Worth buying a 3800 X2 (939)?

[FoxEye]

I have a question:

I have a 3200+ (single core) on an Abit A8N-E with a GeForce 6600GT. It is, understandably starting to struggle a bit.

I don't have the cash to replace it all, but I could splash the cash for AMD X2 4000 (or faster) socket 939 and a 7 series GeForce.

I take it this should be OK for most modern games? Don't need 100fps+ just playable games.

If it isn't good enough I'll save the cash and spend it on console games instead.

You probably need to look at your graphics card first then your CPU. Modern games are extremely gfx dependent, at any decent resolution.

A 6600GT is more of a HTPC card these days

Most people will probably also advocate buying a 3800+ and overclocking it, as opposed to buying a 4000+, 4200+ etc.

[edit: missed the bit about changing to the 7 series. My 7800GT is doing OK, still. Crysis was playable on a mix of lew/ medium settings. YMMV.

I wouldn't really consider buying a 7-series card now, however. Unless you can find one 2nd hand.]

 

[luminous]

Just got an x2 3800 from a 3700.Shame the multi is only 10 but figured out a nice overclock and the system seems a tad nippier overall now.Ok cool i can DO something else while a large file is being extracted lol
I remember when i got the 3700 for 150,the x2 was 220..
An x2 3800 for £35?,Crazy..but Niiicce

 

[LordSplodge]

You probably need to look at your graphics card first then your CPU. Modern games are extremely gfx dependent, at any decent resolution.

I wouldn't really consider buying a 7-series card now, however. Unless you can find one 2nd hand.]

Probably be a 8 Series by the time I get it...

 

[FoxEye]

Arrived today, and installed. With a Freezer 64 Pro, it's maxing out at 53 C under load. The other core is maxing at 48 or so. In fact one core is always 5-6 C hotter than the other. Hmmm.

So is this just a hot CPU? Should I be worried that one core gets hotter than the other (both at 100% in testing, btw).

Also, turned on Q-Fan for the first time ever. Absolutely useless, it set the fan to 600RPM and didn't increase the speed no matter how hot the CPU got

 

[Dougiebabe2003]

Arrived today, and installed. With a Freezer 64 Pro, it's maxing out at 53 C under load. The other core is maxing at 48 or so. In fact one core is always 5-6 C hotter than the other. Hmmm.

So is this just a hot CPU? Should I be worried that one core gets hotter than the other (both at 100% in testing, btw).

Also, turned on Q-Fan for the first time ever. Absolutely useless, it set the fan to 600RPM and didn't increase the speed no matter how hot the CPU got

It will increase the fan speed when it get's to a set temp

As for the 5-6c difference... My bro has the same chip and his has a difference of around 3-4c. I think it's normal and I haven't had any bad experiences with it.

His got to 2.75ghz with a 6.6% Vcore increase (1.35 to 1.43 I think...) sits stable and doesn't go over 60c

 

[FoxEye]

It will increase the fan speed when it get's to a set temp

It should, I agree

But it doesn't. According to the bios screen, the CPU is idling at 40ish. Which isn't what CoreTemp or SpeedFan are saying. Both estimate the idle temp to be more like 30 C.

The lowest I could set Q-Fan ramp-up temp = 51 C. So that's 11 C above idle. Well, in Windows, under CoreTemp, the temp goes from 30 to 50. That's 20 C over idle temp.

By anyone's logic, therefore, Q-Fan should ramp up the speed to max (2400 RPM). But it doesn't. Just sits there at 600 RPM as if that's the holy grail of fan speeds