Thread: AMD Athlon II X2 250 vs Phenom II X3 705e

I am trying to decide which one of these to get. I will be using my computer for some gaming, movies, or homework and general stuff like that. Do I go for the 6 mb L3 and 3 cores at 2.5 GHz, or the cheaper dual core at 3.0 GHz? Please give me some of your reviews or opinions about these processors or something else. I only have a 285w psu, and my motherboard isn't compatible with everything. I suppose I could upgrade my psu if the cpu isn't too expensive.

Thanks

The dual core processor will draw less power and it will probably overclock higher. So, unless you likely to be running a lot of well threaded programs I'd go with the dual core. It would probably be the cooler running of the two as well.

The Phenom II X3 705e is actually volted lower. The PhIIs have a touch better power management features.

If you could swing the extra amount you could also undervolt the 720BE and enjoy the goodness of the unlocked CPU multiplier when yah wanted to crank it up.

Yeah that's a good question. Since you have a 9400gt, its obvious gaming isn't your ultimate goal. I'm not sure how much benefit you'd have with an extra core at a lower clock speed.

I'm gonna go with beans on this one. Get the dual core to get you by until your ready for a new build.

I'd personally go for the X3. It has an extra core and 6MB of L3 cache and games love cache and since apps (and games like GTA4 for example) are becoming more and more multithreaded it will be the most "future proof". Along the line you can buy a nice heatsink and overclock it if it gets too slow.