Need help deciding between Athlon II X4 620 and i5
 

So I am thinking of an early Xmas upgrade and was going to with the i5-750 but now it seems that the 620 provides the best bang for buck. 4 cores for 90 bucks. What's not to like? So a few questions:

1. The i5 does not have any memory bottlenecks resulting in a slow-down with 4 cores running LLs. Does anyone have experience with the X4 620? If there is a slowdown, how bad is it?

2. I've been looking at el cheapo ones with integrated video. I understand that a lot of the newer integrated video mobos have an actual graphics card as opposed to a "integrated graphics controller" and would thus not cause a slow-down compared to running video card. Is this correct?

3. Any recommendations on a motherboard that will allow a small overclock. I'm thinking 2.66->3.00 or thereabouts. I've looked at the Asus M2N68-AM, M3N78-AM/VM and M4N78-AM/VM and M4A78-VM. A bit confused with all these options/ Also looked at GA-MA770-UD3 but that does not have graphics.

4 All of these are DDR2 mobos. Would CL4 PC2-6400 be sufficient? Or should I go for something like [URL="http://www.memoryc.com/products/description/4GB_G_Skill_DDR2_PC2_9600_Ripjaw_Series-6_6_6-Dual_Channel_kit/index.html"]4GB G.Skill DDR2 PC2-9600 Ripjaw Series (6-6-6) Dual Channel kit[/URL] to keep the 4 cores fed?

I will use this as the main desktop at home running prime95 but no games.

In the same game here. Looking at the i5.
Your note prompts a couple questions of my own:
1. If a MB does not have integrated video do I have to get a separate video card? Sorry if this sounds like a dumb question
2. You mention DDR2 yet most systems / bundles on NewEgg recommend or include DDR3. I had assumed it was better suited for i5/i7. Should I stick with DDR2 for performance or is it just still cheaper?

1. Yes.
2. I was referring to mobos for the Athlon II. i5 systems will do better with DDR3 - I think. At least most Intel mobos support DDR3.

Garo,

As you are not running games, and Prime95 is surely high on your priorities :whistle:, I would recommend the Core i5 on a GA-P55M-UD2, and 4 or 8 Gb of DDR3-1600. Granted, the mobo doesn´t have integrated video, but it has PCI slots, and you´ll for sure find in your scrapbox an old video card that will suit your needs. The mobo is a great bang for the buck, excellent overclocker, very reasonable power consumption, overall good build quality. As for the i5, well, it´s currently the dream CPU for GIMPSters on a budget.

But does it beat the X4 620 for bang for buck? Where I am, it is almost half the price of the i5.

[quote=garo;194868]But does it beat the X4 620 for bang for buck? Where I am, it is almost half the price of the i5.[/quote]
benchmark wise i found my Athlon II 620 x4 performed similar to my Q6600 except maybe faster for trial factoring
this was with DDR3 memory

Did you run four LLs at the same time? Was there a performance hit as opposed to running one LL/three TFs? Two of each? 3/1?
Thanks!

I can´t directly answer your question, for I haven´t made any tests.
But have a look at the following article:
[URL]http://www.techspot.com/review/197-amd-athlon2-x4-620/page3.html[/URL]
[CENTER]It is at least a clear indication that the mem bandwith of the i5 is superior.[/CENTER]
[LEFT]Taking also into account some results posted in this forum for a single worker window, (~45 to 50 ms/iter on the i5 compared to ~64ms on the AthlonII, both with 2560K FFTs and at stock speeds) I think that for GIMPS purposes the i5 is a better choice, as the performance gap already showing up in the one worker test, will certainly widen as the number of workers increase, due to the better mem bw of the i5. Consider also the better OCing capabilities of the i5: some tests have shown the X4 620 having difficulty to go above 3,2G whereas the i5 ramps up easily to 3,7-3,8.[/LEFT]

Thanks. It seems that at stock the 620 is about 25% slower. I would really like to see a 4 LL benchmark. If there is no slow down, I can probably live with it. But if not, I will go for the i5. Too bad my favourite online retailer here just jacked up their price for the i5.

[quote=garo;194914]Did you run four LLs at the same time? Was there a performance hit as opposed to running one LL/three TFs? Two of each? 3/1?
Thanks![/quote]
i havent done that yet
and as that pc has just blown another power supply i cant test

BTW that feature need adding to benchmarks

[QUOTE=lycorn;194863]As you are not running games, and Prime95 is surely high on your priorities :whistle:, I would recommend the Core i5 on a GA-P55M-UD2, and 4 or 8 Gb of DDR3-1600. Granted, the mobo doesn´t have integrated video, but it has PCI slots, and you´ll for sure find in your scrapbox an old video card that will suit your needs. The mobo is a great bang for the buck, excellent overclocker, very reasonable power consumption, overall good build quality. As for the i5, well, it´s currently the dream CPU for GIMPSters on a budget.[/QUOTE]

No games here either .... just primenet...
Would pretty much any cheap, old video card fit (and work)?
Or could I order a cheap one like:
[QUOTE] EVGA GeForce FX 5200 Video Card - 128MB DDR, PCI, DVI, TV Out, Video Card: $39.99 [/QUOTE]