720BE or E8400?!

[F430]

720BE or E8400 or PII 955X4?!

i need to know how is the best

 

[CDdude55]

I would go with the E8400, pair it with a nice board and you should get some nice clocks out of it.

 

[aCid888*]

720BE is 3 cores (tri-core) and will clock to about 3.5 - 4GHz depending on your board/chip..you may also be able to unlock the 4th core.

E8400 is 2 cores (dual-core) and will clock to 4GHz (the C0 doesn't clock as well) pretty easily.


The 720BE is cheaper, the boards are cheaper and you get another core with the possibility to unlock another for a total of 4 (quad).....put all that together and you have a winner in my view.



I say get the 720BE..better value for money. :toast;

 

[Assassin48]

720BE is 3 cores (tri-core) and will clock to about 3.5 - 4GHz depending on your board/chip..you may also be able to unlock the 4th core.

E8400 is 2 cores (dual-core) and will clock to 4GHz (the C0 doesn't clock as well) pretty easily.


The 720BE is cheaper, the boards are cheaper and you get another core with the possibility to unlock another.....put all that together and you have a winner in my view.

I say 720BE. :toast;

+1 on the 720be

Am3 is fresh so upgrading will be bigger then sk775

 

[F430]

720BE + 790XT GB look sweet :] how i can unlock the 720BE?

 

[JrRacinFan]

They are sooo damn close IMO for the average enthusiast. I say the 720BE because in the end it would be cheaper.

 

[Asylum]

Get the E8400 and a good P45 mobo.
You wont be sorry.

 

[ShadowFold]

720, cheaper and you get an extra core

 

[hat]

None of the above. Find 2GB DDR400, and install the dual-core optomizer. It may improve your performance as 939 dual cores can drop out of sync or something... screws performance over

 

[aCid888*]

Intel fan boys will say the E8400, even though its more expensive as a package and it offers less performance.


Value is the key here guys, not bias opinions...the E8400 is more expensive, a good P45 board is more than a high end 790FX board and the 3rd core (maybe even a 4th) of the 720BE gives me relative performance than the E8400.

This is coming from a person who owns both the E8400 and E8500....I buy with value in mind and that's why I say the BE is better as its got the cost vs performance ratio on its side.

As it stands right now, the 720BE is the best chip in terms of value for money...$119 vs $167 for the E8400..the BE is a steal. :shadedshu

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103649 - 720BE
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115037 - E8400


Edit:
If you want something extra spend another $12 more than the E8400 would cost and buy the PII 945 for $180, a true quadcore and will kick the E8400 in the nuts for decoding and other such things...not to mention in games that support more than 2 cores.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103675

 

[F430]

i sell it dod :] now i dont know which cpu i want for my new system that i will buy...

 

[HossHuge]

With the extra core and the lower price the 720 is the way to go. Plus the 3rd core will help with future games.

 

[Darren]

I can not believe people still recommend the E-series, they are so last year, I'd only recommend a E8500 if one had an existing socket 775 motherboard and even then I'd advise that one buys an Intel quadcore for almost the same price as the E8500.

As for the issue at hand, the AM2+/720 BE is cheaper whilst offering similar performance clock for clock and is in a different league in multi-threaded applications too with an upgrade path! The possibility of unlocking a second core is just a bonus but I wouldn't base a purchase on that specifically but the processors other already mentioned benefits is enough to sway me.


Edit:


+1 golytelee,

It seems to me a more fair comparison would be a 7850BE Kuma to the E8400, as they are both dual-cores.

Except I'd say E8xxx is closer to the Phenom II X2 550

 

[golytelee]

I know I don't have the chops, or the respect like some of the forum guru's but I'll throw my 2 cents in because I'm bored at work.

It's almost an apples and oranges argument.

The 720 is a tri-core with the potential for a quad unlock.

The 8400 is a dual-core with no room for improvement.

They OC to relatively similiar speeds, so overall between these 2 the 720 is gonna be the best bang for buck.

It seems to me a more fair comparison would be a 7850BE Kuma to the E8400, as they are both dual-cores.

 

[golytelee]

Good call on the 550 Darren.

 

[aCid888*]

E8400+GA-EP45-UD3P+DDR2-800=WIN. No comment on the AMD because I'm too lazy to google it's performance but I assure that you simply won't be dissapointed AT ALL with the E8400.

You wont be disappointed at all moving to either one of these when you have a 4400+.

That being said, the 720BE is obviously a better choice.

It offers every bit of performance the E8400 does (more to be honest, tricore vs dual) and the upgrade from his 4400+ is cheaper going wi the 720BE rather than getting the E8400.

 

[Easo]

720 cause for future more cores will be needed,

 

[lococol]

sorry, your question is what is the best , for what ? , i use my pc as a games machine and i run an e8500@4Ghz, it will play any game out there , however if i was starting from scratch today and i wanted a general pc i would go amd route, tri or quad core the seem to be much better value , be carefull of when people say they clock to the same speed , as it is generally accepted that intel processors do more work per clock tick , correct me if i'm wrong on this one , i've read this often though , good luck with your build

 

[IINexusII]

definately get the 720. you can always upgrade to a x4 BE or the next gen amd cpus because they would almost certianly still be using am3, unlike i7 where you would have to then get another motherboard and ram

 

[AltecV1]

720BE best choice(thats comes from a guy with a E8400)

 

[CDdude55]

I can not believe people still recommend the E-series, they are so last year, I'd only recommend a E8500 if one had an existing socket 775 motherboard and even then I'd advise that one buys an Intel quadcore for almost the same price as the E8500.

Cause your processor is so this year.. E8400 is still a great chip, great for OCing and can really show some muscle in games. Its not the matter of if it came out this year, last year or back in '06, it comes down to what the person would what to do with the chip and is very dumb to ignore a CPU just because its a little outdated, if that was the case half of the people on here would be throwing there systems out the window because it didn't come out last week.

As for the issue at hand, the AM2+/720 BE is cheaper whilst offering similar performance clock for clock and is in a different league in multi-threaded applications too with an upgrade path! The possibility of unlocking a second core is just a bonus but I wouldn't base a purchase on that specifically but the processors other already mentioned benefits is enough to sway me.

I agree with you here, the 720 BE is great if you don't have much cash, it does have an extra core with will help a little in multi-threaded games. Now if your OCing the E8400 paired with a nice board should get higher clocks in general. Now if your really crazy about gaming, then sure the 720 maybe for you, as you may/should be able to get it to to 3GHZ(E8400 speed) or a little higher and the one extra core should help a bit in multithreaded apps.

 

[AhokZYashA]

I prefer 720BE better...
because it's cheaper en probably faster in some applications...

E8400 is a fast dual-core..
get a nice cooler and you will end up @ 4GHz+ on air..

for 720BE you can unlock it's full potential by enabling the fourth core..

it's up to you.

 

[Velvet Wafer]

get you a 720! you want a 4ghz dualcore or a 3.5-3.8ghz tri to quadcore? the additional 200 mhz are never worth the loss of cores...

 

[Darren]

be carefull of when people say they clock to the same speed , as it is generally accepted that intel processors do more work per clock tick , correct me if i'm wrong on

You're correct to a certain extent, although the core 2 architecture is more efficient in performance "per core" in most tasks its only by a small amount we're are talking about 1-8% at maximum which doesn't justify the E8400s £117.42 price tag when the Phenom II 550 for £42 less for more or less the same performance. The X3 720 BE third core would make the it faster than the Core 2 Duo even in non multi-threaded applications as you'll see in benchmarks because the other core can be doing other unrelated background calculations and hence relieving the stress of the other core/cores. In a truly multi-threaded application the X3 has no superior other than the Core 2 Quads. With the Phenom II 720 BE being only £91.73, its £25.69 cheaper than its E8400 contender.

To be really harsh, you could buy the Phenom II X4 810 for the same price as the E8xxx, and you'd be in a much better position.

you can always upgrade to a x4 BE or the next gen amd cpus because they would almost certianly still be using am3, unlike i7 where you would have to then get another motherboard and ram

Indeed, even X6 processors, once the X6 desktop Opterons are released.


PS. CDdude55, the fact that the E8xxx was older wasn't my only argument.

 

[aCid888*]

as you may/should be able to get it to to 3GHZ(E8400 speed) or a little higher

You WILL get it to 3GHz on stock voltage usually....3.5 - 3.8GHz is not uncommon on these CPU's either with a good board (anything at/around $100) and that will be enough for even the most avid gamer.