You can game while you rip a DVD without sharing the CPU.
Anyway if you can get 2 for less than the price of 1 why not get it even if at the beginning you're not gonna take full advantage of it.
<font color=red>Left to themselves, all things go from bad to worse</font color=red>
I think that if you're just gaming a single CPU would be faster (not by much though), but if you use several applications at once or you use a game optimized for dual core then the X2 would be faster.
No a socket 939 would do it, you just need a bios update
<font color=red>Left to themselves, all things go from bad to worse</font color=red>
I'd say compared to the P4, 2.2ghz might not beat a 3.8 (in games), but its a close race. 2.4ghz probably beats the 3.8. But at this speed, no game will be CPU limited (*newest released games possibly excepted with slowest CPU)
Same mobo for all of them. Might need a bios flash until the 'pre-X2' stock is depleted. Only Intel requires a new mobo for dual core.
Mike.
</font color=blue>Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside the dog its too dark to read.
-- Groucho Marx</font color=blue>
I think, given the same core speed (i.e., 3500+ or X2-4200+), dual core will probably give a very slight increase in games (barely noticeable if at all) because of OS and other processes will likely be routed to the other core, leaving 100% of a core to the game (instead of 99% on a single core system).
But I could be wrong, having not seen any benchmarks either way.
Mike.
</font color=blue>Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside the dog its too dark to read.
-- Groucho Marx</font color=blue>
<A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103539" target="_new">This</A> one is clocked 200MHz less but $150 cheaper.
What video card are you gonna use?
If you get a 7800 and the 3700+ San Diego will beat a 6800 and a 4000+ San Diego.
<font color=red>Left to themselves, all things go from bad to worse</font color=red>
That is only if he purchased the dual and the single core with the same core speed, which he wouldn't. If he goes single core he can use the money he saves from not getting dual core and buy a faster core speed single core. There is no question that a faster single core will have better gaming performance than a slower dual core.
That said, if you ever multi task during games (which I do on very rare occasion) then I would suggest going dual.
Yeah... we all know that he shouldn't have had the Intel on his list at all. But I also believe that unless he multitasks then the X2 shouldn't be on his list either. That is unless he believes that game designers are going to rapidly change the way they design games and make them more "dual core friendly". This might happen, but I think it will take over a year at the very least. After all, games that are just coming out now have been in the works for years, not weeks. It takes a long time to develop a good game, and even if they were starting to change that now (which I don't know if they are, I'm sure they will wait to see how popular dual core gets) it would still take over a year to produce those games.
drunklegend, I think we almost always agree. Take drunks advice the DFI and the Epox are very good boards. If you are interested in OCing hard then pick the DFI for the extra couple of bucks. If you don't plan on OCing save a bit and go with Epox.
I still haven't tried the MSI NF4 boards out but I have heard they are nice and have looked at a few reviews that rate them very high. Including a review from anandtech that gave the MSI and the DFI equal ratings, so I will be trying the MSI board on the next rig I build. But for you, I know that the DFI is a good board.
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