Llano in the house... (as Charged :-) )

[S1nn3r]

S1nn3r,

Even though I have done exactly what you are planning to do already, it doesn't make much sense really. Take it from our experiences, but the BEST you will possibly do with any unlocked LLano or Athlon II derivative is about 3.6GHz stable on air. That is about slightly worse (-5%) performance, than a STOCK PHENOM II 975. Most of the hyped up LLano CPU-Z shots are either from a bios bug or the MSI Boost Mode crap and are not real. The only way you are hitting higher than 3.8-4GHz is on water/subzero/coldair for bench runs. LLanos don't OC well at all, nor were they ever meant to be a high end performance platform.

The only thing you gain from running a Llano without graphics is novelty.... I ran my 3670k with a GTX480 for s and giggles, but obviously I would have gotten less bottleneck with a Phenom II or Intel setup. If you are on the cheapest budget imaginable, even a Celeron G530 Sandy + h55 board will blow away a 3.6GHz Llano in gaming scenarios. That setup can be bought in the US for about $80.

FM1 is EOL. There are far better options out there for what it is you are trying to do. LLano desktop is a valid route for everyday use + light gaming or HTPC duty, but are not for a performance platform. Best you are going to get is Phenom II - 975 stock level performance.... trust me

AM3+ probably makes more sense at this stage but what has clouded the issue is im finding it a little easier to find a well priced full ATX FM1 board with a nice layout (for dual slot video cards without blocking SATA etc) and SATA 3/USB 3.0 then it is a full ATX 760/970 AM3+ budget board with the same. Wish FM1 wasnt EOL and OCed a little better, then it would be a perfect low budget no brainer platform..

And dont get me started on trying to find the same on the budget intel side of things.. its all mATX over there for budget which is a pain in the ass. Also since I managed to get that Samsung Green for a good price getting a G840 set up would waste it and that would make me sad.

*Budget = around £50

My AM3+ situation is over here - http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...oard-for-Dozer