Frys B&M: I5 661 + Biostar H55 matx $175, $160 AR

pxc said:
Good deal, but it's still just a (very fast) dual core processor.

The Phenom II 945 combo for $140AR is a slightly better deal IMO. http://ads.ocregister.com/interactive-ads/ocr/images/pdf/0009249525-01.pdf

items and prices at 'egg:
Mobo
CPU

The 661 is faster in most gaming and Photoshop, but the X4 945 is faster in almost everything else.
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I almost bought both yesterday, the i5 is going to use a ton less power than the X4 945 (at least my i5's use way less than my X4 BE chips) and you can overclock it with the retail HSF which saves some money if you are OK with that. With the i5 k (unlocked multiplier) and things like the i5-680 out, the i5-661 is probably not the most optimal CPU.
 
pjkenned said:
(at least my i5's use way less than my X4 BE chips)
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That''s a good reason if you leave the system on for many hours a day. TR shows that the 945 system uses 80W more from the wall under load and 50W more from the wall at idle than he i5-661. Kind of a big difference from just an 8W TDP difference. ;)

Depending on your cost of energy, the $20 difference in price could buy you 4000 hours of the difference in idle power consumption at $0.10/KW-Hr (50W x 4000 hours x 1KW/1000W x $0.10/Kw-Hr = $20). :p 4000 hours is about 11 hours per day for a whole year.
 
Yea... most people aren't going to care about that, even starving college students.

They're both pretty good combos and both OC well with the stock HSF's believe it or not. I'd probably lean towards the AMD system since the integrated graphics are somewhat better than the Intel IGP and its $20 cheaper AR, but that is getting nitpicky.

Flip a coin, you'll be happy either which way.
 
pxc said:
That''s a good reason if you leave the system on for many hours a day.
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Who reboots these days except for Windows updates and people with notebooks?

BTW the TDP for the 32nm Intel chips includes GPU... so you are really comparing 8w more for just the AMD CPU versus the Intel CPU and GPU (which consumes much more power on the i5-661 btw because of the higher clocks). Also, the difference is pretty big since I couldn't boot (at stock clocks/ voltages) a Phenom II X4 955 BE + onboard NVIDIA GPU + memory + SSD off a PicoPSU 150XT due to boot up power needs. Same PSU can power a Xeon X3460 + 4 unregistered ECC DIMMs, 2x Intel SSDs, and a Supermicro X8SIL-F motherboard with BMC + onboard video.

Remember, 32nm Clarkdale is lower idle power than the N330 atom + ION (not even first gen 945GC which had huge power consumption). Pretty wild for a CPU that fast that doesn't heat up a room in summer.

Either combo is pretty good though.
 
pjkenned said:
Who reboots these days except for Windows updates and people with notebooks?
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Rebooting is not necessary. S3 sleep works pretty well. If you're not using your computer, why not leave it in a state where it wakes up in 1-2 seconds? (I turn off hybrid sleep since I have UPSs.) The power difference I see is like 4-6W for sleep vs 140-200W idle (excluding monitors) for my desktops. Since it's the summer in the N hemisphere, add in extra AC on top of that for leaving it idle and using that much power.
 
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