New Computer Components.

I'm building a new computer and have this components in mind.
MoBo GA-P55-USB3
Processor i5-760

Is there anything better and cheaper?

Thanks in advance

hehe, I'm not set with Intel.
Your suggestion looks nice

Sorry to say that's just wrong. The Athlon II quad core is a smaller die with no L3 cache whatsoever. You can turn a tri-core 4xx Athlon II into a quad 6xx Athlon II but you can't turn it into a Phenom II. You can't reactivate what's not there to begin with.

However you can turn a tri-core Phenom II into a quad Phenom II.

Personally I like that Intel combo for a single graphics card configuration. While the high end Phenom II quads (965/970) come close in performance to the i5-760, the i5-760 is still faster.

The AM3 is a nice solution if you are forced to start with not a lot of money. The Athlon II tri-cores are under $80. Intel doesn't have a comparable solution for the Socket 1156 at that low of a price point. The downside is you can get close to Intel's "cheapest" 1156 quad core in performance with AMD's highest price quad but still be a bit short.

So my first try is a good option?

Okay then, I guess Windows is reporting it wrong?
It started as the AthII Rana 3.1 triple core I linked.

Now system info shows the following:

AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 B45 Processor 3.11 GHz
Scores a 7.3 in the index.

Also shows all four B45 procs in device manager.

Maybe it's only L3 cache deficient?

Regardless, it works well enough for me! Especially as a low budget upgrade.

Yea, that's been reported here as well. But CPU-Z rightly points out there is no L3 cache and the L3 cache is the defining performance difference between an Athlon II and a Phenom II.

The 6MB of L3 cache in the Phenom II kicks up the performance by another 7% or so.