What Processor Do I Add to My PC?

[SUPERMAN]

Here are my choices. I dont care about $$. Which ones the Best? I was thinking the AMD Phenom x4 since its quad core.

+ Processor
AMD Sempron LE-1300 (2.3GHz, 800MHz, 512KB)

Performance Processors
AMD Athlon LE-1660 (2.8GHz, 800MHz, 512KB)

AMD Athlon X2 7550 (2.5GHz, 1066MHz, 3MB)

Dell Recommended

AMD Athlon X2 7750z (2.7GHz, 1066MHz, 3MB)


+ High Performance Processors
AMD Phenom X3 8750 (2.4GHz, 1066MHz, 3.5MB)

AMD Phenom™ X4 Quad-Core 9650, 2.3GHz, 2MB [Included in Price]

AMD Phenom X3 8650, 2.3GHz, 1.5MB

[Ultra86]

The best you have listed is that X4 9650. The best on the market right now is the Intel i7 lineup. So did you find a PC on Dell you liked? Make sure the graphics card is beefy.

[Poke4Christ]

You've only got AMD listed. AMD is really good value where as Intel has the best chips right now. However, the phenoms may be catching up.

From what you have listed, take the Phenom X4. However, if you have more of a choice try to get a Phenom II there out now, but the may have not trickled down to the retailors yet. They have 6 MB L3 cache instead of 2 MB. Also, they are 45nm tech instead of 65nm (small transistor size) which makes for less power usage and heat production for the same power.

the athlons you have mentioned are older tech, but still good for low power and value situations. The Sempron is not prefered as it's like a celeron. The new athlon IIs will be the same as the Phenoms but without the L3 cache.

[Agent Orange]

AMD Phenom™ X4 Quad-Core 9650, 2.3GHz, 2MB

Your getting 4 proccesors, the other your only getting dual or single core processors.

Most programs cant even utilize the true power of quad core processors, but some can and you will see a HUGE difference.

Quad Core all the way.

[Binman4OSU]

AMD Phenom™ X4 Quad-Core 9650, 2.3GHz, 2MB

Your getting 4 proccesors, the other your only getting dual or single core processors.

Most programs cant even utilize the true power of quad core processors, but some can and you will see a HUGE difference.

Quad Core all the way.

There are VERY FEW programs that can use quad core technology and as of right now I know of 7 games that can ....Most games still even struggle to use dual core correctly.

So whats the point of getting quad core?? Its like buying a Porche to drive back and forth to Church on Sunday's

[Ultra86]

What's the point in having terabytes of space? What's the point in having quad SLI? What's the point in having water cooling? What's the point in having 24 GB of RAM? What's the point in having 6 cores in a processor? What's the point in having having 16 SSDs in a RAID 0 configuration? I'd rather have a computer that is too fast for my software than software that is too fast for my computer. I have dual core right now and I need it just about every day. It is just a matter of time until they start putting specialized cores on the die or making hybrid procs with 6 regular + 1 GPU + 1 PPU.

Oh, and the answer to the questions is, Why not/because I can/because it's awesome.

[Poke4Christ]

Ultra86,

Do you know anything about the status of putting FPGAs on Processors? I hear a while back that they were going to be starting to do that. Do you know what I'm talking about?

[Ultra86]

I don't know what FPGA stands for, unless it is a different name for a Physics processor on the core. I think they are in the conceptual stage for that kind of stuff. I would love to have a physics processor builtin to my main CPU for all the games I have so my video card can be dedicated to that. I am worried if they put a GPU on the die that performance will suffer. I would rather have a dual core GPU with it's dedicated RAM and not pull from the CPU, although I have 6 GB right now. Right now, I hope Intel implodes for it's bad practices and get muzzled if the allegations are true so that AMD can come out on top, because since AMD and ATI are the same company now, that would be your best bet for specialized procs like that with GPUs and maybe Physics, although Nvidia was the one that bought Physx and that tragedy of a card that sold for $200 or $300 and now your graphics card does it with a software update. I think software will eventually go into a process like ship building where each core is dedicated to a certain part and everything is completed in parallel then assembled. I am most excited about SSDs than anything, as that the biggest bottleneck in computing today.

[Poke4Christ]

FPGA stands for Field progrmable Gate Array (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FPGA). Basically, it's a reconfigurable logic device to change logic hardware at any time. It can allow you to run targeted tasks much faster than a CPU could. I'm a EE/CompE, so I've worked with them. I don't know what you mean by a Physics proc though.

[osucowboysr1]

I plan on building a new PC this fall if you want one of the best and $ not a issue. I would go with one of the new Core i7's that is what I plan on getting.

Here product list.

http://www.intel.com/products/desktop/processors/index.htm?iid=processors_body+dt_core

Overview

http://www.intel.com/products/processor/corei7/index.htm?iid=prod_desktopcore+body_corei7

Specs

http://www.intel.com/products/processor/corei7/specifications.htm

NewEgg is where I buy they have some of the best prices and best choices they should have the new i7's. They take the new Socket Type MB LGA 1366.

[OP 9000]

Doesn't matter what you choose, it will be obsolete in 3 months. And what you buy 3 months from now will be obsolete 3 months after that.

Next year they're going to start churning out CPU/GPU combo chips at 32mm. SSD will be the norm in the next year or two, as will be USB 3.0.

[Poke4Christ]

I'm currently waiting on the new AMD Athlon II processors to really come out. There is one out, but it's only X2. I'm going to use a X4 45W TDP for my home server I'm going to build.

[Ultra86]

You're talking about a core that is like a swiss army knife, capable of handling physics, graphics, computing, floating point, etc etc. I am talking about specialized stuff which they were talking about in the rumor mill before. Putting a PPU on the die when PhysX was running great. Physics proc is just something that handles that calculations for how objects move and react to each other, for the most part, for games and a few specialized pieces of software. That is pretty neat though. You learn something new every day.

[osucowboysr1]

Yeah USB 3.0 still has time before MB makers start rolling them out but some are going to be soon. GPU/CPU will be ok but I think they will still keep them separate for performance. GPU/CPU will be more of a save space thing more than anything they might be able to get some performance out of them but not as much.