Which proc to upgrade to?

[kona]

Been reading these forums for a while and there are many people in here who are knowledgeable/respectable. I would be very happy if you were to help me make a decision on the following.

Finally the price cuts that I have been waiting for from AMD have started coming and i can now cheaply upgrade from my venerable 3000+ venice to something better. I am willing to wait for the dual core price cuts that are supposed to come at the end of July but was thinking that since my budget is no more than $175 that I will only be able to get the X2 3800. I then thought that it might be more beneficial to get a higher clocked single core like the 3700. This thing is an outright steal right now. The most intensive things I will be doing with it is (of course) gaming but also I have been reading up on video encoding which is affected a lot from clock speed if I understand correctly. I should also mention that I am only willing to do a mild overclock on anything so if one is a better overclocker than the other it really wouldn't factor in so much. What do you guys think? A higher clocked single core or a lower clocked (X2 3800) dual core? Thanks for the replies in advance guys.

 

[Primitivus]

Video encoding would also benefit from a second core so the X2 line might suit you better overall. Currently most games still run better on single cores but don't expect that to last long. A dual core is more future proof anyway you look at it. And since you're willing to wait a little longer why don't you save up for sth a bit better than the 3800, such as the 4200 or even the 4400? (the one i'd like to get, incidentally)

 

[Giraffe]

what u should get depends on what is more important to you(games or video)
by the time when games will take advantage of dual cores properly u might want to upgrade again by then
if you arent planning on upgrading again for a while get the dual core.
IMO i think it would be best to wait for core2duo.
if u want the best for games NOW get the 3700+ single core

 

[jap0nes]

what u should get depends on what is more important to you(games or video)
by the time when games will take advantage of dual cores properly u might want to upgrade again by then
if you arent planning on upgrading again for a while get the dual core.
IMO i think it would be best to wait for core2duo.
if u want the best for games NOW get the 3700+ single core

hmmm he said he has a venice, if he upgrades to core2 he will have to change his motherboard, cpu and memory...
there are a couple games that already benefit from smp. In my opinion, if the price is close, i would go dual core, as it will last a little bit longer.

 

[clue69less]

Finally the price cuts that I have been waiting for from AMD have started coming and i can now cheaply upgrade from my venerable 3000+ venice to something better. I am willing to wait for the dual core price cuts that are supposed to come at the end of July but was thinking that since my budget is no more than $175 that I will only be able to get the X2 3800. I then thought that it might be more beneficial to get a higher clocked single core like the 3700. This thing is an outright steal right now. The most intensive things I will be doing with it is (of course) gaming but also I have been reading up on video encoding which is affected a lot from clock speed if I understand correctly. I should also mention that I am only willing to do a mild overclock on anything so if one is a better overclocker than the other it really wouldn't factor in so much. What do you guys think? A higher clocked single core or a lower clocked (X2 3800) dual core? Thanks for the replies in advance guys.

I've seen Opteron 165s go in the $225 range lately, so if you can be patient and can find a way to expand the budget a little, you might be able to find one even cheaper in the next month or two. This is a good time to be patient but ready to pull the trigger. A mild OC on this CPU should easily get you to 2.6GHz. What RAM and mobo do you have?

 

[Giraffe]

he probly doesnt want a dam server!!!

 

[clue69less]

he probly doesnt want a dam server!!!

Optys are excellent general purpose CPUs that run cool, OC well at stock voltage - and they make a great margarita if programmed properly.

So there.

 

[Giraffe]

yeah but they are no good for games

 

[kona]

Thanks for the replies guys. Just to answer a few of your questions: I have an EPOX 9npa+ultra with 2 gigs of patriot DDR400 with 2-3-2-5/1T timings. As i understand this is a fairly good board for overclocking so a mild overclock should not be a problem (dont know if I would push an X2 3800 to 2.6 or not but surely 2.4 wouldn't be out of the question). it doesn't matter to me if its an opteron dualie or not but unfortunately what does matter is price. If AMD cuts the prices on their opteron dual cores also then that surely would also be an option (but leads to yet another question: lower clocked dual core opteron with more cache or higher clocked dual core athlon with less cache) Games (and soon video encoding) are primarily what I do and are most important to me....not into much else. Since dual cores came out over a year ago I have been drueling over one and now is my chance....the money has all but burned a hole in my pocket. If I could hang on a bit longer and save some more cash like primitivus mentioned....ahhh but you guys know how that is. I will, if I can hold out a few weeks. I don't intend on upgrading my board/RAM until the new architecture from AMD comes out in 2008 unless this CORE architecture turns out to be killer. I have loathed Intel for a while now (not a fan boy really) because they essentially tried to corner the market (i.e. monopoly) and virtually succeeded and then promply drove up prices. Nobody wins in that situation; look now, there is going to be more advancement in the next year (AMD and Intel) than there has been in the last 5 years combined. Just my two cents on that though it should be in another forum. (I am not an IT professional or GURU as many of you are....i'm an engineering student.... so please don't laugh at my lack of in depth knowledge)
Thanks again to all of you guys

 

[Giraffe]

dont worry about not knowin much u know alot more than most ppl
some of the ppl here seme(dont know how 2 spell correct) to know everything(NERDS!!!) lol
i dont know much coz im just 15