Is the 3800 X2 worth the extra ?

[SIB]

I'm looking to upgrade my current P4 3ghz system and am torn between going the whole hog and getting the dual core 3800 or saving around £70 and geting an opty 146......
I'll be doing this on a budget so will be using my current Corsairs Corsair 1GB DDR XMS3200C2PT (2 * 512mb) and an AGP 6800GT card.
The rig will mainly be used for gaming (although i'm not a heavy gamer), encoding movies, photoshop work, etc.

Bearing in mind i'm never really in THAT much of a hurry to retouch my photos (if it take 0.00005 sec longer than so be it) should i save the extra and go for the opty or take the plunge and go dual core right from the start ?

Is there really much benefit from either of those chips to justify the upgrade ? My rig is fast enough, i just got a bug to upgrade !!

 

[brightside_]

if you get it this week, it's under £200, and unless your going to buy a dual core opty, then it's worth it. Current X2s seem to clock pretty well.

 

[sablabra]

Go for the x2 3800+, It's a lot better to have dual core while doing heavy work. And many of them overclock very well, mine reaches 2.5ghz@ stock Vcore. You could easily rip a movie and use photoshop as an example at the same time with ease

 

[ACESHIGH]

Yep, get the x2 3800+

 

[Steves_pc]

Dont know about the dual opty but the x2 i got last week is pretty good, currently doing 2.7 @ 1.4v.

Stepping in case anyone's interested is
LDBHE 0601UPMW

Seems the newer cores arent too bad at all