AMD Socket A, Athlon XP Thoroughbred 2600+ MMX....(2.1 GHz).... ...!

One of the oldest Micro-Processors in the whole history of Micro-Processors...

...and it runs my FS '98, FS 2000, FS 2002, FS2004, and FSX wonderfully!... ...!

(It just gets a little bit warm, now and again)... ...!

Paul.... ... .... ...!

For FSX you're going to want the fastest Phenom II x4 (QUAD CORE) you can get.

If you're doing a new build.. I'd still advise Intel..

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People seem to have this weird misconception that Intel does not have cheap processors. They do. It just depends on what kind of product you are after. FSX loves quad cores. Therefore, if you're looking for a really cheap quadcore then AMD is the way to go. The Phenom II x4 940 is practically unbeatable in that regard. If we up the ante, the slowest Intel quad core (Core i5 750) is just as good as competition from AMD (Phenom II x4 955 / 965) for a similar price. The i5 750 also puts out less heat, and overclocks further than competition from AMD. If you're looking for premium performance then the only product that can give that is Core i7. Which product is the best for you? It depends on your price and your required performance level. It would be stupid to recommend a Core i7 960 to someone who needs a quad core yet has a budget of $140 where a Phenom II 945 would be a far better option. Likewise, it would be stupid to recommend a Phenom II 940 to someone who needs a Core i7 930. Consider all options.

I don't like it when people advice one computer manufacturer over another without taking into account the performance requested and price range. There are plenty of great AMD processors, and great Intel processors....

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No processor should EVER have heat problems on stock cooling. In my experience stock coolers are garbage for overclocking, but have considerable margin at stock speeds. When you hear about overheating it's always due to dust, improper heatsink installation, and improper overclocks. I had an old Pentium 4 Dell that was overheating. It was due to faulty heatsink supplied by DELL.

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What are your idle temperatures on an 80F day?

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So? The drivers on the intel website are not difficult to find. Windows 7 downloads them automatically.

No current Intel processor uses pins. They're on the motherboard...

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Not sure what you mean? I've never had a CPU die on me. It's generally other components that go first. The processor I have at the moment has a reputation of being practically indestructible.

NNNG what I ment in my comments were the fact that the best intel cpus are expensive, when a almost equal match (in terms of CPU speed in Ghz) is the same or better. Now intel from what I seen beats AMD in all of those other categorizes like cache and stuff.
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After rereading my comment about heat, I do agree with you on that,
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Idle temps are 20 C-23
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I have XP, so it is more convenient  for me(I know it is not really a plus to if you buy it or not)


And the speed vs toughness(could also use durability), I ment AMD may have faster CPUs , BUT Intel has a CPU that can take loads and loads of work from things like OCing.
But like I said before, it all depends on what you like.
Personally I like AMD because of I had them since my first personal desktop, and the fact that their customer support is great and asked no questions on if I OCed my CPU or what when I had to get a replacement.

The 955 is easy to over clock, just change the multiplier to X18 and it will run at 3.6 Ghs happily on stock heatsink, then try X18.5 that will get you 3.7 Ghz and make sure it is the C3 ver identified by the part number
     HDZ955FBK4DGM or on the box
     HDZ955FBGMBOX.
It wil go higher but that requiers some fiddling

Just checked and my CPU temp reader is 10 off from BIOS.
So I am running at an average of 35-40 on idle, and maybe 40-45 on FSX load.I ensure my case is not over heating, I have dealt with that before...
And about price, i7s may preform like that, but that is a pretty heavy price tag.(and ya you get what you pay for)  But, if you look on both ends, getting the best line CPU will cost about the same in the end, but, AMD has a lot of in bewteen lines.(not sure about Intel, don't check on them that much)
And plus I know more about AMD than I do about Intel.

Now if I had the money I would switch to Intel, or when I build my next build if they are cheaper than now I might go to them, seeing a good amount of people know about them.



Now if I was given this for free
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115212

I would sure switch in a nanosecond.

If given normal I7 probably in a a week when a new board would come to me

LGA775 processors are still fantastic as they can keep up with the Core i5 750 relatively well, and the Phenom II relatively well also, but for a number of reasons I would discourage buying one new. They are legacy products, many of which have been discontinued, most motherboards support discontinued (or rare and expensive) DDR2, and LGA775 is also extremely expensive. An AMD Phenom II x4 940 Black Edition 3.0ghz will perform just like a Q9550, but costs half as much as a Q9550, or $128 (newegg), but uses a socket that's still in production, it uses both DDR2 and DDR3, and has unlocked multiplier so it should clock to 3.8ghz very easily by simply changing one number in BIOS and increasing voltage. i5 750 will be faster than Q9550 but costs $200, as will the i7 860 for $280. For $310 you can get an AMD 1090T 6 core 3.2ghz with turbo to 3.6ghz and can usually overclock to 4ghz on air. I can't see why anyone would purchase LGA775 at this moment in time, because the i5 750, i7, & Phenom II murder it in terms of value, with twice the performance per dollar for the Phenom II 940 BE.

The only thing I like about LGA775 in terms of value is the fact that enthusiasts have ditched them and you can buy used Q6600's for cheaper than new a Phenom II. I could buy a Core 2 Quad overclockable to 3.6ghz, 4 gigabytes of RAM, a motherboard, and a nice 8800GT 512, all for $300 if I bought off used components from the net. If you're not doing that, I just don't see the point in going LGA775 instead of Phenom II or i5 750.

The advantage an i5 has over it is that it's almost $100 cheaper, uses a socket that will continue to be supported for years, uses DDR3, runs cooler, and overclocks further. I've seen plenty of people take the i5 750 from 2.66ghz (where it will be as fast as a 3.4ghz Phenom II, or 3.0ghz Core 2 Quad) to 3.8ghz (where it murders everything) on a cheap Coolermaster 212+ cooler, and a cheap Gigabyte P55 board. At them speeds it would be about 20% faster than a Q9550 at 3.6ghz yet 80$ cheaper. Of course, there no reason to upgrade a Q9550 to an i7, in my opinion. But for new processors, the difference is clear.

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Well honestly I don't see the point in getting any LGA775 CPU because AM3 & LGA1156 is a significantly better deal. The only circumstances where it would be worth it in my opinion, is if they components are used. Good luck finding a second hand Q9550, all the power in the world if you can get them second hand. The Q6600 is a processor that can be found extremely cheap yet with a mild overclock it will keep up with the Core i5 (at stock) and the Phenom II (at stock).

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Clock for clock the Q6000 is not significantly far from the Q9000 series, cache inclusive. Q6000 @ 3.0ghz is marginally faster than Q9000 at 2.83ghz. Clock your Q9550 down to 3.4ghz and you essentially will be getting the performance of a Q6600 @ 3.6. Kentsfield has 8mb of cache, compared to 12mb of cache for Yorkfield, 6mb of cache for Yorkfield-6M, and 8mb of Core i5. No the Q6600 isn't as good as the Q9550 obviously, but it's massively cheaper used. Actually I would recommend all used Core 2 Quads', just i've never seen a Q9xxx series for sale used at an acceptable price. That's my opinion, as I'm sure not many people want to buy used processors.

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There's a reason the Core i7 860 is $280. The Q9550 doesn't approach that level of performance, it, at best, is on par with a higher end Phenom II found for half the price. Over a year ago the picture was far different. LGA1156 didn't exist, the Core i7 was expensive, and the original Phenom was terrible, Phenom II was expensive, and DDR3 was more expensive. It's not the LGA775 is unacceptable performance wise, it's just that if someone is going to buy something it doesn't make sense sticking with a socket from the Pentium 4 era that will probably be EOL by the end of the year.

Lucky you live in the US, I have had great difficulty acquiring DDR2 RAM and LGA775 motherboards here in Australia. They're generally at massively inflated prices.

http://www.behardware.com/articles/778-14/giant-roundup-146-intel-and-amd-proces...

Q9550 on average is slower than Phenom II 965 and Core i5 750. Of course, it's possible for that to change in FSX, but I haven't seen any in depth FSX benchmarks.

For the sake of mis-information avoidance..   let me clarify 


If someone were building an FSX computer on a budget.. I would NOT  advise them to get a Q9550 over an i7-920. The i7-920 is THE choice for budget computers

I'm just saying that to get reasonable performance gain over a Q9550.. you have to get into the 'i' CPUs in the $600 range 

Still hoping to avoid flaming.. if a $280 CPU is over a person's budget for building an FSX computer.. well.. you know    And the current stock of AMD processors are second-tier to the current Intel CPUs.. even dollar-for-dollar.

kinda of lost... so ultimately seeing as I can only use AMD's in my mobo will the phenom II 965 (which is at the limit of what I'm willing to pay) be able to run FSX at a good rate?

Thanks

Look at my signature.

In case someone has a socket 939 dual core Athlon 64 X2 to spare (any model will do, up to the 4800+, as long as it's 939) please drop me a message, thanks!

hhomebrewer wrote on May 26^th, 2010 at 1:15am:


Is it new?
Where did you get it from?
What motherboard do you have?

1. Reset CMOS.


2. Trying updating BIOS to the newest one applicable to your board revision.

Newer BIOS should be on Gigabyte website, but remember to scroll down and read the warnings.

Well I found this board online http://www.gigabyte.us/Products/Motherboard/Products_Overview.aspx?ProductID=253...
I think it is yours. Correct me if I am wrong.
You should be able to run it


***Supports next generation of 45nm AMD AM3 CPU
This motherboard designs with Split Power Plane, 3+1 phase VRM to support AMD the latest 45nm AM3 Phenom™II series processors, delivering the great performance enchantment to system and ultimate scalability hardware expending.
*Note: If you install AMD AM3/AM2+ CPU on AM2 motherbord, the system bus speed will downgrade from HT3.0(5200MHz) to HT1.0(2000 MT/s) spec; however, the frequency of AM3/AM2+ CPU will not be impacted. Please refer "CPU Support List" for more information. ***
Taken from their website
and the 940 Deneb is on their support list.

So do what NNNG said and see if that may work. At least now we know it should work on your mobo.

Speccy (a "What's in your system?" tell-all program) says my chipset revision is A2 and the southbridge revision is A3...

My computer guru came over, we flashed the BIOS and it never went beyond "Verifying DMI Pool Data." In essence, we lost the motherboard. It will not boot. I understand a BIOS flash is permanent, so we ordered a new Asus motherboard. I have an M3N72-D on the way. It will use my RAM, my two video cards and the X4 940 chip. It was time for the old Gigabyte to byte the bullet, anyway. The 9500 was a good chip in its day, but it's slow now and there are others that do more for less money. Moral of the story: There are few computer problems that cannot be solved by a board and chip upgrade-- and the suitable application of money...

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=42444...