Recently upgraded my mobo/cpu/ram, but i kept my athlon 64 3500 (939). Is it worth upgrading to a dual core processer 2x 3800 or will the difference be hardly noticeable?
Btw I wont be overclocking.
If anyone has gone from a single core A64 to a dual core id be interested to hear what you think.
|| Q9450 @ 3.40Ghz || Maximus Formula X38 || 4GB OCZ PC2-8000 XTC ||
|| 768MB 8800GTX OC || 500GB Seagate || 2TB Western Digital || 24" Dell ||
Don't think it would be a massive improvement. I was thinking of doing the same some time ago but i will wait to see what comes along later in the year.
All depends on what you do. If you multitask ALOT then yes, a big difference. If you just play games and the occasional word document etc etc then no, stick with your processor!
I can pick up a brand new 2x 3800 for £170 inc which is a pretty decent price, thats whats got me thinking.
Iv heard in some cases a dual core processor may even be slower though! Im still not sure yet whether or not its worth it
|| Q9450 @ 3.40Ghz || Maximus Formula X38 || 4GB OCZ PC2-8000 XTC ||
|| 768MB 8800GTX OC || 500GB Seagate || 2TB Western Digital || 24" Dell ||
I recently went from a 3.2Ghz Northwood to an Opteron 170 Dual-Core. The difference didn't seem that apparant until I loaded up Virtual-Dub Mod and was reencoding a DVD to AVI at like 120fps. Previously I would get around 30 fps.
Thats without the difference it makes in games, running lots of windows (my favourite) - I have not once had to look at the ugly end of a lock up. Plus, you could probably get that X2 3800 to run at 2.2Ghz with very little effort making it like having 2x3500+'s!
Many many people have gotten theirs to about 2.4-2.6 with very little problems. How does having a near-FX-60 grab you for 170 quid?!
Upto you, if your keen on games then spend the money thats burning a hole on a new graphics card, if you want all round improvement and have a decent cooling/PSU then dual core away!
Matt
I'm leaning more and more to a dual core cpu, mainly because of all the alt-tabbing I seem to be doing at the moment...
Nox
yerp, dual core sure helps you a lot. I wonder how many time you have to alt-tabbing in order to get to your desired application. 40x.
Well iv just gone and ordered one, now il just have to sell my 3500+ on ebay.
The dual core 2x 3800 cost £170 inc vat and delivery, thats not too bad is it.
|| Q9450 @ 3.40Ghz || Maximus Formula X38 || 4GB OCZ PC2-8000 XTC ||
|| 768MB 8800GTX OC || 500GB Seagate || 2TB Western Digital || 24" Dell ||
If I already had a 3500+ today, I probably would wait to see what the next gen CPUs have to offer TBH. If anything, you would be able to pick up a dual core cheaper then.
Well I got the Athlon X2 3800 the other day
I dont normally overclock but I thought id have a go and its currently at 2.40Ghz @1.5V
|| Q9450 @ 3.40Ghz || Maximus Formula X38 || 4GB OCZ PC2-8000 XTC ||
|| 768MB 8800GTX OC || 500GB Seagate || 2TB Western Digital || 24" Dell ||
Pleased? Did you reinstall from scratch? Nice to have something for nearly-nothing isn't it!
I amOriginally Posted by mfurse
especially since I never normally overclock.
I didnt reinstall from scratch, I just took out the 3500 and put the X2 3800 in and that was it. I didnt bother installing any AMD dual core drivers either, iv read on other forums some ppl have done so, other havent needed to.
Just wondering, what max voltage would you say is ok for the cpu and ram? Im using air cooling, but I have upped the voltage a fair bit though.
|| Q9450 @ 3.40Ghz || Maximus Formula X38 || 4GB OCZ PC2-8000 XTC ||
|| 768MB 8800GTX OC || 500GB Seagate || 2TB Western Digital || 24" Dell ||
It all depends on temps I think. Personally I would not go over 1.45V. But I hate overclocking.
V1.55 to some is safe, but I would say 1.5 is fine.
once multithreaded games come out it will definitely be worth having two cores, for now its just a case of bunging all your windows processes away from the gaming core as was said above
the whole thing about dual core being slower is bs... i dont know where it comes from but it seems to all be "i heard from someone else that..." but the original people who claimed it are never to be found
i guess some nubbie must have swapped their A64 4000+ for an x2 4200+ or something and started ranting when it wasnt as fast in games (x2 4200+ loses 200mhz and 512kb cache per core compared to the A64 4000+)
if you compare properly between A64 and X2, e.g A64 4000+ and X2 4800+ (both have 2.4ghz/1mb cache cores) the X2 will never be slower even if it wont be that much faster in games
anyway once multithreaded games come out you will be better of with your new chip than maybe even an fx57 so gj, i got a used one of those for £108 locally but the guy didnt know what it was so he sold it as a single core 3800+ (it was a cache-limited toledo which are never released as 3800+'s usually and they dont go up on amd's website)... then i sold it on ebay for £205 used so you have a pretty good deal (not as good as mine though)
Just wondered about the reinstall because some people have been ok with forcing windows to install the multi-processor acpi profile and others not. I reinstalled when I upgraded so was just interested whether it was necessary.I am
I didnt reinstall from scratch, I just took out the 3500 and put the X2 3800 in and that was it. I didnt bother installing any AMD dual core drivers either, iv read on other forums some ppl have done so, other havent needed to.
Just wondering, what max voltage would you say is ok for the cpu and ram? Im using air cooling, but I have upped the voltage a fair bit though.
Volts? Depends on the cooling- under phase 1.6-1.8 is not uncommon, water 1.5-1.7 is quite common, Air....well, I've got an SI-120 and wouldn't trust over 1.5V, my chip hits ~45°C under dual-prime95 load, but I have got CnQ enabled also for the times when I'm doing nothing!
Matt
45°C? You big nancy!
75°C is when you need to start worrying...
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