Opty or AMD 64x2?

[goreblast]

But the 3800 single core is NOT a 1mb cache chip

 

[goreblast]

And I am talking about dual core chips

 

[trojan698]

Aha! By 4000+ I thought you meant single core, forgetting they now do 4000+ X2's for AM2.

But the 3800 single core is NOT a 1mb cache chip

Yeah I know, I was just trying to save him £100 not realising he was after a dual core. /ignore me

 

[paul1980]

How much difference does 1mb of cache make when compared to 512?

 

[trojan698]

Some say very little, some say ~200mhz.

 

[locutus12]

As I've now been started on a quest to upgrade my CPU in my bi-annual 'PC overhaul & upgrade', whats the best guys, an Opty or an AMD64x2?

I currently have a winchester 3500 which I overclock by about 5% when playing FPS etc but leave as stock for browsing etc.

I do think I want to go down the dual core route by way of future proofing as far as I can, but not too sure what the benefits of either CPU are. My understanding is that Opterons overclock better, but if I only want to squeeze a bit more out of it, is this still the case? Possible options are an Opty 2.2GHz or the 64x2 4400 or 4600.

Any advice welcome.

if your interested, you can get an opteron 146 for about £110 second hand. the stock clocks 2.0Ghz, they will do 2.9Ghz on a good air cooler, running mine at 2.7Ghz as we speak

 

[Cyber-Mav]

look at reviews. no way does the extra 512kb cache equal an extra 200mhz. 1mb cache performs roughly 3-5% quicker in certain applications, super pi is the only one that shows the largest speed increase of the addition cache and thats sitting at the upper end of the scale which is the 5% speed increase.

 

[nikebee]

its the other way round - AMD are discontinuing all the 1MB L2 cache processors.

just a note on this.

AMD are discontinuing all 1MB L2 Cache processors... BUT, it is the ones with 512kb L2 Cache that are getting the prices dropped. which... is.... odd, to say the least?

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=2800