X2 3800 or X2 4400?

[fred_easey]

Hi,

My mate's buying a new CPU, either a 939 X2 3800 or a 939 X2 4400.

Question -

How much difference would the 512Kb difference in L2 cache make? Would he actually notice much of a difference with the 4400 1mb L2 cache? Enough to warrant paying an extra £50?

Fred

 

[p4radox]

My gut reaction is no. The 4400 would probably clock a bit higher, and the extra cache would make a bit of difference, but only for things like encoding and benchmarking. Neither CPU would have any problems coping with the latest games if that's what the system will be used for. What's the system's main use?

 

[fred_easey]

All-round use, watching films, games (eg BF2), music, work (eg spreadsheets, email) etc.

So for standard windows use the extra cache makes little difference?

(I can imagine most apps are hitting the RAM anyway, so extra 500kb of L2 should make little difference?)

 

[harris1986]

from *** i've seen the 3800's and 4400's are clocking around the same the only diff is the cache! i went from a 3800 that did 2.8ghz, to a opty 170 that did 2.8ghz on stock volts and performance was identical, only difference was a few hundred points benchmark scores but then again how many benchmarks do u actuall play?

 

[fred_easey]

The other option is to go Intel.

What would be better, an X2 3800 setup, or an Intel Allendale setup?

(...or should he just splash the extra cash and get a Conroe?)

 

[p4radox]

The other option is to go Intel.

What would be better, an X2 3800 setup, or an Intel Allendale setup?

(...or should he just splash the extra cash and get a Conroe?)

Allendale would be a lot better than the 3800. A lot are hitting 3GHz with the gigabyte DS3. This would be vastly superior to the X2 in almost* every respect. Personally I'd say it's not worth going all the way to a Conroe, but it depends how much your mate is willing to pay.

*covering my back here in case a fanboy comes along and nitpicks

 

[queamin]

My 3800 only does 2.6 with water so i would go 4400 or if he can aford conroe that the way to go.
edit to add.you cannot be sure you get a good clocker my 3000 did a higher clock than my 3800 that was with air.
Q

 

[trojan698]

If he's prepared to make the switch, its definately worthwhile going for an allendale.