First time builder looking for some help

[Bobzilla]

Hello all.
I've been wanting to build a computer for a long time now, and upgrade from my current mystery beast to something a little stronger.
Up until a few weeks ago I really knew nothing about the hardware inside of a computer and when I mentioned to a friend that I needed help, he gave me this site. Over the last few weeks been trying to make the best decision when it comes to buying a PC. I can't buy the best stuff, but trying to make do. Hardest decision has been the CPU and I'm hooked on two.
The Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego and the X2 3800+ Manchester. No matter what I do I always bounce back and forth between the two. I am hoping to get a final resolution to this soon. I am on a budget and can't really go higher.
I will be using my new PC, when finished, for gaming mostly. I will, at times, be running multiple instances of a game. I've heard from some that the dual core is not really needed yet, even for running multiple games (Plus, I'm getting 2gigs of Mushkin ram). I do plan on looking into overclocking.

I must say, I do love the website and it has been a tremendous help for many things, and I have learned much more than I think I remember.

Which is the better deal for now and the future? Right now I'm leaning toward the dual core. Any help is appreciated!

 

[purelithium]

Well, in my opinion a lot of people don't actually understand what dual core is. Here's a simplified explanation.

If you're just going to be doing one thing at a time(game) it means that usually, one core of the CPU will be working it's ass off for that game, but all the background tasks that used to take away from the performance of the game(virus scanners, maybe music playing, etc...) will be taken over by the other core, so no performance is lost that way. But if you run two seperate processes of the game (two instances like you mention) then they usually will run in the background just as if they were running on their own, but with a performance hit because the background tasks are now going to be swapped between the two cores. BUT, you will want to have the video power to back that up. If you only have one mediocre videocard(6800GT) you are going to get a major slow down. But if you have two good video cards(7800 series), you shouldn't see too much of a hit.

So from what you said is that you'll be wanting a gaming system. I would recommend instead of spending the extra cash on the CPU, go for the 3700+ and buy decent ram and a good video card. You will be much happier in the end with better single game performance than mediocre "dual-gaming" performance.

 

[IRanNaked]

Yes. I agree. Go with the San Diego. I have it with a 7800 gt and Corsair 2x512 value select CAS 2.5 RAM. Run's BF2 at 90 FPS and doesnt seems to run slow at all. Also I hear that the San Diego overclocks very well so if you plan on doing a little bit of video work and what not, you can get an extra boost. Also a dual core CPU is mainly for encoding or decoding or and kinda cd ripping, so dual core isnt that much nessary in you'r case.

Well hope you decide good and have a kick ass PC when you'r done