Lima Zulu, on 23 May 2012 - 11:27 PM, said:
I see the same 120W in specs for Phenom I and Phenom II, but want to be sure. My PC case doesn't allow me to use really big cooler, so I have 50C in idle mode.
I ran a Phenom II 940 Black x4 for a long time and it did fine on temps. It's mostly about what cooler you have and what case you have. Proper airflow makes a /major/ difference even with stock cooler.
That said the Phenom II's are /still/ quite capable processors. Will they beat an I3-2100, I5-2400 or I7-2600? No, but they don't need to either. In the TOR Beta I was running a 480 GTX with my Phenom II and it handled everything like a champ, 100+ fps average etc.
The biggest difference I've seen with my I7-2600K is that when FPS does dip (And it will with any CPU/Video Card) the hit is less noticeable. So if you can slot a Phenom II x4 965 Black or better, go for it, money well spent imho even still.
Oh yeah and it worked decently well for Photoshop and such etc as well. The AMD processors are very good performers for the money, it's only E-Peen really or heavy 3D Rendering where it makes a large difference.



















