Intel e5200 or AMD 7750 ?

[Sputnik]

Can't decide which route to go. Been toying with an E5200 and P35 or P45 board but, now thinking AMD 7750 with a 790G based board .

Do all the AMD chipsets have built in graphics ?

What do you guys think of this -



AMD Athlon 64 X2 7750+, Black Edition

Biostar TA790GX3-A2+

4Gb Corsair DDR2 800

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Hopefully this will help:

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cpu...00-oc-review/1

Basically the 7750+ is meant to be slightly faster than the E5200 at stock speeds but the latter is better when overclocking.

[staffsMike]

Do the right thing.. AMD

In all honesty I would go with AMD. The onboard graphics gives the board a purpose later on (especially if it's uATX) but can also be used to test for faulty gfx cards or hybrid xfire etc..

Also AM3 support ensures a reasonable upgrade path

Good performance from that chip, not earth shattering but.. plenty enough for gaming and typical apps.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I like the J and W 790GX board that Scan do. It is supposed to be a decent overclocker and not overly expensive for a 790GX motherboard. You could always save a bit of money and get a decent 780G board. Asus make a 780G motherboard for under £60 which will even support the new Phenom II 920 and 940 processors:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Asus-...-RAID-uATX-VGA

http://support.asus.com.tw/cpusuppor...model=M3A78-VM

Now the retail Phenom II 920 is £160 its is really stiff competition for both the retail Q6600 and Q8300 which are in a similar price bracket currently!!

[staffsMike]

Yup I have tha board (in 780V guise) and it's an awesome little board. Only thing mine was missing was Q-Connect which is always a nice touch from Asus.

[Sputnik]

would it be worth spending a bit more on the CPU and going with a cheap quad core? or would that then tip the balance towards Intel again ?

Are the J & W boards any good? Not a brand I know.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

J and W are well known in Asia IIRC. It really depends if you are overclocking or not. The Q6600 is a very good overclocker but the later batches are not as great in this regards. The Phenom II has a much better overclocking potential than earlier Phenoms when used in a 790GX motherboard. The J and W motherboard was capable of overclocking the earlier Phenom chips to good levels:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=191428

At stock the Phenom II 920 is faster than a Q6600 and is more comparable to the more expensive Q9300:

http://techreport.com/articles.x/16147/14

If you are not overclocking you maybe able to get away with getting a cheaper 780G motherboard instead:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Asus-...-RAID-uATX-VGA

It has full compatibility with the current Phenom II processors:

http://support.asus.com.tw/cpusuppor...model=M3A78-VM

[Sputnik]

Mike what was the spec of the AMD machine you built recently ? I had a quick look but, could not find your post about it.

I don't like the sound of the problems with the AMD boards. The audio and graphics problems concern me.

[staffsMike]

http://forums.hexus.net/hexus-hardwa...ml#post1584306

Pics below. Runs nicely on integrated graphics and via normal audio outs (2.1 at the moment).

[Sputnik]

Ok next stupid question because I can't be bothered to look it up, what is the difference between 780g and 780v ?

[staffsMike]

Onboard graphics. The V has HD3100 and the G has HD3200.

Both blu ray/HD capable, G more worthy of gaming.

[fallen2004]

AMD one is faster at stock but with decent cooling the e5200 can hit 3.4ghz quite easy, maybe 3.6ghz. So if you plan on OCing go intel if not go amd

Also amd boards are slightly cheaper

[mac124]

The 7750 overclocks to, no idea how far though, got mine sitting at 3ghz without trying too hard stock volts and 222 fsb. This is on an AX78 so not the best mobo for overclocking. Not really tried for higher as it is "only" my media pc and overkill as it is really.

[fallen2004]

rember that If intel and AMD are at same clock speeds intel will nearly always be the faster one

The only problem with the e5200 is its smaller Cache, if the money is avaliable i would get the e7200 or e7300 its only a little bit more and they have more Cache, resulting in them being alot faster in games. Also the e5200 doesn't have SSE4.1 where are the e7200 and e7300 do have

[staffsMike]

The cache doesn't make any real difference to higher res gaming, that's all on the gfx card.

[Sputnik]

Is there any good reason why I should not buy a Gigabyte GA-MA78G-DS3H Motherboard? I've chosen this as I wanted firewire and also I prefer having an ATX board rather than micro ATX.

But, I also like the look of the Asus M3A78 PRO which a review said used less power than the Gigabyte. Only thing that puts me off is the review I read said it had some bugs.