Upgrade stock Phenom II 710 to 1090T?

[ET3D]

I have a Phenom II 710 in my PC which has only 3 cores (couldn't unlock a 4th) and is running at stock speed (I'm not much of an overclocker and my limited attempts failed to gain any significant speed). The PC has an AM2+ motherboard (Gigabyte GA-MA790X-UD4).

Recently I encountered some cases where the 710 was just too little for me. I'm working from home and was running simulations which are single core but sometimes I ran more than one at a time. I got to where my PC slowed down (because all cores were at 100%), and I could also use a faster single core speed so they finish faster. While my usage has changed somewhat in recent weeks (more remote work instead of local), I still think it's worth getting an upgrade.

I was hoping that the Phenom II X6 1090T will drop in price once Bulldozer appears, but since that got postponed, and I have someone to bring me the CPU from the US if I order right now, I thought it might be a good opportunity (especially since my birthday is coming up next month). $180 is a little more than I hoped to pay, but not really that bad.

Still, I'd like to get some opinions about this.

The benefits I see:

- Compatible with my current PC, no need to upgrade anything else, saving money and time.
- Double the cores, which is good for when I need that.
- Higher core speed: 3.2GHz (3.6GHz with turbo) vs. 2.6GHz.
- Black Edition, so easy to overclock if I want it.
- Will cost less than the 710 cost me two years ago if I buy it in the US.

Down sides:

- Old CPU tech, slower than Intel's or the upcoming Bulldozer.
- It will be harder to make an excuse for a new PC any time soon, especially to my wife.

What do you think?

[Joshua_Mahr]

If it was me the second down side (- It will be harder to make an excuse for a new PC any time soon, especially to my wife.) would make me say no. Wait for bulldozer then upgrade. But 190.00 is a good price to more than double your CPU power.

[ET3D]

Thanks for the reply.

Problem is the difference is probably between buying a new PC a year from now, or buying a CPU now and a PC two years down the road. If I go for the first I'll have my new PC a year earlier, but will be stuck with my current CPU for another year.

Thinking about this, I'm leaning more towards buying now, simply because what will mainly benefit from this is work, since I mainly use my PC mainly for work and most of the other stuff I do is web browsing, which doesn't require much. When I do game occasionally I haven't yet felt that the CPU is holding me back. A year from now I don't know what I'll do for work, so while a new PC will certainly help my technology fix, it might not really be as useful as a new CPU now.

[Blacksmith1]

Bang for your $ is the 6 core now. this should keep your system functional tech wise till your next upgrade. you said it yourself. work is the primary concern, and gaming is keeping up already.
I am thinking about the same upgrade myself. my 9500 x4 to an x6. heck to be honest i'd be happy to go up to a 965 x4 for the speed boost.

[James86]

I'd say go with it then when you need to upgrade next you'll just havt to buy a AM3+ board and some DDR3. and you can just pop the X6 right in.

[ET3D]

Thanks, guys. I ordered it. At first I ordered from Circuit City through Amazon, but then I noticed (luckily) that if I order from Amazon directly I get a $20 Amazon gift card for free, so I canceled and re-ordered. Cost me $190 including two day shipping ($170 if I count the $20 card as a discount).

By the way thanks guys you're great. I posted this on two other forums and got no reply yet.

[Joshua_Mahr]

We do try. Let us know how you like the 1100 once your up and running. And you know how we are here so some ppd numbers would be wonderful.

[Cody_Irwin]

Ill still never goto amd! But btw, that price isnt half bad for one atm.

[ET3D]

I sure will give folding a try, Joshua, and post my results. I probably won't make as much use of folding on that as I could, since I don't run the PC 24/7 anyway, and folding with all cores will negate any turbo the chip could give me for my own needs, but there's nothing like a good CPU for that final stretch of a Bjorn3D competition. :)

I already did some digging, and discovered that a passkey would help my scores, so got one and added a two core SMP to my already folding GPU, to get these 10 initial WU's more quickly. Still waiting for the PPD estimate on that.


Cody, it was only chance that made me get a Phenom 710 and not a Core i5. I had AMD CPU's previously, but was waiting for the i5 to be released. Then a failing motherboard fan started annoying me, and, well I don't remember what else, I just felt that I needed to buy something right then. The new three core Phenom II CPU's seemed like good value for money based on reviews, so I decided to buy one (and unfortunately availability issues here in Israel made me get the 710 and not 720BE). I might have been happier with a Core i5, but the Phenom served me well until recently.

Next time I buy a CPU, who knows. I don't have that much trust in AMD being able to top Intel, but it still manages to release good value for money CPU's, and I've used AMD CPU's since I left the Pentium 3 behind. Even my Pentium M subnotebook has been replaced with an (unfortunately slightly bigger and heavier) E-350 based one. So I'm all AMD now for CPU's and GPU's. Maybe next time will be time for a change.

[Joshua_Mahr]

Glad to hear ET. Good call on the passkey!

[ET3D]

I never looked into this before because it belongs to the "game" aspect of folding. I mean, if you just contribute processing power for helping research, getting bonus points doesn't mean you're doing more for man kind. Still, the game aspect is what folding communities are about, so if I'm getting a powerful CPU I might as well get in on the game.

[Blacksmith1]

Hell yeah!!! that's the spirt!

[Joshua_Mahr]

Glad to hear ET.

[ET3D]

Turns out I will have to wait another two weeks for the CPU. No big deal, and it should still be here for my birthday.

[James86]

Just found this thread on another forum
He's getting 12k per day on just the CPU

Greetings all!
Just looking for some general advice/input on my current folding. Here is what I am folding with:
Gigabyte 785MB
1090 T
8GB ram
Radeon 6850
Air cooled Hyper 212 @ 49 degrees C
This is my main computer. I use it everyday for web surfing, email, Office, streaming radio and stock quotes.
It is running the Tracker v2 software.
I was previously running the smp and the GPU. The smp was typically getting about 4k PPD. The GPU was around 2500 PPD. I had read on another thread that you may get more points by running w/o the GPU, since it is an AMD card. I went into the Tracker software and disabled GPU folding. Now my PPD has gone to 12-14k. It varies depending on what other apps I have running at the time.
At the same time I disabled the GPU, I installed the AMD OverDrive software. The 1090 runs stock at 3.2. I have it running at 3.7 @ 49C
See attached screen shot for some additional info.http://i1097.photobucket.com/albums/g355/robintrade/FH_01.jpg (http://i1097.photobucket.com/albums/g355/robintrade/FH_01.jpg)

[ET3D]

Thanks. I was planning to use AMD OverDrive to see what overclock I can get. I have it installed now, but found it pretty useless with my current CPU. The 1090T has an unlocked multiplier so it should be easier to overclock, and I'm looking forward to trying the new version of the software. 3.7GHz actually sounds a tad low compared to what I've read elsewhere. Though I'm sure I won't leave it overclocked, at least not in summer.