i5 750 vs AMD 965 BE

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JumpinJoe

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I've read alot of articles on this, so what is the best deal at the moment?

Which of these to two CPUs are the best value for money/performance?

What are your experiences with these CPU's and their motherboards?
 
There is one fantastic thread comparing them very objectively somewhere.... if i recall it comes to this:

750 is faster overall, but not by a great deal. Maybe across a raft of benchmarks you'll see a few percent attributable difference.
However the one great advantage the 965be has is the cross-pollination of chipsets between am2+/am3 meaning you can save a bundle by using ddr2 ram and a much cheaper am2+ board - which is what I did. Plus AMD boards tend to be cheaper overall.

If you're going for ddr3 ram though, which is always advisable, and don't mind spending a bit extra, 750 is a great choice.
 
These 2 CPU's for all intensive purposes are the same. 1fps difference in this game or that game, a few seconds less or more in that application or this one. So all it boils down to is overall system cost. I bought my rig in the USA, so AMD was they way to go as it saved me around $60. Back here though, prices seem to be fairly similar so its up to you. I try recommend AMD at the moment (since they are the smaller player right now) if all things are equal in price and performance. My reason being that competition in any market is good, and if everyone keeps buying just from one player in the market (whether its AMD or Intel) the other guy will die out. And then you will be stuck with one, and we all know how bad that is for us, the consumer (cough, telkom... cough eskom...)
 
So either one is a good choice?
You wont get the feeling you made a bad choice by choosing either of them for a system?
 
I think you'll need to be clear exactly what you can afford to spend and what you will be doing with it. For instance only 750 can do SSE4 which can make a BIG difference in certain specific tasks (some emulators make great use of SSE4 eg). But by and large it's much of a muchness. I doubt you will even be able to tell the difference once they're in your system. It may be that the 750 will overclock better than the 965 though - which may be a consideration. Clock for clock the 750 has a definite advantage. And given that the 965 is already at 3.4ghz there isn't a whole lot of headroom left for pushing it up.
 
JumpinJoe said:
So either one is a good choice?
You wont get the feeling you made a bad choice by choosing either of them for a system?
Click to expand...

Yes.
No, not at all.

Here I will decide purely on price seeing they are equally matched.
 
cerebus said:
I think you'll need to be clear exactly what you can afford to spend and what you will be doing with it. For instance only 750 can do SSE4 which can make a BIG difference in certain specific tasks (some emulators make great use of SSE4 eg). But by and large it's much of a muchness. I doubt you will even be able to tell the difference once they're in your system. It may be that the 750 will overclock better than the 965 though - which may be a consideration. Clock for clock the 750 has a definite advantage. And given that the 965 is already at 3.4ghz there isn't a whole lot of headroom left for pushing it up.
Click to expand...

There is a ton of headroom for the 965, especially with the new revision that drops its TDP to 125W. Even more headroom for the new 955 coming out at 95W. I've seen people simply bump up the multiplier on the 965 and get 3.8ghz stable, or bump the multiplier more and add some voltage and get to 4.2ghz, all with relatively low temps still. I'm sure a die hard overclocker will be able to get to 4.5 easily.
 
cerebus said:
400mhz isn't exactly a ton....
Click to expand...

But you can do it in a few seconds. Dont even need to mess with voltages. Dont even need to be in the bios actually. Thats a big plus for a first time overclocker. Personally, I was always afraid of the bios, but slowly got used to it. Anyway, 99% of people dont overclock so its the stock comparison that really matters.
 
So what motherboards are recommendended for these two CPUs

Like an Asus P55D?
Is that a good board for the i5?
And the AMD CPU what motherboard is a good buy for it?
 
So actually the selling point of the AMD965 BE is the fact that you can use a much cheaper motherboard with it?
 
Well its a selling point if you already have an old motherboard. Otherwise, get the AM3 board, and you will be able to upgrade it later on again with ease. Intel loves changing sockets, while AMD tries not to. Both approaches have their upsides and downsides though.
 
Value for money is a very persuasive reason to buy one configuration over another - it should be the primary one for most people. An extra r1000 goes a long way in allowing you to add into other components - you'll appreciate the difference it can make to a graphics card for instance.
 
Is there another AMD socket in the works or is the AM3 set to stay awhile and give us some feature upgrade options on the CPU?
 
Six core CPU's being launched this here are confirmed to be compatible with AM3
 
Are these motherboards any good?

MSI AMD 790FX-GD70 Motherboard - Socket AM3

Asus AMD - M4A78T-E - All in one Socket AM3 Motherboard

Which one is the best?
 
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