Single core or dual core

[Mithrandir]

I'm on an Opty 146 overclocked to 2.8ghz. I wanted to find out whether a dual core at 2.5-2.6ghz would be better? (I think the answer would be to go for higher clock speed)

I'll be using the system for gaming currently Crysis and GRiD demo.

[!TIMMY!]

I had a A64 3700 @ 2.8ghz & Opteron 144 @ 2.8ghz (single cores) and upgraded to a A64 3800 X2 @ 2.8ghz (dual core) and there was a big jump in performance. I am sure you can get hold of a X2 that will to 2.8ghz, just search for the good overclocking steppings, thats what I did.

[Mithrandir]

I had a A64 3700 @ 2.8ghz & Opteron 144 @ 2.8ghz (single cores) and upgraded to a A64 3800 X2 @ 2.8ghz (dual core) and there was a big jump in performance. I am sure you can get hold of a X2 that will to 2.8ghz, just search for the good overclocking steppings, thats what I did.

Thanks I've been on the lookout for a budget dual core for a few months now, but they're either expensive (at the prices I've seen; better to go c2d) or the cheapy ones are not very good at OCing. In fact I've got a 3800 x2 but it was not even stable on 2.4, I think I had it on 2.35 or 2.3 when it was okay. That was not as good as the 2.8 I'm on now.
I've seen an opty 165 that seems to be able to go to 2.5-2.6 but not sure if its even worth it as I was reading the v core might have to be upped to 1.45v-1.5v to get to those figures.