Athlon 64 system - best 'bang for the buck'

[StormPC]

Granted it's a good setup for the money storm, it' still pretty expensive, to be called bang for buck.

And you still on about 1Mb L2 being the be all and end all.

I never said the 3700+ was a budget system, but the fact is you can't beat it for the money. That's value (bang for the buck).

I never said that 1MB L2 was the best. I'd prefer 6MB, but they don't put that in Athlon 64s yet.

I don't see why people like you are against cache. It's one of the reasons processors perform so well now. It's why Durons suck compared to XPs, Celerons suck compared to P4s, P4s suck compared to P4EEs, Newcastles suck compared to ClawHammers, etc...AND WHY Itanium 2s cost more than GOD!

Don't fear cache. Cache is your CPU's friend.

[michaels]

A bump to this thread as a couple of months have passed - suppose I had up to 200 quid to spend - would I be better off with a 939 and nf4 sli board or a higher speed 754 and 50 quid in my pocket?

[Dougal]

Well if you only had £200 to spend, you;d need a PCI-E graphics card for most nf4s, you could get an AGP one, but you'd still be tight on cash.

[tkh]

I recommend u going down the socket 754 route. £50 can buy something else you want

[Dark Horse]

I recommend u going down the socket 754 route. £50 can buy something else you want

I'd say go s939, makes it much easier to upgrade graphics cards in the future.

Agp cards have more or less ceased being produced whereas pcie has only just begun. Might save £50 now but will cost more in the long run as the entire setup will have to be replaced.

[iranu]

S754 is a dead end. Well a shorter dead end than S939. I'm with Darkhorse on this one. If you can't afford a 3000+ venice (£80), 6600GT (£100), mobo (£50-130) then save up a bit more. The 3000 should clock nicely hopefully to 2.4ghz.

[krazy_olie]

In my opinion a 3000+ or 3200+ 939 venice core offers the best value. Good performance, good OCing and the 939 means an upgrade to dual core in the future doesn't look like a problem.

Going with PCi-e also is good for future proofing, in terms of future cards, and if you go with say a 6600GT or regular 6800 you can add a second card if you need some more juice and the prices have further decreased.

A 939 with AGP is pretty pointless unless you already have an AGP card you wish to use, as it defeats the idea of future proofing.

[michaels]

AS i don't do gaming (don't have time anymore with daughter and wife) all I do with the graphics is watch dvds so I am happy with my current agp card. However I do sometimes bring work home and do some pretty heavy excel/access/vb stuff. Given a suitable mobo and lots of ram can the 754 be overclocked to give plenty of 'calculation' grunt? Is it worth getting xp 64 bit or is the 32 bit office the decisive factor? Also I only upgrade every 2-3 years at which point it seems like I need to replace everything so going for upgradeability may not be a consideration? AS you can see this is all a bit full of ifs and buts but any advice is appreciated.