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Phenom II X4 vs FX 6100

Cloud121
Level 7
So I'm finally retiring my five year old Intel QX6700 build and building something new.

I'm going AMD and my mind is set. There's nothing changing that. Just wanted to get that out of the way.


Anyway, here's my dilemma. I bought the FX-6100 chip yesterday on Amazon as it was on sale for $118. Today I log on Amazon to check on the shipment, and there on the front page it shows a Phenom II X4 965 for $98. I'm very tempted to return the FX and pick up the older Phenom as it's cheaper, and I hear it's a better gaming chip. Though the 6100 has a larger overall cache (14MB vs 8MB) and less power consumption (95w vs 125w). Does the Phenom II run cooler?

Here's my planned build so far (Some items aren't released yet, and am waiting on them):

CM Storm Scout II (Unreleased)
Crosshair V Formula-Z (Unreleased)
PC Power and Cooling Silencer MkII 950watt PSU (Already purchased)
Kingston HyperX/G.Skill Ripjaws X/Corsair Vengeance 8GB PC-12800 1600mhz RAM (Undecided)
nVidia GeForce GTX 570 (Carry over from old build)
128GB Crucial SSD (Boot drive)
1 TB Western Digital Caviar Black (Game Drive)
2 TB Western Digital Caviar Green (Storage Drive)


I want to SLI my 570, and I want to know if the Phenom 965 and/or FX-6100 will bottleneck it? Also, even though the motherboard supports it, will the Phenom play well with the PC-12800 RAM, or will I have to go PC-10600?


Also, the reason for potentially putting the old Phenom in the new Formula Z is due to wanting to upgrade to Piledriver, Steamroller, or Excavator eventually (If the latter two still suport AM3+).
ASUS Maximus V Gene
Intel i5 2500k @ 4.0 Ghz
EVGA GeForce GTX 570 Superclocked
Corsair Vengeance 8GB RAM (Low Profile)
Samsung 830 120GB SSD (Boot/Master)
Western Digital Caviar Blue 1 TB (Gaming)
Western Digital Caviar Green 2 TB (Storage)
Cooler Master HAF 912
Microsoft Sidewinder X4 Keyboard
CM Storm Xornet
Microsoft Sidewinder USB
Logitech F310
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