock the 960T on it, but don't expect the motherboard's weak mosfet's to handle that load for long. I've seen people fry them out over a short time like that. It's still a nice board for budget builds, but not for overclocking IMO.

Spend the extra $30 and you'll be good to go.

 

[pauldun170]

So with the 960T, an extra 20-30 for the cooler, extra 30 + for the mobo (assuming you want to OC)
On top of that, its a 4core chip with no guarantee that it will be able to unlock the remaining cores.

JEDI,
How does this impact your decision?

 

[JEDI]

So with the 960T, an extra 20-30 for the cooler, extra 30 + for the mobo (assuming you want to OC)
On top of that, its a 4core chip with no guarantee that it will be able to unlock the remaining cores.

JEDI,
How does this impact your decision?

i5-2500k w/z68 mobo for $225 total.
4.5ghz on air

on a more realistic note:
wait till April's microcenter specials and evaluate from there.
and keep waiting till Blizzard anounces that D3 has one gold if nothing pops up as a GREAT deal.

once blizzard anounces, buy best bang for buck available that day!

 

[daveybrat]

i5-2500k w/z68 mobo for $225 total.
4.5ghz on air

on a more realistic note:
wait till April's microcenter specials and evaluate from there.
and keep waiting till Blizzard anounces that D3 has one gold if nothing pops up as a GREAT deal.

once blizzard anounces, buy best bang for buck available that day!

Why wait till D3 goes gold? It's already officially going to be released on 5-15-2012. Just another month 1/2 to go! I'm buying mine the day it comes out.

 

[Makaveli]

Sounds like a professional web surfer and starbucks drinker. I'd go with the intel for overall balance.

lmao professional web surfer

I should put that on my resume.

 

[JEDI]

960t combo is now $90:
http://www.microcenter.com/specials/promotions/AMDbundlePROMO.html

i3 combo is $120:
http://www.microcenter.com/specials/promotions/expired/0414BUNDLEpromo.html

for Diablo III, probably going to pick the 960t combo and use the $30 i save towards an upgrade to my Radeon 4850.

yes/no?

 

[Uppsala9496]

Upgrade from the "free" mobo. I have the 960T combo, 2 1055T combo's and an 8120 combo from MC.

The GA-78LMT board is fine at stock, but is horrible at overclocks. You run into a VRM issue. I killed one board on a modest overclock of the 960T, and I only have 1 extra core unlocked.
http://www.overclock.net/t/946407/amd-motherboard-vrm-information-list

Personally I would spend the $139.98 and get the GA-970A board. I have that on my 8120 and it is great. 8+1 VRM's.
I'm running the GA-78LMT - you are going to get rev4 since they stopped making/selling rev3.1 and it only has 3+1 which is beyond horrible - on a 555BE since I don't trust it on my 960T. The 555BE has the extra 2 cores unlocked. Can only overclock to 3.5 on that board since it becomes unstable any higher. On the GA-970A I overclocked it to 4.2.

Avoid that GA-78LMT at all cost if you want to overclock. Too easy to kill.

All my machines run DC projects 24/7.


EDIT: I see the Asus board is also only 3+1. Just not worth the potential to kill it and have to shell out $100+ to get a new board.
If you get the GA-970 board, you will also get the rebate. I have done this on 4 separate occasions with GA boards.

 

[Leyawiin]

960t combo is now $90:
http://www.microcenter.com/specials/promotions/AMDbundlePROMO.html

i3 combo is $120:
http://www.microcenter.com/specials/promotions/expired/0414BUNDLEpromo.html

for Diablo III, probably going to pick the 960t combo and use the $30 i save towards an upgrade to my Radeon 4850.

yes/no?

The MSI Intel board is pretty poorly reviewed by users on Newegg. The free AMD board has better reviews. Not even looking at the bundles, for only $89.99 for the CPU alone I don't know how you could go wrong with the X4 960t. That's really cheap for a fairly capable CPU.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813130593

I know you can't take them as gospel but it does give one pause to think.

 

[sequoia464]

That's really cheap for a fairly capable CPU.

The CPU (960T) by itself is $100 at Micro Center - closer to $125 or more everywhere else - if you can find one.

 

[Leyawiin]

In store its $90. If you have one near you its a good deal.

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0382790

 

[sequoia464]

In store its $90. If you have one near you its a good deal.

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0382790

Thanks, hadn't realized they dropped the price again, last I looked a few days back it was $100. I'll look before posting next time.

 

[JEDI]

Upgrade from the "free" mobo. I have the 960T combo, 2 1055T combo's and an 8120 combo from MC.

The GA-78LMT board is fine at stock, but is horrible at overclocks. You run into a VRM issue. I killed one board on a modest overclock of the 960T, and I only have 1 extra core unlocked.
http://www.overclock.net/t/946407/amd-motherboard-vrm-information-list

Personally I would spend the $139.98 and get the GA-970A board. I have that on my 8120 and it is great. 8+1 VRM's.
I'm running the GA-78LMT - you are going to get rev4 since they stopped making/selling rev3.1 and it only has 3+1 which is beyond horrible - on a 555BE since I don't trust it on my 960T. The 555BE has the extra 2 cores unlocked. Can only overclock to 3.5 on that board since it becomes unstable any higher. On the GA-970A I overclocked it to 4.2.

Avoid that GA-78LMT at all cost if you want to overclock. Too easy to kill.

All my machines run DC projects 24/7.


EDIT: I see the Asus board is also only 3+1. Just not worth the potential to kill it and have to shell out $100+ to get a new board.
If you get the GA-970 board, you will also get the rebate. I have done this on 4 separate occasions with GA boards.

how did u kill the GA-78LMT mobo? what do u think would be safe to overclock the 960T to w/this mobo?

the combo price on the GA-970 board probably includes the rebate. (the $90 price on the GA-78LMT includes the $10 rebate.)

 

[Bman123]

Just buy the 960t since it isn't going to make a big difference at that res anyway. Your gonna have to sink cash into a new video card soon tho.

 

[blckgrffn]

Upgrade from the "free" mobo. I have the 960T combo, 2 1055T combo's and an 8120 combo from MC.

The GA-78LMT board is fine at stock, but is horrible at overclocks. You run into a VRM issue. I killed one board on a modest overclock of the 960T, and I only have 1 extra core unlocked.
http://www.overclock.net/t/946407/amd-motherboard-vrm-information-list

Personally I would spend the $139.98 and get the GA-970A board. I have that on my 8120 and it is great. 8+1 VRM's.
I'm running the GA-78LMT - you are going to get rev4 since they stopped making/selling rev3.1 and it only has 3+1 which is beyond horrible - on a 555BE since I don't trust it on my 960T. The 555BE has the extra 2 cores unlocked. Can only overclock to 3.5 on that board since it becomes unstable any higher. On the GA-970A I overclocked it to 4.2.

Avoid that GA-78LMT at all cost if you want to overclock. Too easy to kill.

All my machines run DC projects 24/7.


EDIT: I see the Asus board is also only 3+1. Just not worth the potential to kill it and have to shell out $100+ to get a new board.
If you get the GA-970 board, you will also get the rebate. I have done this on 4 separate occasions with GA boards.

:thumbsup:

I totally agree. That extra board is a very good investment.

You are fine with the stock 960t HS with six cores, default voltage and ~3.3 ghz via FSB. Been there, done that YMMV, of course, but I did it and it actually wasn't that loud under load. Same as Uppsala here, 24/7 DC. Eventually moved to a 212+ for sound, of course temps were much better then as well.

I would say that ~3.3 ghz on a 3+1 board with active cooling for the VRMs is going to be OK. I have two MSI ATX boards that have that, but they also have VRM HS. 2 12CM fans drawing air over that part of the board...

 

[RavenSEAL]

960T for sure.

 

[JEDI]

Upgrade from the "free" mobo. I have the 960T combo, 2 1055T combo's and an 8120 combo from MC.

The GA-78LMT board is fine at stock, but is horrible at overclocks. You run into a VRM issue. I killed one board on a modest overclock of the 960T, and I only have 1 extra core unlocked.
http://www.overclock.net/t/946407/amd-motherboard-vrm-information-list

Personally I would spend the $139.98 and get the GA-970A board. I have that on my 8120 and it is great. 8+1 VRM's.
I'm running the GA-78LMT - you are going to get rev4 since they stopped making/selling rev3.1 and it only has 3+1 which is beyond horrible - on a 555BE since I don't trust it on my 960T. The 555BE has the extra 2 cores unlocked. Can only overclock to 3.5 on that board since it becomes unstable any higher. On the GA-970A I overclocked it to 4.2.

Avoid that GA-78LMT at all cost if you want to overclock. Too easy to kill.

All my machines run DC projects 24/7.


EDIT: I see the Asus board is also only 3+1. Just not worth the potential to kill it and have to shell out $100+ to get a new board.
If you get the GA-970 board, you will also get the rebate. I have done this on 4 separate occasions with GA boards.

for the GA-78LMT , whats the diff between v3.1 and v4?

 

[JEDI]

I'm pretty sure you are talking about the MC deal right with the free Gigabyte 760G motherboard?

If so, don't even think about it. Spend the $30 extra to get this motherboard with it:

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0375772

The $129.00 combo gives you a fantastic motherboard that is far superior to the cheap free one.

Reason being, that cheap motherboard only supports 95Watt processors, which is what the 960T is at STOCK settings.

However, once you unlock that cpu to 6-Cores, then you jump up to 125Watts and higher with overclocking. (I know, i have that cpu!).

That motherboard alone goes for $109 on Newegg, so essentially you are getting a killer cpu for $20!! Well worth it IMO.

the specs now say 125w:
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0366104

so can handle 6cores now?

 

[JEDI]

bought the 960T with gigabyte GA-78LMT.

the GA-78LMT is v5.0!
hopefully that learned from the mistakes of 4.0 and put in all the good stuff from v3.1

 

[Bman123]

The amd combo really is a no brainer if your on a budget. The only reason I got the 2100 was MC had $50 off the board so I basically got the board for $10. If MC had that amd deal months ago when I was buying I would of got that instead.

 

[Uppsala9496]

bought the 960T with gigabyte GA-78LMT.

the GA-78LMT is v5.0!
hopefully that learned from the mistakes of 4.0 and put in all the good stuff from v3.1

What is the phase count (VRM's)? V 3.1 (which I am running in one machine) is 4+1. V4.0 was downgraded to 3+1 which is easy to fry.

I killed my rev4.0 board by having too much of an OC. I used the exact same settings, cpu, ram, etc in the rev 4.0 board that I had in the 3.1 and it booted, ran for about an hour, and then DEAD.
I was in the process of upgrading/building a new machine and wanted to swap the 3.1 for the 4.0 because of the TDP difference.
Just be careful how far you push the overclock with that board.

EDIT: Ouch. I see that it is still only 3+1 phase VRM. Personally I wouldn't try overclocking past 3.4ghz and even then I would be nervous unlocking any additional cores. Only 95W TDP support as well.
If you do unlock cores and overclock good luck. I have sworn off buying anything with less than 4+1 VRM's. For the extra money I would have picked the GA-970A-UD3. It's a beast of a board. My favorite one I have.

 

[VirtualLarry]

the specs now say 125w:
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0366104

so can handle 6cores now?

Microcenter's specs are often wrong. According to their specs, they are still selling 500GB Seagate retail-boxed 7200.9 drives. Which of course, haven't been made for years.

 

[Uppsala9496]

Look at the supported CPU list:http://www.gigabyte.com/support-downloads/cpu-support-popup.aspx?pid=4125

None of them are above 95W. Can't support the 125W thubans, so be super careful.

 

[daveybrat]

Look at the supported CPU list:http://www.gigabyte.com/support-downloads/cpu-support-popup.aspx?pid=4125

None of them are above 95W. Can't support the 125W thubans, so be super careful.

Yup he's right, i would leave the 960T at stock if i were you. I have the 960T running just the 4-Cores overclocked to a modest 3.4GHz and it's consuming 118Watts. Fine for my motherboard, but that free Gigabyte board will really be stressing under that load.

Honestly though, a 960T at stock 3GHz Quad-Core is an excellent chip and will be able to run D3 at max settings paired up with a good graphics card. So great deal!