Cache Size

[d3moliti0n]

Hey there

Well I plan on upgrading my CPU from a single core Athon X64 3200+ to a dual core Athlon X2 and was originally planning on getting the 3800+ but they seem to be out of stock everywhere I look now so I have settled for getting the 3600+ (unless I can find the 3800+ again somewhere). The biggest difference seems to be that the 3600+ has a 2x 256MB L2 Cache and the 3800+ has a 2x 512MB cache but they both run at 2.00GHz. What I want to know is does it make that big a difference if the cache size is lower on how the PC peforms, especially when gaming as thats what I'm going to be using the PC for.

Thanks for your help and time.

 

[d3moliti0n]

Yeah its the money though, I was looking to spend less than £50 atm so those were my 2 options.

 

[d3moliti0n]

It's a socket 939 Athlon X2 that I need, thats why I said it's the money thats a problem as the faster 939 chips such as the 4200/4400 are expensive to buy second hand aswell. Thats why narrowed my choice down to a 3800 or a 3600, but in any case, could anyone answer my original question of does the cache size matter and have a big impact on performance?

Thanks for your help and time.

 

[d3moliti0n]

I may overclock, I haven't fully decided on that yet as I want to get everything first and put it all into the PC and see how it runs games, if it runs them well enough on stock settings I'll settle for that, otherwise I may overclock. I intend to be playing games such as Crysis (which I know I won't get any higher than medium settings), CoD4, UT3, BF2142, BF2, Hellgate London, WoW, Bioshock, Oblivion, GoW, Stalker and some upcoming titles like Age of Conan and Warhammer Online. The spec of the computer will most likely be :

Athlon X2 3600+ (2.0GHz, 2x 256KB L2 Cache)
2GB DDR Ram
Radeon HD3850 256MB GPU

 

[d3moliti0n]

Whats MM?