Gaming CPU

[yelpir]

Just a very quick question. For a new PC mainly built for gaming I think I've read here that the 3700 San Diego Chip with the 1MB cache might be better than a 3800 Venice with the 512MB cache - is this correct or should I just go with the higher Performance Rating i.e the Venice ?

Thanks

Yelpir.

[Scarlet Infidel]

Btw the cache is measured in KB (or KiB ) not MB. Do you plan to overclock?

[yelpir]

No plans to overclock - thanks for the correction.

[skuzgib]

I'd got for the 3700+ SD. The extra cache won't help you loads in games, but it gives a bit more oomph elsewhere.

[kempez]

I'd got for the 3700+ SD. The extra cache won't help you loads in games, but it gives a bit more oomph elsewhere.

Agreed with that. Get the 3700+ and you'll find its nice and speedy with the extra cache

[yelpir]

Thanks for the advice - well here's the shopping list

2Gb (2x1Gb) Corsair DDR400/PC3200,2x128Mx64, non-ECC, 2x184 DIMM, Unbuffered, CL3, Lifetime Warranty £164.21

AMD Athlon 64 3700 32/64Bit CPU S939 "San Diego" Retail £190.78

Asus A8N-SLi Premium NF4 S939 DDR400 PCI-E SATA Raid Gbit Lan 8Ch Audio £121.31

480W Tagan 2Force SLi Ultra Quiet 21db Also support 12v EPS/SATA/XEON 3 Years Warranty ATX/BTX £63.44

256MB XFX PCI-E Extreme Edition GF7800GT *450 Core 1.05Ghz Mem* (256bit) ViVo 2xDVI £286.70

NEC ND-3540A Ivory 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer DVD-Writer £32.02

250Gb Hitachi (IBM/HGST) Deskstar 7K250 (7200rpm,8M) - SATA £70.21

All that lot to go in my Lian-Li Fully Alu server case... should be nice. Any glaringly stupid choices before I order ? All that's from Scan btw.

[ajones]

Would it be worth considering the HGST T7K250 series for SATA2 support? They come in the same flavours as the SATA1 drives.

[yelpir]

The HDD is on special on Scan's today only site. To be honest I'm only going SATA over PATA because of the tidier cabling, from what I've heard in real world scenario's you hardly ever see the performance change.

[kempez]

Would advise getting a bezel for the white DVD drive. Apart from that looks pretty good

[yelpir]

Drive's will be hidden behind Lian-li bezel's but thanks for the reminder - meant to put the black one in there - can't stand Ivory drives..

[Dougal]

Damn shame those CPUs don't have 512MB cache. That would be nice *dreams*


Good choice with the stuff tho. U can probably knock the CAS down to 2.5 Easy with some heat spreaders. Not a major improvement, but an improvement.

[yelpir]

Well it's ordered now - hoping I get it tomorrow then I'm in for a weekend of building and reinstalling. Hope it all goes smoothly.

[oralpain]

Both chips are going to perform very similarly for games, just get wich ever is less expensive, if you are not overclocking. if you are overclocking get eh 3700+.

The extra cache won't help you loads in games, but it gives a bit more oomph elsewhere.

Actually games are one of the only areas I have seen a noticeable improvement from more cache.

[Smokey21]

If you plan to run them stock, the 3800+ is better, end off. If your clocking a bit, id get a 3700+ though Cache doesn't do a lot for games, people definatly blow it out of proportion.

[yelpir]

I ended up going for the 3700+, it is after all a bit cheaper and I'll run it stock for the moment. If I get pressured for performance I might look at a (small) overclock, so long as I can keep the stock cooling.

[kempez]

I ended up going for the 3700+, it is after all a bit cheaper and I'll Never run it at stock. I'll OC the nuts of that beatch and get it running faster than an FX chip. Yipee kayee mo'fo!

Ahhh - thats what I thought was the case^