Is this compatible with my Computer?

[eximista]

why should he buy a new motherboard? just buy a quad core from amd...-

AMD Phenom II X4 970 Black Edition C3, 3.5 GHz, AM3, ...
half the price... and pretty much as good as i7.

And if you think intel is better because it's expensive - than buy a mac.

hahaha, wait you weren't joking????

The sandy bridge i3's outclass the best AMD desktop CPU, the PII X4 is NOWHERE near an i7.

haha, you think you need an intel CPU to play a game...

No, but they significantly outclass the AMD chips. If I wanted to run my Wii emulator I sure as hell couldn't do it on an average AMD chip.

Besides, the i5/i7 will last for a very long time. What's the point of a Phenom 2 when Bulldozer is on the horizon?

prove me first that an i3 is better than a phenom2 x4
"The sandy bridge i3's outclass the best AMD desktop CPU, the PII X4 is NOWHERE near an i7."

Ok then.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4083/the-sandy-bridge-review-intel-core-i7-2600k-i5-2500k-core-i3-2100-tested/20

I think you will find the i3-2100 (which is the lower end i3 out of both of the i3's) beats the X4 and x6 in 7 out of 9 gaming benchmarks.

it depends... and they tested it with a geforce! :O also it was 970... and not 975!! ^^

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html# overall it's better..

Overall it may be more powerful but for gaming (which is what the OP is focusing on) the i3 is a better choice.

Either way, both are a decent enough choice.

yeah but he want it cheap - no intel CPU + motherboard is cheaper than just an amd CPU...

just for the record - i5-2500K is fine - cheap and very good.

 

[Jaythulhu]

*snippy*

*snip snip*

Pure ghz power means nothing in the age of multicores. I've clocked my i7 up to 4.2ghz, and the difference it makes is so minimal as to be unnoticable in everything but loading some apps like office.

You do realise that most of the functionality that intel put in their chips (now that they've finally gotten over the "more mhz means better chip!" nonsense they were carrying on with) is based on what amd has been doing since before the advent of multi-core cpus? AMD chips may not have the pure grunt of intel ones, but they process things in a far more optimal and efficient way. Overclock them a little, and you're easily outclassing intel chips in gaming, especially with the 3dNow tech. Using a radeon vid card as well just adds icing to a very tasty cake.

That said, with games now being centered around consoles and their ancient tech first, with naught but crappy ports coming to pc, it really doesn't make that much of a difference. The most recent games run just the same on my high end intel/nvidia rig as they do on my significantly older, mid-range amd machine. Hell, my old rig can run crysis in dx10 @ 1920x1080 with the graphics options set to ultra getting an average fps of 41, and it's still the most resource intensive pc game released to date.

[Edit] Oh yeah, an AMD cpu/vid card combo does things like rendering in maya/lightwave far quicker and better than an intel/nvida combo does too.

This...

took 4 hours to render on my intel rig, a little under 2 and a half on my amd rig.

 

[Jaythulhu]

*snippy*

*snip snip*

snip

*sssssssssnip!*

your Wii emulator must be one of those "few apps like office" that I mentioned. Cranking up my i7's ghz didn't make a lick of difference when it came to rendering, and I didn't notice any real improvement in regular pc gaming.

The only emulators I run are an amiga one, a c64 one and mame. They all run fine on celery 300mhzs tho, so I can't really use them as a comparison.

 

[Continuity]

Yes, he should get the AMD due to not needing a new motherboard if he needs to reduce cost as much as possible.

Well that depends what socket he has on his current motherboard, if its an AM3 then fine but all he said was that the CPU is a dualcore AMD chip... those have been around since pentium 4 days so who knows what the socket is (i'm not saying it is an old chip, only that we don't have enough information to rule out it being an old chip).

your Wii emulator must be one of those "few apps like office" that I mentioned. Cranking up my i7's ghz didn't make a lick of difference when it came to rendering, and I didn't notice any real improvement in regular pc gaming.

The only emulators I run are an amiga one, a c64 one and mame. They all run fine on celery 300mhzs tho, so I can't really use them as a comparison.

The main reason I went I7 in my current rig was video encoding... takes hours and an i7 can shave a tangible chunk of time off an encoding job vs an AMD chip. When it comes to games though its 90% about the graphics card, assuming you have a newish processor.

 

[McNoobin]

Yes, he should get the AMD due to not needing a new motherboard if he needs to reduce cost as much as possible.

Well that depends what socket he has on his current motherboard, if its an AM3 then fine but all he said was that the CPU is a dualcore AMD chip... those have been around since pentium 4 days so who knows what the socket is (i'm not saying it is an old chip, only that we don't have enough information to rule out it being an old chip).

I checked the specs and it said only AM2+ processors are supported :/

 

[Hoplon]

The i5-2500K would last him a long time though and overclock very well, it would be the best CPU for the long term.

You would recommend an over-clockable CPU to some one that doesn't know what a socket is?

The best CPU in the world won't be much help if he has a ATi 4650 (since it is an AMD rig)

Hell it may not be even possible to upgrade the CPU in a worth while manner.

So. Questions.

what is the computer running? Windows XP? or something Newer? once we know that we can give instructions for you to get to where the detailed information is about your PC.

 

[McNoobin]

Okay, haha the details are HERE:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01859861&cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en&product=4006002#N210

 

[McNoobin]

Okay, haha the details are HERE:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01859861&cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en&product=4006002#N210

We you have an AM3 socket so any of the phenom 2's should be fine if you don't want to go through the hassle of buying a new motherboard to get an intel chip.

What GPU did you upgrade to?

I put in a GeForce GT 220

 

[Continuity]

Yeah an AM3 processor will be fine in an AM2+ socket. However i do wonder how much of a bottleneck your current CPU really is as its already an AM3... Perhaps the main bottle neck in your system is the graphics card.

That GT 220 is pretty bottom end so far as performance goes, you could probably triple or quadruple your performance in games by just spending a hundred bucks on a new card and forgetting about the processor. (just a guestimate)

A 220 you say? Maybe it would be better so get the cheaper AMD CPU and spend the rest of the cash on a better GPU as the 220 isn't a very powerful card.

I'll wait and see if anyone agrees with me or not.

I agree.

 

[number2301]

I've just looked up your board and it doesn't seem like that one will support AM3 chips so upgrading with your current board is pretty much out of the question.

That means you need a new board, CPU and RAM so you can upgrade to whatever you like/can afford.

An LGA1155 board would give you a lot of options and some future proofing. LGA1155 is the slot on the board, which determines CPU compatibility. All second generation Core processors are LGA1155, so right the way from lowly dual core i3s to the amazing i5 2500k and the overkill i7 2600k. My opinion would be to go for an i5 2500k on a P68 motherboard.

I couldn't recommend an AMD, cause I don't see the point in buying equipment which is already obsolete.

TL;DR Save up for an i5 2500k and a P68 motherboard

EDIT - Just seen some of the above posts, odd. A quick search suggested that it couldn't take an AM3 chip.