B3 Phenom Reviews

[Moloch]

Tech Report's - http://techreport.com/articles.x/14424

Pretty impressive their flagshit is 230~, would be tempted if I did more video encoding or other similar tasks that benefit from 4 cores, my opterton 165@ 2.7ghz is doing fine in the meantime.

 

[Squilliam]

Looks like they can compete now!

 

[Bludd]

This is how the Phenom should have looked at launch.

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

B3 isn't enough to beat Intel, but it does at least get them back onto their coat-tails. At a decent price/performance and with a complete system package in the form of the Spider platform, it becomes more attractive.

It's a shame the R700 appears to be pushed back a little. If it was arriving late Q2 as originally rumoured, it would be the ideal opportunity to relaunch the Spider platform with the new B3 Phenoms and thus undo a lot of the damage AMD did to themselves with the original Spider launch.

 

[Rangers]

This is how the Phenom should have looked at launch.

Not quite. Really to compete well they need to go to 2.6, 2.7, 2.8 ghz at the same price. This is a step forward though of course.

I dont know though, having just built a $1050 dollar system, a difference in CPU price of even a hundred dollars becomes something you might as well just absorb, in order to gain the vastly better performance and overclocking abilities offered by Intel. ( I also dont think anyone should build a serious machine anymore and not go quad core).

That tech report review was the worst. Why include twenty flavors of extremely niche CPU's that you'd need a dictionary to sort out what they actually are at a glance to obscure the results? Why even bother including 20 flavors of Intel "extreme" line chips that nobody ever buys? Ugh..

 

[epicstruggle]

I wonder how AMD will mess this one up. Will there only be like 10 of them for sale? Come on AMD you need to get your act in order.

 

[John Reynolds]

I was told yesterday the X4s should start showing up with e-tailers either late today or tomorrow.

 

[Davros]

speaking of amd can anyone expain their rating system to me

 

[John Reynolds]

speaking of amd can anyone expain their rating system to me

I'd be glad to, once I figure out Intel's, NVIDIA's and the rating system for AMD's Radeons too.

 

[ShaidarHaran]

Rating system? No one uses a rating system anymore... All they have is model numbers now. Higher number (within the same family) = faster.

 

[digitalwanderer]

And more letters = gooder, right? :|

 

[DJ12]

The price is really good, $235 for the highest spec.

Shame it won't translate to sterling though.

Does anyone know of an American company that will ship to Europe at reasonable prices?

 

[BRiT]

Not too bad of a price for AMD's top notch, but I think most people would rather have the $200 Intel Q6600 CPU, even if its an older model.

 

[Aquineas]

The 9850 BE is available on Newegg for $243.

 

[Aquineas]

I'm really torn on this. I know it doesn't match the gauntlet thrown down by Intel, and Core 2 is better, faster, uses less power, etc. Unfortunately I remember how arrogant Intel was when they didn't have real competition. Remember the FDIV floating point bug? Intel initially made you prove you were affected before they would replace their broken chips. I remember paying upwards of $800 for chips that weren't even top-of-the-line in that era.

By the same token, in a sense AMD made their own bed, and I've been frustrated with them for a while. I just want it to turn back into a one-horse race, because when that happens, we all get screwed.

I'll probably just bite the bullet and buy a Phenom when the 45nm parts are released, that way they're at least competitive on a power front.

 

[AlphaWolf]

Not too bad of a price for AMD's top notch, but I think most people would rather have the $200 Intel Q6600 CPU, even if its an older model.

The q6600 isn't a lot less than the 9850 BE phenom should be (~235-250) at places I've looked. Where are you seeing q6600's for $200? It also seems that the MB are also a bit cheaper in favor of AMD, so I'm not sure I could build a q6600 system for less money than a phenom 9850 system the performance where I'd care seems similar.

 

[BRiT]

The local computer store, MicroCenter. They've had the Q6600 at $200 for close to two months now.

As for motherboards, there seems to be two models falling below a hundred dollars, sometimes around seventy, the Abit IP35-E (NewEgg, Buy.com)and a Gigabyte model.

 

[AlphaWolf]

The local computer store, MicroCenter. They've had the Q6600 at $200 for close to two months now.

Well your local computer store is selling them for $30-60 less than most e-tailers, tell me when they get the phenom 9850 in for $200 maybe I can order one from there.

http://www.pricewatch.com/microprocessors/core_2_quad_q6600.htm

Lowest price $228.

 

[BRiT]

Yeah, they've changed over quite a bit. They used to be more expensive than anywhere else, but something changed. Now they state "Visit us on Tuesday and Friday mornings when we make sure our CPU prices beat other leading online retailers. Check our pricing NOW!**"

 

[AlphaWolf]

Yeah, they've changed over quite a bit. They used to be more expensive than anywhere else, but something changed. Now they state "Visit us on Tuesday and Friday mornings when we make sure our CPU prices beat other leading online retailers. Check our pricing NOW!**"

Well you can't buy that q6600 from the website, so I have to wonder if its not a false advertisement hoping to suck people into going to their store, only to hear, sorry sold out.