CPU Upgrade?

[wdEvA]

Hey guys,m i'm currently using a A64 3000+ 250x9

As i've some of my friends who are intending to upgrade their system, i'm deciding if i should buy over their current CPU..

Which one should i go for?
Will i see improvement from upgrading to the Opty?
Should i hunt for a X2 4200+ or X2 4400+ ??

Opty 146
X2 3800+

And also, will does Opty Dual core perform better than X2?
If i were to get an X2, what stepping or core should i look out for if i wanna Overclock?

Thanks..

 

[wdEvA]

Opteron were binned higher than there desktop X2 equivelents as they were aimed at the server market whereas X2 were desktop cpus. The enthusiast market soon caught on that the skt 939 opteron were extremely good overclocking chips and cheap so the opterons took the OC world by storm.

Recently however the X2 cores have been clocking just as well and are now cheaper than there opteron eqv.

If I were you I would go for an 3800x2, dual core will outlast single core and if you get a good stepping it will match or exceed a stock fx-60 chip (apart from the 1/2 cache). Head over to the 3800x2 thread and check out the good, the bad and the ugly.

whats the stepping that i should look out for?

 

[wdEvA]

oh okie, hmm btw what core is that? and what different cores does the x2 3800+ have?