Re: [H] AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition Review & Overclocking

2009-02-18 Thread Stan Zaske
Yeah, I'll be sure to tweak it eventually but I need to get more 
edumacated on the new BIOS settings and what they mean. My HT speed is 
running at 1000 which is half what it should be and my NB speed is 1600 
which may or may not be stock.



DHSinclair wrote:

Stan,
So happy that you are happy with your new Phenom 2 X3 720 BE.
Will be interested about stuff that happens in the future; you will 
tweak, of course!


Can not share. I have moved to C2D.  Am happy with how they (3) work 
so far.

Thanks,
Duncan

At 16:58 02/18/2009 -0600, you wrote:
Well, I guess Jim didn't approve of my attachment but that's ok. 
CPU-z v 1.50 says that its a Phenom 2 X3 720 BE but then you look 
further down and the specification string shows Phenom 2 X4 20 Black 
Edition. Notice that it has a "20" instead of "720" and that it says 
"X4". The screen shot I wanted to show has Window's Task Monitor 
showing 4 cores running and Core Temp also shows 4 cores. Either I'm 
dopped up or this particular CPU got past QC without one of the cores 
being neutered. Anybody want to see that Jpeg just PM me and I'll 
send it as I really want to get some feedback on what's happening. 
Thanks!



Stan Zaske wrote:
The 720's finally showed up at the Egg last Thursday and the UPS man 
delivered it a couple hours ago. Being my first Phenom I was 
somewhat confused by the newly unlocked BIOS options on my Biostar 
790GX mobo and it kept spontaneously re-booting when I first fired 
it up. I thought at first it was because I had all four DIMM slots 
filled but it ran fine with my old CPU and then I looked at the VID 
and it was set at 1.14v which is seriously low. I bumped it up to 
the next tic and now its running fine and so far stable. I also 
fiddled with other confusing settings so I'm not 100% that it was 
the low VID that was the problem. Anywho, I wanted ask for any 
body's input about a curious thing that I have been pondering for an 
hour over. I hope I'm not violating list policy by sending an 
attachment and if I am then please accept my apology. Take a look at 
this Jpeg screen capture and tell me what you think of it. Thanks!



Stan Zaske wrote:
Check it out guys, I think this is the best bang for the buck to 
upgrade my old 5400+ BE. :-)


http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/phenom_ii_x3_720be/

*snip*

I think the reason AMD targeted the E8400 is due to the third core, 
the Phenom II X3 720 BE running at 2.8GHz actually outperforms the 
Core 2 Duo E8400 running at 3GHz for rendering; thus supporting 
AMD's marketing strategy that three cores are better than two.


That strategy is absolutely true - if the software can support it. 
If LAME and TMPGEnc had supported more threads, the Phenom II X3 
720 would also have beaten the Core 2 Duo E8400 for them. 
Fortunately, more multi-threaded codecs are becoming available, and 
I will soon look for one for benchmarking purposes.


What the benchmarks don't show you is that with three cores, a 
system will multi-task more smoothly. For example, using a Phenom 
II X3 720 for a small server should result in better web server and 
SQL server performance, as the extra core could be take advantage of.


I think the AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition is a great chip - 
and it is especially good for people who like to tinker and 
overclock, as with a cheap 780G based motherboard and DDR2 you can 
put together a nice fast overclocked system for significantly less 
than it would cost to put together a nicely overclocked E8400 
system. Yes, for some benchmarks the E8400 won - but for some 
others, it was the triple core 720BE that shined.







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http://www.eset.com








Re: [H] AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition Review & Overclocking

2009-02-18 Thread DHSinclair

Stan,
So happy that you are happy with your new Phenom 2 X3 720 BE.
Will be interested about stuff that happens in the future; you will tweak, 
of course!


Can not share. I have moved to C2D.  Am happy with how they (3) work so far.
Thanks,
Duncan

At 16:58 02/18/2009 -0600, you wrote:
Well, I guess Jim didn't approve of my attachment but that's ok. CPU-z v 
1.50 says that its a Phenom 2 X3 720 BE but then you look further down and 
the specification string shows Phenom 2 X4 20 Black Edition. Notice that 
it has a "20" instead of "720" and that it says "X4". The screen shot I 
wanted to show has Window's Task Monitor showing 4 cores running and Core 
Temp also shows 4 cores. Either I'm dopped up or this particular CPU got 
past QC without one of the cores being neutered. Anybody want to see that 
Jpeg just PM me and I'll send it as I really want to get some feedback on 
what's happening. Thanks!



Stan Zaske wrote:
The 720's finally showed up at the Egg last Thursday and the UPS man 
delivered it a couple hours ago. Being my first Phenom I was somewhat 
confused by the newly unlocked BIOS options on my Biostar 790GX mobo and 
it kept spontaneously re-booting when I first fired it up. I thought at 
first it was because I had all four DIMM slots filled but it ran fine 
with my old CPU and then I looked at the VID and it was set at 1.14v 
which is seriously low. I bumped it up to the next tic and now its 
running fine and so far stable. I also fiddled with other confusing 
settings so I'm not 100% that it was the low VID that was the problem. 
Anywho, I wanted ask for any body's input about a curious thing that I 
have been pondering for an hour over. I hope I'm not violating list 
policy by sending an attachment and if I am then please accept my 
apology. Take a look at this Jpeg screen capture and tell me what you 
think of it. Thanks!



Stan Zaske wrote:
Check it out guys, I think this is the best bang for the buck to upgrade 
my old 5400+ BE. :-)


http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/phenom_ii_x3_720be/

*snip*

I think the reason AMD targeted the E8400 is due to the third core, the 
Phenom II X3 720 BE running at 2.8GHz actually outperforms the Core 2 
Duo E8400 running at 3GHz for rendering; thus supporting AMD's marketing 
strategy that three cores are better than two.


That strategy is absolutely true - if the software can support it. If 
LAME and TMPGEnc had supported more threads, the Phenom II X3 720 would 
also have beaten the Core 2 Duo E8400 for them. Fortunately, more 
multi-threaded codecs are becoming available, and I will soon look for 
one for benchmarking purposes.


What the benchmarks don't show you is that with three cores, a system 
will multi-task more smoothly. For example, using a Phenom II X3 720 for 
a small server should result in better web server and SQL server 
performance, as the extra core could be take advantage of.


I think the AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition is a great chip - and it 
is especially good for people who like to tinker and overclock, as with 
a cheap 780G based motherboard and DDR2 you can put together a nice fast 
overclocked system for significantly less than it would cost to put 
together a nicely overclocked E8400 system. Yes, for some benchmarks the 
E8400 won - but for some others, it was the triple core 720BE that shined.







__ NOD32 3866 (20090218) Information __

This message was checked by NOD32 antivirus system.
http://www.eset.com





Re: [H] AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition Review & Overclocking

2009-02-18 Thread Stan Zaske
Well, I guess Jim didn't approve of my attachment but that's ok. CPU-z v 
1.50 says that its a Phenom 2 X3 720 BE but then you look further down 
and the specification string shows Phenom 2 X4 20 Black Edition. Notice 
that it has a "20" instead of "720" and that it says "X4". The screen 
shot I wanted to show has Window's Task Monitor showing 4 cores running 
and Core Temp also shows 4 cores. Either I'm dopped up or this 
particular CPU got past QC without one of the cores being neutered. 
Anybody want to see that Jpeg just PM me and I'll send it as I really 
want to get some feedback on what's happening. Thanks!



Stan Zaske wrote:
The 720's finally showed up at the Egg last Thursday and the UPS man 
delivered it a couple hours ago. Being my first Phenom I was somewhat 
confused by the newly unlocked BIOS options on my Biostar 790GX mobo 
and it kept spontaneously re-booting when I first fired it up. I 
thought at first it was because I had all four DIMM slots filled but 
it ran fine with my old CPU and then I looked at the VID and it was 
set at 1.14v which is seriously low. I bumped it up to the next tic 
and now its running fine and so far stable. I also fiddled with other 
confusing settings so I'm not 100% that it was the low VID that was 
the problem. Anywho, I wanted ask for any body's input about a curious 
thing that I have been pondering for an hour over. I hope I'm not 
violating list policy by sending an attachment and if I am then please 
accept my apology. Take a look at this Jpeg screen capture and tell me 
what you think of it. Thanks!



Stan Zaske wrote:
Check it out guys, I think this is the best bang for the buck to 
upgrade my old 5400+ BE. :-)


http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/phenom_ii_x3_720be/

*snip*

I think the reason AMD targeted the E8400 is due to the third core, 
the Phenom II X3 720 BE running at 2.8GHz actually outperforms the 
Core 2 Duo E8400 running at 3GHz for rendering; thus supporting AMD's 
marketing strategy that three cores are better than two.


That strategy is absolutely true - if the software can support it. If 
LAME and TMPGEnc had supported more threads, the Phenom II X3 720 
would also have beaten the Core 2 Duo E8400 for them. Fortunately, 
more multi-threaded codecs are becoming available, and I will soon 
look for one for benchmarking purposes.


What the benchmarks don't show you is that with three cores, a system 
will multi-task more smoothly. For example, using a Phenom II X3 720 
for a small server should result in better web server and SQL server 
performance, as the extra core could be take advantage of.


I think the AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition is a great chip - and 
it is especially good for people who like to tinker and overclock, as 
with a cheap 780G based motherboard and DDR2 you can put together a 
nice fast overclocked system for significantly less than it would 
cost to put together a nicely overclocked E8400 system. Yes, for some 
benchmarks the E8400 won - but for some others, it was the triple 
core 720BE that shined.










Re: [H] AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition Review & Overclocking

2009-02-18 Thread Al Anger

On Wed, 18 Feb 2009 16:39:29 -0600
Stan Zaske  wrote:

>  hope I'm not violating list 
> policy by sending an attachment 

The server stripped the attachment.


regards,
Al


Re: [H] AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition Review & Overclocking

2009-02-18 Thread Stan Zaske
The 720's finally showed up at the Egg last Thursday and the UPS man 
delivered it a couple hours ago. Being my first Phenom I was somewhat 
confused by the newly unlocked BIOS options on my Biostar 790GX mobo and 
it kept spontaneously re-booting when I first fired it up. I thought at 
first it was because I had all four DIMM slots filled but it ran fine 
with my old CPU and then I looked at the VID and it was set at 1.14v 
which is seriously low. I bumped it up to the next tic and now its 
running fine and so far stable. I also fiddled with other confusing 
settings so I'm not 100% that it was the low VID that was the problem. 
Anywho, I wanted ask for any body's input about a curious thing that I 
have been pondering for an hour over. I hope I'm not violating list 
policy by sending an attachment and if I am then please accept my 
apology. Take a look at this Jpeg screen capture and tell me what you 
think of it. Thanks!



Stan Zaske wrote:
Check it out guys, I think this is the best bang for the buck to 
upgrade my old 5400+ BE. :-)


http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/phenom_ii_x3_720be/

*snip*

I think the reason AMD targeted the E8400 is due to the third core, 
the Phenom II X3 720 BE running at 2.8GHz actually outperforms the 
Core 2 Duo E8400 running at 3GHz for rendering; thus supporting AMD's 
marketing strategy that three cores are better than two.


That strategy is absolutely true - if the software can support it. If 
LAME and TMPGEnc had supported more threads, the Phenom II X3 720 
would also have beaten the Core 2 Duo E8400 for them. Fortunately, 
more multi-threaded codecs are becoming available, and I will soon 
look for one for benchmarking purposes.


What the benchmarks don't show you is that with three cores, a system 
will multi-task more smoothly. For example, using a Phenom II X3 720 
for a small server should result in better web server and SQL server 
performance, as the extra core could be take advantage of.


I think the AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition is a great chip - and 
it is especially good for people who like to tinker and overclock, as 
with a cheap 780G based motherboard and DDR2 you can put together a 
nice fast overclocked system for significantly less than it would cost 
to put together a nicely overclocked E8400 system. Yes, for some 
benchmarks the E8400 won - but for some others, it was the triple core 
720BE that shined.







[H] AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition Review & Overclocking

2009-02-10 Thread Stan Zaske
Check it out guys, I think this is the best bang for the buck to upgrade 
my old 5400+ BE. :-)


http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/phenom_ii_x3_720be/

*snip*

I think the reason AMD targeted the E8400 is due to the third core, the 
Phenom II X3 720 BE running at 2.8GHz actually outperforms the Core 2 
Duo E8400 running at 3GHz for rendering; thus supporting AMD's marketing 
strategy that three cores are better than two.


That strategy is absolutely true - if the software can support it. If 
LAME and TMPGEnc had supported more threads, the Phenom II X3 720 would 
also have beaten the Core 2 Duo E8400 for them. Fortunately, more 
multi-threaded codecs are becoming available, and I will soon look for 
one for benchmarking purposes.


What the benchmarks don't show you is that with three cores, a system 
will multi-task more smoothly. For example, using a Phenom II X3 720 for 
a small server should result in better web server and SQL server 
performance, as the extra core could be take advantage of.


I think the AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition is a great chip - and it 
is especially good for people who like to tinker and overclock, as with 
a cheap 780G based motherboard and DDR2 you can put together a nice fast 
overclocked system for significantly less than it would cost to put 
together a nicely overclocked E8400 system. Yes, for some benchmarks the 
E8400 won - but for some others, it was the triple core 720BE that shined.