Special thanks to OldJoe on the last build he really helped me out :)

 

After building my first computer, I am helping a friend build one. We are going with a similar build, except I noticed another CPU around the same price. I am having troubles deciding on one though. The processors are:

• My AMD Athlon II X4 630 Propus I used on my build
  
• AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition Callisto

The Phenom is clocked 0.3GHz higher, and the Athlon is missing an L3 cache. The Athlon, however, has 2 more cores. I don't really get what cancels out what in terms of speed, and need help deciding.

 

If it helps, this article shows that the Phenom is faster in some tests, while the Athlon is better in others.

Athlon is the budget range. An Athlon quad performs slower than a Phenom quad due to the cache.

If you think of games, more and more supports multiple cores. But, the Athlon is pretty held back by it's cache. Personally i'd get the Phenom and clock it up, but that's if you know overclocking... Otherwise i probably would recommend the Athlon.

The Athlon is more suited for all round while the Phenom (black edt. is more enthusiast) would be better if you're gaming alot.

Gaming the X3, everything else the X4.

I know that the athlon x4 = phenom x4 - L3

Also why is phenom 550 better than athlon 620 only for gaming? And the other way around for everything else?

 

Side note: We don't plan on OCing or unlocking cores on 550. Sorry if I already said this posting from my phone...

The Athlon is worse for gaming because of the low cache for each core. But you prefer a quad core for normal type of usage because it's quicker (games demand much more than normal every-day application).

If i were you, depending on whether you play games alot or not.. Well, the Phenom if you do but the Athlon otherwise.