Which AMD...

Going to be building a gaming PC, what should I go for:

Phenom II 965
Phenom II 970
Phenom II 1055T

Any guidance appreciated.

Thanks!

Pure gaming, the 970.

Games don't really use more than 3 threads, so a quad core is more than enough to keep them and background tasks happy. Then it's just a question of cache and clockspeed, which the 970 rules at :)

Think about an 955 too. You can always OC a few 100 mhz. The Stepping vs cost would a consideration too.

But the 970 will OC to 4.1GHZ+ imo.

The problem with getting a PII to this 4ghz is the power consumption increase per 100mhz increases the closer you get to about 3.8ghz; afterwards its gets mental. A PII at 4ghz uses more power than a i7 at 4ghz iirc.

I would choose the 955, it's very easy to OC them and it tops out at approximately the same clock speed as the 965, imho. /decent cooling needed though as always/

I've seen the 955 for around 100 quid on scan's today only on the other day...