Buying advice needed: AMD 64 4000+ san diego or X2 3800+?

[Holtzclaw]

Hi everyone,

Hopefully I've come to the right place for advice - I'm looking to upgrade my pc and budget will stretch to the price of a 4000+ san diego, which a friend of mine has also recently bought. I've seen it running half life 2 and various others, and was pretty impressed.

I'll be using my machine for both gaming and windows apps, (CS2, and the like) so I could do with something that performs well in both areas, and thought the dual core would be a big improvement in multi-tasking, but I don't know about it's gaming performance. So, I was hoping someone would know and could offer adivce.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Many thanks.

[NikolaX]

Go for x2 then, it will cope games as normal one, if you OC to 4000+ clock, and do wonders with multitasking + future bulletproof for games with x2 support..

[kempez]

I agree though I'm sure others *cough* will not agree. X2's are very nice

[ajones]

3800X2 is equivalent to 2 AMD64 3200's? (/em waits to get flamed with that broad sweeping statement! ) So as long as your game will run on a single core processor at 2GHz, then go for the X2.

It's true that for gaming you could get a single core 3800/4000 for similar money which would probably be better, but hey.... My Winnie takes whatever I through at it

[csi_grissom]

kempez815
u just gave me some good ideas after looking at your pc that looks a nice setup, werent struck on the case but the other bits have given me chance to think.

[kempez]

Originally Posted by csi_grissom

kempez815
u just gave me some good ideas after looking at your pc that looks a nice setup, werent struck on the case but the other bits have given me chance to think.

No problems. I do weddings and Bah-Mitzvah's (sp??) as well

[Holtzclaw]

Thanks for the advice everyone.

Just one thing, NikolaX hinted at overclocking the processor - is this an easy thing to do, safely?

thanks again.

[Lee @ SCAN]

Originally Posted by Holtzclaw

Thanks for the advice everyone.

Just one thing, NikolaX hinted at overclocking the processor - is this an easy thing to do, safely?

It's not as easy as it was with socket A as you have other factors now like the hypertransport multiplyer and whatnot, but its fairly straightforward.

I suggest you read the following article HERE as this shows how to overclock on the S939 platform.

As for it being safe, as long as your careful then yes it is

[NikolaX]

And this will help you too, xbit easy guide for OC:

Have you always wanted to see what your processor is capable of but feared to do something wrong? Today there is an illustrated guide that will take you through the entire process, step by step. With our new guide CPU overclocking will be as easy as ABC!

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu.../oc-guide.html
lot of peps OC their x2 3800+ to 2.3 min. to 2.7 on air cooling

and more detail on OC:
http://www.elitebastards.com/page.ph...d=1&comments=1

btw, what mobo, RAM and PSU will you use ?

[Holtzclaw]

Great stuff, thanks for the links.

I was getting a bit worried about the whole oc thing as the other day I found myself reading an article (a tad old mind) descrbing how to overclock the athlon by using a pencil!

Offending article:
http://www.motherboards.org/articles/guides/41_1.html

Having absolutely no overclocking knowledge whatsoever I was somewhat surprised at the places people will go to get that extra Mhz!

So thanks again for the links.

As for the mobo etc, not too sure yet, still looking around. Probably won't be going sli as i can't afford the two gpu's, but hoping to get 2gb ram.

Can you recommend a good psu that will run a 7800GT?

Many thanks.

[NikolaX]

For 7800GT buy at least 480W , brands like Antec,Tagan,Hiper,Akasa are all good.
my choise will be Hiper modular 580W it is only 64 £
link - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatal...plies_123.html

As for mobo if you dont want to OC to extreme go for Asus A8N-SLi Premium(silent) 135£
or if you are on budget go for Asus A8N-SLi (88£)

[Holtzclaw]

Thanks for the advice again.
I must say I only joined the forum today and am very impressed with the speed of the replies. You and the others have been very helpful.

Thanks.

[rajindergill]

In terms of X2 or 4000, I have clocked my X2 3800 pretty easily to 2.3GHZ, but having problems getting passed that.

In terms of the PSU. Look on Scan as they have some good offers for Enermax PSU (hihgly recommend). If you are after the Hiper 580W, dont go to overclockers, get it from PC world for £70. It will be in your local store, and if you have problems they are much easier for returning stuff to than overclockers (they have a very bad rep).

[dangel]

Originally Posted by rajindergill

In terms of X2 or 4000, I have clocked my X2 3800 pretty easily to 2.3GHZ, but having problems getting passed that.

What's up m8? Heat?

[loki]

must be heat. Mine does 2.5 without breaking a sweat. It's a very nice CPU, coupled with an overclocked 7800gt its a monster machine.

Edit: noticed above about PSU recommendations. I have a tagan 2 force 480 watt. Its very quiet and i'd recommend it. Not that it has much to do with the PSU but i have my club 3d 7800gt at 505 core and 1.21 memory which i believe is good for stock cooling. beats stock gtxs by quite a bit.

[Holtzclaw]

I have a couple more questions as a result of the last few posts

1. is heat the major factor in limiting how much overclocking a cpu can take?

2. in terms which psu to buy, how do you determine how much power a system will require? I know which gpu I'm after (7800gt), and I'm not going sli, but I've no idea how to find out the wattage needed.

Thanks again.