A64 4000 or A64 X2 3800? (Athlon 64 4000 only £95 @ OcUK)

[Angilion]

I have S939 and I want a new toy^H^H^H CPU.

The 4000 is now down to £105. I'm undecided about buying it or waiting for the price cuts that will hopefully come on A64 X2 3800s that OcUK will hopefully still have in stock.

I'll be o/c'ing it, unsurprisingly, though only on air and only with at most 0.1V above stock and only at most 250 HTT base speed (my motherboard is limited to 250).

I'm thinking that the X2 3800 would overclock more than the 4000 and would probably be a better buy, but I am impatient.

Opinions welcome.

 

[Angilion]

Hmm...is it common for A64 4000s to reach 3GHz on air with 0.1V extra?

I'm using it as a toy. The only work I do on it is a bit of word processing and that hardly needs either of those two. I'm not noticing a problem with games with my current CPU (A64 [email protected]), so I don't really need a new CPU even for playing.

This will be my last chance for a CPU-only upgrade, so I want something that will still be OK in a year. So perhaps the question is "how important will dual core be in a year's time?"

 

[Angilion]

If like me, you have not overclocked any thing in your life and and probably dont plan to, which is the better of the two chips to go for?
More games than anything else would be the usage

Right now, the single-core 4000. If you get a San Diego version (see previous posters).

Since hardly any games that are out now make any use at all of the second core, the X2 3800 willl give lower performance due to the slower clock speed and the smaller cache (per core).

 

[Angilion]

I've just noticed that someone has added an advert to my subject header.

I want to make it clear that this addition has nothing to do with me.

 

[Angilion]

They were being advertised as San Diego. You may have a case for a refund.

This has answered my question (i.e. the subject title, less the advert a mod added to it). I won't be buying a Clawhammer core A64.

 

[Angilion]

can someone tell me how to tell which version of the 4000 chip I have just bought..... and maybe a pointer to an idiots overclocking guide as people seem to be suggesting that I have just got myself a right bargain for £95.

CPU-Z should give you the core name. It's a free download. The homepage for it is here.

If you have San Diego, it's a bargain. If you have Clawhammer, much less so. Clawhammer will run hotter and overclock less, probably quite a lot on both counts.

 

[Angilion]

The 4000s are the old Clawhammer core, which is probably why the core isn't mentioned any more (they were initially wrongly described as being San Diego core).