Venice 3800+ vs San Diego 3700+

[jayb59874]

Not sure about the US but in the UK the 3700 is a little cheaper.

Basic question is which is better the 3700+ with 2.2GHz and 1Mb L2 cache or the 3800+ with 2.4GHz and 512Kb cache?

I am not intending to overclock, well not at first, so which would you all advise to be better value? I am swinging towards the 3700+ but wanted the opinions of those with more experience than myself.

Thanks in advance for all the help you guys can give

 

[ProdigyMS]

I chose the 3700+ because of the 1MB cache. I planned to overclock later on, and 200Mhz overclock is nothing. There really isn't a noticeable difference between the clock speeds though.

 

[TONY_M07]

I agree with ProdigyMS. The key point I keep seeing around the forum is that you can (almost always, but no garantees) overclock and make up the 200mhz, but you can't ever add more cache.

Plus if you trust the rating, it is really only a 100mhz differnce, which you could then almost match with a light overclock of say 100mhz, since 200 would theoretically put you ahead of the 3800+ due to the cache size.

Basically the 3700+ seems like the superior chip, whether you overclock it or not.

 

[steckman]

I agree, if I had my choice between the two I would grab the San Diego 3700+ because of the additional cache.
But as far as overclocking goes, wouldn't you think the 3800+ would have more room to overclock, or are the yields on the San Diego 3700+ just as good? I mean, do you think the 3800+ and the 3700+ usually overclock to about the same GHz?

 

[doolittle]

The 3700 is quite a bit cheaper, the 3800 is really not much cheaper than the X2 version so my vote is for 3700 in the bang-per-buck as well.

 

[MG37221]

I will say that the rating (3700 VS 3800) is off. While it is true that you can overclock the 200MHz difference but you can't overclock 512KB to 1MB of cache, the 3800 at 2.4GHz will run circles around the 3700 at 2.2GHz.

The K8 architecture scales really well. If you overclock, get the 3700. If you don't, you'll be happier with the 3800. Buth CPUs are awesome. You really can't go wrong with either one.

 

[SuperFly03]

I have a Venice and a folding friend hs a San Diego and we go in a OC competition (friendly of course) and I lost big time. Venice hit a wall around 2750Mhz @ 1.616v and his San Diego came up short of 3Ghz at 2970Mhz @ 1.55v so take it as you will.

I am not sure how much you are willing to spend, but if you plan to overclock an OPty 165 has no competition.