PC upgrade-urgent @12K

W

warewolf4586

Adept
Hi
My friend needs to upgrade his ancient P4 1.8Ghz PC.

Componets required are:

1) Motherboard*(Intel/AMD..open for both)
2) Processor
3) Ram (2GB ddr3)
4) Graphic card (If possible want a card, but if a better onboard graphics mobo is there for HD contents and decent gaming, card can be left to be next upgrade)

* As he needs a graphic card with mobo, is there some AMD board without on-board graphics, so that board is a bit cheap and a card can be adjusted in this budget)

Budget is 12K

Also please tell which proccy is better AMD Phenom II X2 555BE or AMD AthlonII X4 635

I hope, with a descent mobo, the cores can easily be unlocked ??
 
AMD Athlon II x4 640 @ 5.2k
Gigabyte GA-880GM-UD2H @ 4.5k
G.skill 2GB DDR3 1333MHz @ 2.1k

why take a chance with unlocking? X4 640 is a descent all rounder at that price.
Get a graphics card later instead of getting low end parts. Also which psu he has?
 
AMD Athlon II x4 635 @ 4.7k
Gigabyte GA-880GM-UD2H @ 4.5k
Kingston 2GB DDR3 1333MHz @ 1.6k
FSP SAGAII 350w @ 1.5k/Gigabyte Superb 460 @ 2k (My guess is that ancient system is running on an ancient generic PSU. So top most priority is for the PSU upgrade)Total: 12.3k-12.8k
 
guys, what about phenom X2 555 BE
It is almost same price near Athlon X4 635, but has higher clock speeds and additional 6MB L3 cache memory
Can he unlock it to 4 cores and get higher performance than X4 635 ?
 
warewolf4586 said:
guys, what about phenom X2 555 BE
It is almost same price near Athlon X4 635, but has higher clock speeds and additional 6MB L3 cache memory
Can he unlock it to 4 cores and get higher performance than X4 635 ?
Click to expand...
Yes if unlocked he can get better performance compared to the X4 635. But then thats purely based on luck factor. He may also end up with just 2 cores too.
 
warewolf4586 said:
why so?
If CPU has unlocked multiplier, it shud unlock to higher cores ?
Are there any complicacies ?
I can see some board selling, saying that using them cores can be unlocked easily...!!!!

example
ASUSTeK Computer Inc.
Click to expand...
Multiplier means "In computing, the clock multiplier (or CPU multiplier or bus/core ratio) measures the ratio of an internal CPU clock rate to the externally supplied clock. A CPU with a 10x multiplier will thus see 10 internal cycles (produced by PLL-based frequency multiplier circuitry) for every external clock cycle. For example, a system with an external clock of 133 MHz and a 10x clock multiplier will have an internal CPU clock of 1.33 GHz."

555BE has a 200MHz BCLK and 16x multiplier. so 200*16 --> 3.2GHz. Normally if the multiplier is locked the only way to OC the CPU is by increasing the BCLK. But in case of unlocked multipliers u can just increase the multiplier and OC the processer. So u can increase the mulitpler to say 17 and OC the proccy to 3.4GHz. It has nothing to do with core unlocking

IINM AMD initially had yield issues with Phenom resulting in just 2/3 functional cores whereas it should have been 4 cores. So they decided to sell these as dual core phenoms. But once the yeilds improved they locked the stable cores and sold it as dual core phenoms. Thats why the tri core phenom died a slow death as yields improved but AMD wasnt able to stop the dual core phenom's as they had a strong market following by that time.

Only if the 555BE has two undamaged dormant(locked) cores would u be able to unlock it. What if the locked cores are damaged and the unlock is unsuccessful/ unstable? Then it would result in just a dual core system.

But in recent times the craze for the 555BE has dipped. I guess this is partly due to the PhenomII X4 945 dipping to 6.5k range. Also there is not many threads about successful unlocks of the 555BE. Intial batches of this chip had a high 80+ unlock. Not sure about the success rate now. So IMO its a gamble and its upto u to decide now whether u are willing to take it.
 
DarkAngel said:
AMD Athlon II x4 635 @ 4.7k
Gigabyte GA-880GM-UD2H @ 4.5k
Kingston 2GB DDR3 1333MHz @ 1.6k
FSP SAGAII 350w @ 1.5k/Gigabyte Superb 460 @ 2k (My guess is that ancient system is running on an ancient generic PSU. So top most priority is for the PSU upgrade)Total: 12.3k-12.8k
Click to expand...
New proccesor the Athlon II x4 645 has been released recently, source
AMD's Fall Refresh: New Phenom II and Athlon II CPUs Balance Price and Performance - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News, simply put this processor in if you get it instead of the older x4 635, rest +1 to rig :)

--- Updated Post - Automerged ---
warewolf4586 said:
guys, what about phenom X2 555 BE
It is almost same price near Athlon X4 635, but has higher clock speeds and additional 6MB L3 cache memory
Can he unlock it to 4 cores and get higher performance than X4 635 ?
Click to expand...
For your knowledge take look at these benches and see that at stock the Athlon II actually leads the Dual Core 555 B.E. and you need to know not every one has the budget/dare factor in them to risk an unlock or overclock of their systems

Bench - CPU - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News ~ Athlon II 635 vs. Phenom II 555 B.E.
Bench - CPU - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News ~ Athlon II 645 vs. Phenom II 555 B.E.

The trend simply confirms that in multi threaded apps the Athlon II comes out at the tops as well the rest scores aren't lagging very far behind, games score is almost at par makes more sense to get the Athlon II system than gamble on x2 555 B.E.
 
Thanx everybody for their valueable suggestions.

The purchase is done

My friend stretched his budget a bit, but even now he has got the components without Graphic card

It was:

Processor - AMD Phenom II X2 555 BE: 4.5k

ASUS M4A88T-M - 4.5K

Ram - G.Skill 2GB DDR3: 1.8K

Coolermaster 460W PSU: 2.5K

Total: 13.3K ....

Thanx SMC for Suggestions and pricing...!!!! :)
 
warewolf4586 said:
Thanx everybody for their valueable suggestions.

The purchase is done

My friend stretched his budget a bit, but even now he has got the components without Graphic card

It was:

Processor - AMD Phenom II X2 555 BE: 4.5k

ASUS M4A88T-M - 4.5K

Ram - G.Skill 2GB DDR3: 1.8K

Coolermaster 460W PSU: 2.5K

Total: 13.3K ....

Thanx SMC for Suggestions and pricing...!!!! :)
Click to expand...
Have u already got the components? The CM Extreme Power/ Extreme Power Plus 460w is not worth 2.5k. The Gigabyte Superb 460 @ 2k or the Corsair CX400 @ 2.7k would be better options IMO.

Also keep us posted on whether he was able to successfully unlock the 555BE :)
 
My bad......the components are already bought....

SMC is always a bit inclined to Cooler Master.....!!!!!

M sure the PSU will pull up the regular use....and anyways, he is not going to use it heavily...I hope...!!!!!!!!
 
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