What's the best?

sassora · 13 Jul 2007 at 17:14

I have an A8V deluxe motherboard and I have been reading the manual and under CPU it says:

Socket 939 for AMD Athlon FX / Athlon 64 processor.
Supports AMD 64 architecture that enables simulataneous 32-bit and 64-bit computing.
Supports AMD 'cool and quiet' technology.

I have an AMD Athlon 4000+ (claw hammer).

A few questions:
1. What is the 'best' chip I can upgrade to?
(I expected there to be more 939 chips when I bought my pc)
2. Is it possible or worth going to dual core?
3. Are most programs multi-threaded these days?

ChrisD. · 13 Jul 2007 at 17:24

Won't get much better then this:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-154-AM&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=567

But the price is insane considering you could go C2D for a little more.

What's your budget? You could have a look around and see if there's any X2 FX60 still for sale on some auction sites.

fester · 13 Jul 2007 at 17:27

At the minute I'd say this 3800x2 is the best value http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-134-AM .No point buying top of the range 939 fx , 4800x2 or opteron 185 as u could buy C2D e2410 ddr2 and mother board for the same price.

stickroad · 13 Jul 2007 at 17:30

fester said:
At the minute I'd say this 3800x2 is the best value http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-134-AM .No point buying top of the range 939 4800x2 or opteron 185 as u could buy C2D e2410 ddr2 and mother board for the same price.

Yes their is a point. :confused:

If your not overclocking AMD is fine. AMD cpus are cheaper than Intels equivalent.

sassora · 13 Jul 2007 at 17:35

I wouldn't spend more than £100

I like the AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ suggested

I wanted to check also if most programs are able to make best use of the dual processor. I don't want to be only running 'half' of the chip i.e. 1GHz!

sassora · 13 Jul 2007 at 17:36

Do you think I would be seeing a big difference from what I have now if I wentr to the Dual 3800+ ?

Cob · 13 Jul 2007 at 18:05

Quite a lot of software is now multi-threaded. Even Windows.

Single-theaded apps may be a little slower than your 4000+, but if your X2 clocks well the difference won't be noticeable.

fester · 13 Jul 2007 at 18:05

sassora said:
Do you think I would be seeing a big difference from what I have now if I wentr to the Dual 3800+ ?

Yes in multitasking ,encoding and newer games .

fester · 13 Jul 2007 at 18:08

sassora said:
I wouldn't spend more than £100

I like the AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ suggested

I wanted to check also if most programs are able to make best use of the dual processor. I don't want to be only running 'half' of the chip i.e. 1GHz!

You have 2 cores working at 2 gig each ie 4gig of cycles not 2 cores working at 1gig.

BAMBI · 13 Jul 2007 at 18:22

I wouldnt upgrade to another 939 processor you wont see enough of a difference. What do you use your computer for? If Gaming then upgrading the graphics is much more effective.

ChrisD. · 13 Jul 2007 at 18:26

BAMBI said:
I wouldnt upgrade to another 939 processor you wont see enough of a difference. What do you use your computer for? If Gaming then upgrading the graphics is much more effective.

I went from a 64 3700+ to a dual core Opteron 175 and I noticed a noticable difference. Saying that though I've just upgraded to the E4300 and it blows the Opty out of the water.

BAMBI · 13 Jul 2007 at 18:32

MilanoChris said:
I went from a 64 3700+ to a dual core Opteron 175 and I noticed a noticable difference. Saying that though I've just upgraded to the E4300 and it blows the Opty out of the water.

If you max out your graphics card you wouldnt notice a difference.

ChrisD. · 13 Jul 2007 at 18:42

BAMBI said:
If you max out your graphics card you wouldnt notice a difference.

What's a graphics card got to do with 2D application work?

sassora · 13 Jul 2007 at 21:39

I think I will go for the dual core 3800+ and keep the opteron on my wishlist!

Changing to c2d sounds like a lot of hassle to me, surely there will be issues of compatability of my other components?

ChrisD. · 14 Jul 2007 at 00:37

sassora said:
I think I will go for the dual core 3800+ and keep the opteron on my wishlist!

Changing to c2d sounds like a lot of hassle to me, surely there will be issues of compatability of my other components?

No not really, the only one would be if you've currently got an APG mobo and AGP GFX card in which your search for a decent replacement would be limited.

If you list your current spec I'm sure someone here would be happy to spec you with a good piece of kit to keep you going.

What's your budget?

Magnum_Force · 14 Jul 2007 at 02:07

I think he said he didn't want to spend more than £100.

On that matter, I think your best either sticking to what you've got or getting that 3800X2 others have recommended.

Just out of curiosity, whats wrong with your 4000+, I've got one in the comp I'm using at the moment and don't really notice a difference between this and my overclocked Opteron 165 (2.7ghz). I have another system with a Core 2 Duo E4300 OCed to 2.7ghz and that feels alittle bit faster, but not all THAT much, mainly in more demanding games.

What is the spec of the rest of your system??

ChrisD. · 14 Jul 2007 at 02:24

I wouldn't personally bother with an upgrade if the budget is £100. I'd stick it in a kitty and wait till I could afford something worthwhile. Just my 2P.

Cupra · 14 Jul 2007 at 03:29

then you can sell your current mobo + cpu

ChrisD. · 14 Jul 2007 at 10:10

And his RAM? We don't even know the rest of the spec atm mate, so no point in speccing.

jaykay · 14 Jul 2007 at 11:51

I wouldnt go for that mobo.
In another tread in the gpu area every body says its hard to work with.