- Joined
- Mar 7, 2006
- Location
- Connecticut
I have read all of the material out there and understand the key differences between the Athlon II and Phenom II. Benchmark results make the decision a little more difficult. If anyone noticed, I posted about my new video card incompatibility issues and my subsequent need to upgrade. I have a Gigabyte MA78LM-S2H mobo and 2GB of some generic 667 DDR2 ram. I have a 520W Corsair power supply and my newly acquired (but annoyingly incompatible) HD5670.
Here is my issue:
Funds are very tight. I need to spend $100 or less for this CPU. I narrowed down the results to two main contenders.
First, I have the Athlon II x4 640 here.
Second is the Phenom II x2 560 here.
Research has left me hungry to find an AM2 Phenom II x4 but they are rather scarce these days...Plus I need something quick, so the aforementioned CPUs are stocked at store locally as well.
My dilemma here is the comparison of the dual core to quad core. I understand the L3 will definitely offer an improvement, but enough to overcome the 2 extra cores? I do moderate gaming (not all the latest and greatest), photo editing, web surfing, word processing all that usual stuff.
Would there be a noticeable everyday difference in performance from one to the other? Also, which would be the best bet for future proofing?
Edit: for calling an athlon an athlong
Here is my issue:
Funds are very tight. I need to spend $100 or less for this CPU. I narrowed down the results to two main contenders.
First, I have the Athlon II x4 640 here.
Second is the Phenom II x2 560 here.
Research has left me hungry to find an AM2 Phenom II x4 but they are rather scarce these days...Plus I need something quick, so the aforementioned CPUs are stocked at store locally as well.
My dilemma here is the comparison of the dual core to quad core. I understand the L3 will definitely offer an improvement, but enough to overcome the 2 extra cores? I do moderate gaming (not all the latest and greatest), photo editing, web surfing, word processing all that usual stuff.
Would there be a noticeable everyday difference in performance from one to the other? Also, which would be the best bet for future proofing?
Edit: for calling an athlon an athlong