Should i buy?

[Koolpc]

I have a venice 3500 but have the choice to buy a San Diego 4000. Would the change be a nice improvement or not?

[GFiSH]

Obviously there would be an improvement, but it all depends on how much you can get it for. I also have the 3500 but my next cpu will be a dual core.

[Koolpc]

So the stock San Diego 4000 is a good bet?

[sawyen]

I would just overclock the 3500+ really... My last 3500+ did really good with 2.7Ghz..

[nichomach]

If you're looking for improved games performance, then your money might be better spent on a second 7800GT to run in SLi. The 4000 will be somewhat (though not hugely, I would have thought) quicker than your 3500, but it depends on how cache-dependent whatever you're running is.

[shaithis]

I found SLI performance to be the pits, unless you have a game that specifically supports it well (not many do).

Also, with a 19" screen, I doubt you'd get to the resolutions needed for even the best of the SLI-showcase games to notice a difference.

[Koolpc]

So i should stick with my Venice 3500, maybe overclock it (Never done that, help!).

[sawyen]

Overclocking older E3 Venice should be as easy as learning not to swear in HEXUS forum posts!

Raise chipset volts.. Raise HTT (assuming ur using 11x multi) to 230ish.. 1.4V default should be fine unless you have a terrible stepping.. If not bump to volts to 1.425 or 1.45V..

There u have it, a 2.53Ghz A64, more than enuf to shove any 4000+ at stock speed to the dustbin..

[chazt]

you have value ram, so you won't be able to run at 1:1 speed with the cpu. You can force it to run slower by using a divider. ps make sure you have good cooling

[Koolpc]

Not sure if i will try to overclock it.

[Noni]

You will not notice a difference to a 4000+,

Go dual core, thats the only real difference you will notice. A 4000+ will only make a difference if you OC it to 2.6ghz+.

I would go dual core.

[NightshadowUK]

Dual or the 3500+... and not overclocking should be illegal.

[trojan698]

definately overclock, you must! If you're worried about killing something, just keep your cpu below 1.5v and monitor your temps making sure they stay below 55c. easy peasy, saying that, I'm still too scared to clock this x2

[Koolpc]

Yes, i will have a go at overclocking. Just tried and got it to 2.5mhz by choosing x10 multy and 250 fsb. Thing is the DDR changed to 266!! How do i get the DDR to stay at 400?

[NightshadowUK]

Run a memory divider, you should be able to set an option to 'DDR333' or '5:4' in your BIOS.

[DanceswithUnix]

Just to explain what you are seeing (as you seem new to overclocking), if you manually set your memory to DDR400 then, since the memory speed is derived from your overclocked CPU, you will end up overclocking your RAM. The motherboard is being conservative by automatically dropping the memory divider to make sure the ram isn't overclocked.

With your current overclock of 250/200=1.25 times default:

266MHz setting = 266 x 1.25 = 332MHz
333MHz setting = 333 x 1.25 = 416MHz
400MHz setting = 400 x 1.25 = 500MHz

So, setting 333MHz should be a minor (4%) RAM overclock. More than the BIOS would risk by default, despite it having an automatic 10% overclock everything setting! I left mine on the 266 setting whilst I gained confidence that the CPU could handle my 1.33x overclock (3000+ to 2.4GHz).

I would agree with NightshadowUK that 333 looks the best setting for your system.