# what better? athlon II or athlon 64



## gimmigzgy

Cuz I'm thinking of buying an Athlon II X2 240 (2.8G) 2mb, but the Athlon 64 X2 7850 (2.8G) 2mb black ed. which is priced higher, so does it mean it's better?


----------



## Gooberman

Get the Athlon II, but remember you need an AM3 board and DDR3 Ram(I believe)
(Athlon 64) (AthlonII)
65 NM vs 45 NM
L2 Cache: 2 x 512KB vs L2 Cache: 2 x 1MB


----------



## gimmigzgy

does this mean that the athlonII is faster??


----------



## Gooberman

Pretty much lol


----------



## gimmigzgy

is it safe to purchase from newegg.com?


----------



## linkin

newegg is the best place i believe.


----------



## gimmigzgy

but I'm from the philippines


----------



## Jamin43

gimmigzgy said:


> is it safe to purchase from newegg.com?



No - 

It's ok if you purchase the parts and have them sent to my residence.  I'll make sure they all work for you and forward them to you when I'm finished testing them - but it could take a while


----------



## gimmigzgy

ahahaha!
no thanks,
=)

cuz video cards here  in the phil are 25% more expensive


----------



## 2048Megabytes

I wouldn't upgrade from an Athlon 7850 to an Athlon II 240 processor.  If you are going to upgrade go to the Phenom II 550 or the Phenom II 720 processor next.  If I am not mistaken the Athlon 7850 and Athlon II 240 processors are not much different in processing power.


----------



## Hass

2048Megabytes said:


> If I am not mistaken the Athlon 7850 and Athlon II 240 processors are not much different in processing power.



This ^^ is what he was asking.
Re read what he asked :]


----------



## StrangleHold

gimmigzgy said:


> Cuz I'm thinking of buying an Athlon II X2 240 (2.8G) 2mb, but the Athlon 64 X2 7850 (2.8G) 2mb black ed. which is priced higher, so does it mean it's better?


 
The Athlon II 240. Running stock, your not going to tell that much difference. But the Athlon II 240 overclocks (way) better. Newer core/45nm./ plus its a AM3 and will run on a DDR3 board too.


----------



## 87dtna

I have an Athlon 245 that has overclocked to 3.8ghz.  Thats the highest I could get it anyway stable.  The Athlon II's are pretty nice, espeically for the price.  And they run COOL, at 3.8ghz the max temps barely cracked 40c!  Try that on a 7850, with a 3.2ghz overclock the thing probably idles more than 40c.   Haha.

This test shows the 250 VS the 7850 (they don't have 240 as an option) but the 250 only looses 2 out of 31 tests...meaning it won 29 out of 31 tests and it beat the 7850 in all of the gaming tests.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/default.aspx?p=90&p2=96


----------



## gimmigzgy

but how about,

Athlon II x2 240 VS the core2duo e7500 when it comes to gaming?
paired up with a 4770 or 9600gt


with no overclocking'


----------



## 87dtna

gimmigzgy said:


> but how about,
> 
> Athlon II x2 240 VS the core2duo e7500 when it comes to gaming?
> paired up with a 4770 or 9600gt
> 
> 
> with no overclocking'



Clock for clock the core 2 duo's are still faster, and the 7500 is clocked higher even.  But, the e7500 is literally twice as much....$120 VS $60 for the Athlon II.  Not even close to twice the performance though.


----------



## StrangleHold

I just dont understand your need to change your processor if your just getting one thats basically the same performance as the one you already have.


----------



## gimmigzgy

Because if I sell my core2duo e7500 and replace it with an athlon II x2 240,
I would have a lot more budget to buy a better vid card and psu.

My main concern is,
if I switch to the amd 240, and get a 9600gt,
would regret replacing my core2duo e7500 and 9500gt?


----------



## 2048Megabytes

I think you will regret spending money on an Athlon II 240 processor and the video card you suggested.  It isn't really an upgrade.  I would keep your Core 2 Duo E7500 system and just buy a better video card if you really want an upgrade.  The video card you suggested isn't going to be much of an upgrade either.

Take a look at this video card:

EVGA 01G-P3-1158-TR GeForce GTS 250 1 gigabyte 256-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 Video Card - $155

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130514


----------



## 87dtna

If you go to AMD you have to buy a new motherboard, where's the savings in that?

9600gt is a large upgrade from a 9500gt.  The 9600 has 3 times the memory bandwidth as the 9500.

Your motherboard supports the latest quad core CPU's, so you could take the money you save on buying an AMD motherboard and CPU and just buy a better intel CPU.  Honestly the E7500 is just as good as the Phenom II 545 dual core, it's a good bit better than the athlon II 240.

The E7500 is a decent gaming CPU.  It's not your bottleneck at all.  What power supply do you have?  You first need a good power supply, then you can upgrade your graphics card.  After that you need to pick up a dual channel kit of 4gb of DDR2-800 ram (2x2gb), Then you will have no more bottlenecks, and a great gaming PC.

You can always overclock your E7500 for better performance if needed, but you shouldn't really need to if you get a decent graphics card.

Whats your max budget for a graphics card if you kept your current setup?  But I need to know what power supply you have first.


Shameless plug- If you are really into going AMD, I have a setup right now that would save you some $ for sure-

http://www.computerforum.com/163944-am2-mobo-athlon-ii-245-2gb-ram.html

Hell I even have an MSI 9600gt_1gb if you are interested for $60 more.  If you sell your intel stuff you'll probably atleast break even if not make money on the deal.


----------



## gimmigzgy

*$106-110* _for the GPU_
and
*$68-70* _for the PSU_

I'm really on a tight budget.
and If I get more money this december,
I'll be buying a g31 gigabyte mobo,
so that I can overclock my procie.


----------



## 87dtna

What power supply do you have now?


----------



## gimmigzgy

its only a 500w 20A 12v


----------



## 87dtna

A 9600gt would run on that no problem.


----------



## joebob1235

Gooberman said:


> Get the Athlon II, but remember you need an AM3 board and *DDR3 Ram(I believe)*



well no not necessarily, it depends on your mobo, if you have an AM3 mobo, then im pretty sure it would run DDR3 RAM but Athlon II is compatible with DDR2 and would be used with DDR2 if you had an AM2+ mobo


----------



## gimmigzgy

87dtna said:


> A 9600gt would run on that no problem.



How can you be so sure of that?


----------



## 87dtna

gimmigzgy said:


> How can you be so sure of that?



Because I've run my 9600gt on a 300w PSU with a 16A 12v rail.  Super cheap PSU, came with a case I bought for $40 and those are always crap PSU's that come inside cases.


----------



## xuniter

my advice is to take the Athlon 64 X2 7850....i have the same and its very very good !!


----------



## 87dtna

xuniter said:


> my advice is to take the Athlon 64 X2 7850....i have the same and its very very good !!



The athlon II is slightly better than the 7850 even at stock clocks.  But the 240 is cheaper, will overclock better, and run WAY cooler.  Even overclocked to 3.8ghz my athlon II 245 would barely crack 40c on a stock cooler (not the one that came with it but stock from a 9600be)


----------



## 2048Megabytes

xuniter said:


> My advice is to take the Athlon 64 X2 7850.... I have the same and it's very very good!!



The Core 2 Duo E7500 beats the Athlon 7850 Dual-Core in processing power.  That would not be an upgrade going to an Athlon 7850 Dual-Core Processor.


----------

