Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Phenom II - great value and performance, March 2, 2009
I bought the Phenom II 940 black edition instead of Intel's I7 primarily because I could get much of the same performance (not all) but for much less.
The Phenom II was easy to overclock and squeeze another 15% performance out of also.
Lastly, because I already had an AM2+ socket motherboard I didn't have to go out and buy either a new motherboard OR new DDR3 memory which would have been the case in going with Intel.
My primary reasoning is that its doubtful I'll regularly utilize even 75-80% of the Quad processing power of this CPU so it is enough for me and overall a great value.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best value of all current processors, July 21, 2009
I recently used this processor in my first "scratch" built computer. I did a lot of research and finally decided on this one for the following reasons:
-Benchmarks aren't a true indicator of any performance gain in "real use". Therefore, the Intel Core i7 will cost you generally about $150-200 more to build but only have similar real world performance. I drove myself nuts for several days trying to compare everything based on benchmarks only to find that most benchmark reviews will also tell you they don't necessarily indicate a true performance comparison between processors.
-This processor hits the sweet spot of the cost/performance equation. You could go up to the AMD 955, however you'll need to get an AM3 socket motherboard, most of which require the DDR3 ram. Again, you'll spend about $50-100 more doing this, but get only a minor performance increase. Stepping down to the lower AMD processors will save you a bit of money, but you will take a small performance hit. Therefore, this processor sits right in the middle and is a perfect fit for most uses.
-This retail version comes with a nice heatsink with the thermal compound already applied. This is great for novice system builders, or upgraders who don't have the confidence (or money) to spend on all these extras.
-This is an AM2+ socket motherboard compatible. Therefore, you could decide to spend a bit more on your motherboard and get one that's AM3/AM2+ compatible and you'll be somewhat future proof for a couple years. Many motherboards also offer easy "overclocking" features. While overclocking could void your warranty or cause the processor to fail early if done improperly, the "black edition" means that AMD opens up the overclocking settings to be used by your motherboard. Therefore, even if you're not a gamer or a performance hound, you can dabble with these settings if you feel you want to squeeze some extra performance out of your processor instead of buying a new one. Overclocking is never a guarantee, and is somewhat variable in results from one processor to the next, even in the same model. So while some people might get this thing up to 3.7GHz on their system, it's not a guarantee that you will. Still, though, it's nice to have these features unlocked to be able to use them if you want to.
Overall, if you need the highest performance, you may want to opt for the 955 or a core i7; if you want good performance but want something more than just a dual-core processor you could save a bit of money going for the 810 or 720. But for most people who like to dabble with video editing, picture editing, maybe gearing up for watching blu-ray or other high def content then this processor is a perfect fit.
Here's my system specs for reference:
AMD Phenom IIX4 940
Biostar TA790GXB A2+ motherboard
4GB G.Skill PC1066 RAM
Sapphire ATI HD4650 1GB GDDR2 graphics
I love this computer, and am currently running Vista Home Premium with the full Aero and visual effects enabled. It can boot in about 1 minute and there's never really any lag in performance during normal use. Obviously, I'm not a gamer, but still have the ability to play most games as well. I was able to build this system (including buying Vista, case, power supply and hard drive) for around $600. All thanks to the 940!
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Phenom II 940 , April 8, 2009
Huge improvement over my Athlon 64X2 5000+ BE, noticed a good improvement in games.
My system,
Phenom II 940 BE
Gigabyte GA-MA770-DS3 rev 1
4GB of Kingston HyperX 800mhz @ 4.4.4.12 (Will be upgrading to Corsair Dominator PC8500 soon)
HIS Radeon HD4870 Turbo
Sound Blaster Audigy
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