X2 3800+ Upgrade, Worth It Or Not?

[Dougiebabe2003]

Hi all,

I was helping my brother out today with some computer issues and thought i'd look him up a new CPU.

He runs the 939 socket that I used to have and I thought it had died out like the 754, I was surprised to see an X2 range sitting there in overclockers itself! (Dunno how I have bin missing it!)

He wants the cheapest as he's a cheapstake and there is no moving him on that.

He currently has a athlon 64 3000+ venice core....not overclocked.

Just wondering if people think the upgrade is worth it?

He won't go to a new socket as he says he doesn't need it, thinking extra ram but his didn't like four sticks and ddr ram seems more expensive than ddr2 ram...

Only other upgrade is a graphics card which he's thinking about but not now.

Any help most welcome!

Cheers!

 

[w3bbo]

If he's mainly a gamer then a GPU upgrade makes most sense. The 3800x2 is still a very good cpu and for the price now its a bargain and would be a nice upgrade from a single core 3000.

 

[Dougiebabe2003]

Cheers for the reply,

Yeah that's all I was mainly thinking, a nice single core to multi upgrade without the socket switch.

Do you think he would see any improvment over his old chip? On a single core basis the X2 is 200mhz faster than his old 64.

Will he seen any FPS improvment JUST on the chip alone? (Maybe with a bit of an OC )

He's only youngish and plays WOW all the time but even that on his x1650 PRO and it struggles to keep the fps in the 40's. He might be getting my X850 XT PE if I get a new card so he'll be sorted there.

Cheers!

 

[w3bbo]

Might be a little difference but the biggest difference would be a gpu change like I said previously, the problem arises when you get a fantastic GPU but it is then bottlenecked with a poor cpu - aim to get a good balanced system. Windows should also be a little 'snappier' with a cpu upgrade aswell as a ram upgrade.

 

[Digital Punk]

The X2 3800+ is cheap as chips. Well worth it imo.

Absolute bargain, and will usually overclock to 2.6Ghz - 2.8Ghz.

It'll add a few more fps onto games as well.

 

[mdjmcnally]

Is he finding gaming slow, if not then not worth it.

 

[Big.Wayne]

If he's mainly a gamer then a GPU upgrade makes most sense.

I would say it depends whether he plays FPS games or RTS games.

The FPS games love a nice shiney GPU and the RTS games thrive on the added CPU cores (as well as core speed of course).

 

[duvet77]

i hope you don't mind me jacking your thread....

on a similar note, I currently have an Athlon 64 4000+. Am I likely to see much performance increase from switching to an Athlon X2 4400+?