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.
