Phenom II X1 570 4.2GHz single-core, good idea? So far, so good....

[Smoblikat]

I tried looking at ASRock 990FX, but none of them offers USB 3.1 Type-A & Type-C ports at the back. By 2020, all new boards will have them standard, and this 970A-G/3.1 is the only AM3+ board that is 2020 ready, plus all the used FX CPUs will become cheaper starting at $10 on my next upgrade. What an investment. Sometimes the Asus 970 PRO GAMING/AURA feels more-obsolete than this ASRock 970A-G/3.1, after trying both, because it lacks USB 3.1 Type-C. That's why I switched to ASRock. I'm open to all brands, doesn't matter the reliability.

I'm fine running at 1.51V, it doesn't run at 1.51V 98% of the time, anyways. At normal usage to idle, it averages only 1.15V, according to ASRock Extreme Tuner meter. Frequency speed is also variable.

K10 CPUs do prefer running at less than 3.8GHz, but I would be at LGA1156's Celeron G1101 single-thread level. Any K10s that can't run over 4.0GHz should be in the trash already.

Why wouldnt somthing like this work?
https://www.amazon.com/Lemeng-USB3-0-Connector-Converter-Adapter/dp/B01ABTHI7C

or even this:
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813998030
https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-USB-PCIe-Card-Connector/dp/B019Y4EGIO

Long story short youre not going to get much performance out of the old PH2 chips, no matter what frequency, and it only gets worse if you downgrade to a bulldozer/piledriver chip.

 

[kwalkingcraze]

Why wouldnt somthing like this work?
https://www.amazon.com/Lemeng-USB3-0-Connector-Converter-Adapter/dp/B01ABTHI7C

or even this:
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813998030
https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-USB-PCIe-Card-Connector/dp/B019Y4EGIO

Long story short youre not going to get much performance out of the old PH2 chips, no matter what frequency, and it only gets worse if you downgrade to a bulldozer/piledriver chip.

Yes, I'm fully aware of a USB 3.1 adapter, but I'm a integrated ports guy who is obsess with beautiful exterior look, not fast CPUs, while maximizing fastest-speed at the absolute lowest-price as best as possible. Putting in a faster CPU doesn't change the looks and LED fan lights already flashing around. Same thing as putting in a Radeon HD 7750 original GCN card instead of a new R7 250 costing $65 more than HD 7750 with equivalent benchmark scores.

WAIT a second, so are you saying the Piledriver's single-thread performance, like FX-4300, is still slower than my Phenom 570? I also own a FX-4100, and sometimes it doesn't run as fast as this Phenom 570. I have limited experience with FX-4300 due to higher price. My Phenom 570 only worth $15 today, still $20 less than FX-4100, but its single-thread score matches with Celeron G1620. I can't complain.

 

[kwalkingcraze]

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813998030

Yikes, that's 75% of the board's value I paid for $64.99 new, plus sales tax. Sad... It's also a final-edition version built at its final-month, April 2017 mfg. date, according to serial number. Then it's discontinued and out-of-stock permanently at Newegg starting on July 2017. Close call...

I believe 970A-G/3.1's successor is Fatal1ty X370 Gaming K4, an increased price of $80 with matching USB 3.1 ports. CPU price also increased by $95 for upgrading to Ryzen 3 1200 from Phenom 570, and memory RAM increased by $25 going 8GB DDR4 than DDR3. Total increase: $200, only to gain 255 more on single-thread score to 1755 from 1500 with Phenom. WTF... (That's why I'm exiting the PC building scam game permanently).

 

[Yuriman]

It amuses me how arbitrary and specific some of your requirements are - a 4.3ghz single core K10 is great, but 4.0ghz dual should be thrown in the trash, 1500 in a benchmark is a nice chip to use, but 1475 is completely unusable.

???

Once you factor in total system costs, or even just motherboard, none of these chips have very good price : performance. Most of these older CPUs don't have integrated graphics (driving up total system costs), and those that do have driver and performance disadvantages.

I get playing with older hardware for amusement, but viewed holistically, it's not saving you any money.

 

[kwalkingcraze]

It amuses me how arbitrary and specific some of your requirements are - a 4.3ghz single core K10 is great, but 4.0ghz dual should be thrown in the trash, 1500 in a benchmark is a nice chip to use, but 1475 is completely unusable.

Correction: A 4.3ghz dual-core K10 is great, but 4.0ghz or less should be thrown in the trash. I'm not running at single-core.

 

[kwalkingcraze]

Most of these older CPUs don't have integrated graphics (driving up total system costs), and those that do have driver and performance disadvantages.

That's why Gigabyte 78LMT-USB3 board still exists today, very sadly.

 

[Yuriman]

That's why Gigabyte 78LMT-USB3 board still exists today, very sadly.

Is it even getting legacy driver updates?

 

[NTMBK]

I tried looking at ASRock 990FX, but none of them offers USB 3.1 Type-A & Type-C ports at the back. By 2020, all new boards will have them standard, and this 970A-G/3.1 is the only AM3+ board that is 2020 ready, plus all the used FX CPUs will become cheaper starting at $10 on my next upgrade. What an investment... Sometimes the Asus 970 PRO GAMING/AURA I tried earlier feels more-obsolete than this ASRock 970A-G/3.1, after testing both, because it lacks USB 3.1 Type-C. That's why I switched to ASRock. I'm open to all brands, doesn't matter the reliability.

I'm fine running at 1.51V. It doesn't run at 1.51V 98% of the time, anyways. At normal usage to idle, it averages only 1.15V, according to ASRock Extreme Tuner meter. Frequency speed is also variable, doesn't lock at 4.3GHz.

K10 CPUs do prefer running at less than 3.8GHz, but I would be at LGA1156's Celeron G1101 single-thread level. Any K10s that can't run over 4.0GHz should be in the trash can already.

There's no such thing as a 2020-ready AM3+ board. The entire platform is obsolete junk. You're running the CPU at insane voltage, ridiculous frequencies, and still getting crap performance because you're running it with only one core enabled. Madness.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Madness.

Yeah, that about sums it up.

Why not change to a Haswell Celeron? LOL.

 

[kwalkingcraze]

There's no such thing as a 2020-ready AM3+ board. The entire platform is obsolete junk. You're running the CPU at insane voltage, ridiculous frequencies, and still getting crap performance because you're running it with only two core enabled. Madness.

There's not much for me to write anymore. Most people have never seen a K10 running at 4.3GHz dual-core and beyond, so they'll never know how decent they perform.

 

[kwalkingcraze]

Why not change to a Haswell Celeron? LOL.

The Haswell Celerons sell incredibly well on eBay, I was surprised. I sold all of my entire G1840s (5 of them) earlier this month for a nice hefty price tag of $42.99 each shipped (no heatsink), due to demand for powering up the bitcoin boards. Then I buy them back later at $5 shipped after 2022. LOL...

 

[Thunder 57]

There's no such thing as a 2020-ready AM3+ board. The entire platform is obsolete junk. You're running the CPU at insane voltage, ridiculous frequencies, and still getting crap performance because you're running it with only one core enabled. Madness.

Exactly what I've wanted to say, except that I wasn't sure how well it would go over (not knowledgeable about just how much mods will allow). Except you forgot about the part about waiting for a CPU that never had a "Prime", let alone be well past it until it's $10. That may never happen. Many people would sooner give away something at the price to a friend or throw it away. Too much hassle to deal with ebay/craigslist for $10.

If this was just for novelty or fun, I could understand it.

There's not much for me to write anymore. Most people have never seen a K10 running at 4.3GHz dual-core and beyond, so they'll never know how decent they perform.

No, most haven't. And I'm sure they can perform decent. But at how much power and heat? Never mind risking blowing something up. Also, no amount of GHz will ever make up for the lack of modern instructions like AES, AVX, etc.

 

[kwalkingcraze]

No, most haven't. And I'm sure they can perform decent. But at how much power and heat? Never mind risking blowing something up. Also, no amount of GHz will ever make up for the lack of modern instructions like AES, AVX, etc.

Given the nature of K10 performance, I did my best maximizing its highest frequency speed at the lowest power consumption, but 1.50V V-Core is the lowest it can go in order to match Ivy Bridge Celeron. If the board and CPU break down, I will accept the loss, and then I will build the same one again with a backup new ASRock 970A-G/3.1 I have in my fire-safe box, but this time it will be a FX-6300 processor when it reaches down to $20 value. I estimate the first board to last me for 3-5 years, or maybe more. There are 5 system fans installed. I bought two, both April 2017 mfg. date.

 

[NTMBK]

Given the nature of K10 performance, I did my best maximizing its highest frequency speed at the lowest power consumption, but 1.50V V-Core is the lowest it can go in order to match Ivy Bridge Celeron. If the board and CPU break down, I will accept the loss, and then I will build the same one again with a backup new ASRock 970A-G/3.1 I have in my fire-safe box, but this time it will be a FX-6300 processor when it reaches down to $20 value. I estimate the first board to last me for 3-5 years, or maybe more. There are 5 system fans installed. I bought two, both April 2017 mfg. date.

How much money have you got locked up in these "backup" boards for when you fry one? How much time have you sunk into all this chopping and changing of systems? How many hours have you spent reinstalling Windows, staring at BIOS screens, installing your apps? How many hours trawling through eBay listings, trudging back and forth to the post office? And most importantly... how much do you value your time?

 

[Yuriman]

Fun perspective check:

I got my motherboard for free - I purchased a SFF PC and parted it out, keeping the motherboard and getting a little more for the parts individually (minus motherboard) that I paid for the whole thing. My i5 cost me around $200 back in 2012 when it was new. Even taking only motherboard and CPU into account (which are ultimately only a small fraction of a total build's cost), I likely have less into it than kwalkingcraze does when considering losses from buying and selling components, shipping costs, and having multiple motherboards laying around. Motherboard and CPU, a grand total of $200 over a period of 5 years.

Using Passmark (which is an unfortunately one-dimensional benchmark), I get 9335 multi-core and 2537 single-core, with a minor overclock while undervolted - my total CPU power consumption is less than 60 watts under Prime95. If I really didn't care about my chip's lifespan, I have about 15% more overclocking headroom, ~10% if I do.

If I were to sell my CPU now, I could get about $100 for it, and guess, my CPU won't be $20 until well after 2020, maybe 2022. I'm starting to get envious of Ryzen (1600x scores about 13,000 overall) and Intel's newer 6-core CPUs may tempt me, but ultimately this CPU still feels very fast to me. I have no practical reason to upgrade - it's capable of maintaining 60+ fps in every game I play, and isn't the slowest part in day to day use. Chances are good I'll get a minimum of another 2 years out of it as my main desktop CPU, and it might even last me a decade. That works out to about $20 / year, if I sell it now or hold onto it another 5 years. I make close to twice than in an hour of work.

 

[Smoblikat]

There's not much for me to write anymore. Most people have never seen a K10 running at 4.3GHz dual-core and beyond, so they'll never know how decent they perform.

Thats probobly because most people would rather have a faster, lower power, more stable chip instead. K10 is nothing special, never was, even when it was new. Im betting I have more experience with these chipsets/processors than you do, so take it from me, its time to move on. These chips are nothing more than fun novelties to play with, or to do DDR3 benchmarking. Ive never seen a processor with such a strong IMC, it basically has no voltage limit.

Also, I know for a fact that my 4.0 4 core would run circles around any dual core Ph2 in any sort of multithreaded workload. I havent even gotten into the fact that I can push my 6 core 1090T to 4.0 also, never tried locking down cores, so im sure it could be a 4.3+ dual.

 

[kwalkingcraze]

The after-supply market for new AM3+ ATX boards is in extreme crisis and tearful mode, nasty looking, and people are crying and panicking really hard that they can't buy it new anymore. I just sold my new in box MSI 970 Pro Gaming Carbon for $220 shipped on eBay, and I think I should have set the price a little higher. Should I cancel the sale?

I already told VirtualLarry four months ago to buy-up and stock-up the remaining new AM3+ ATX boards, but he didn't listen to me at all. You think it's a joke? Nope, not at all. Look what happen now... All of the AM3+ 970/990 boards already appreciate 2.5 times the value now for the new-in-box unsold boards remaining out there.

Why are the board makers being so cruel and selfish, when there's demand still? Why discontinue too fast and quick?

PS: Congrats to VirtualLarry becoming the newest Super Moderator here. He'll be cashing in for more high-end stuff this time.

 

[Yuriman]

Thought I'd share something:

I work in IT, and many of the businesses my company services have 3-5 year upgrade cycles for hardware. It pains me to see hundreds, if not thousands of 3rd and 4th gen i5's and i7's (and motherboards) being shredded because they're "end of life", but ultimately the costs of supporting older hardware are often higher than replacing more frequently.

 

[kwalkingcraze]

My buyer hasn't paid yet, so I get to raise up the price to over $300. Blame the board manufacturers, not me, for terminating inventory and disrupting peace.

 

[DrMrLordX]

double post

 

[DrMrLordX]

My buyer hasn't paid yet, so I get to raise up the price to over $300. Blame the board manufacturers, not me, for terminating inventory and disrupting peace.

Fools and their money.

Thought I'd share something:

I work in IT, and many of the businesses my company services have 3-5 year upgrade cycles for hardware. It pains me to see hundreds, if not thousands of 3rd and 4th gen i5's and i7's (and motherboards) being shredded because they're "end of life", but ultimately the costs of supporting older hardware are often higher than replacing more frequently.

Funny, there's a huge aftermarket for that stuff. Especially boards. Some reason why they don't ship that to a liquidator?

 

[StinkyPinky]

Thought I'd share something:

I work in IT, and many of the businesses my company services have 3-5 year upgrade cycles for hardware. It pains me to see hundreds, if not thousands of 3rd and 4th gen i5's and i7's (and motherboards) being shredded because they're "end of life", but ultimately the costs of supporting older hardware are often higher than replacing more frequently.

Yep, same as my work. Hundreds and hundreds of them sitting in store rooms collecting dust. At one point we had some initiative to send some to 3rd world schools etc but it ended up costing too much,