Honda_Boy Posted May 28, 2006 Report Share Posted May 28, 2006 (edited) Well folks I finally have some cash to start building a new system thanks to graduation. The problem is I'm wonderin which socket to get. I was looking at the AM2. It supports DDR2 but there are no X2's out for it. The best out I've seen on newegg is a 3800+ Single core. The thing is I don't want to get stuck with old barely supported hardware again. Last time a I built a system It was just as PCI Express was picking up but I had an AGP board. Well AGP cards started getting sparse and now spending money on a new card ain't worth it. Do ya'll think this will be a problem with DDR memory. PCI-Express Video and SLI will not be too much of problem. that crap is gonna be around a while. Do ya'll think that DDR is gonna fall off the face of the earth like AGP did? Another question is, is there a noticeable performance increase with DDR2 over DDR. Edited May 28, 2006 by Honda_Boy Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Honda_Boy Posted May 28, 2006 Author Report Share Posted May 28, 2006 (edited) OK I should have done this first thing. According to a Tom's Hardware review, only the high end processors benefit from DDR2. I'm going to be getting a mid range processor. SO I'm going to change my question. Should I actually get a dual core. Games is probably the primary purpose. Could be some things that could benefit from dual core. What, I Don't know. I can easily do most school work on one of my 2 Athlon XP systems.What stuff could I do that would benefit from dual core?Thanks. Edited May 28, 2006 by Honda_Boy Quote Link to post Share on other sites
xxkbxx Posted May 28, 2006 Report Share Posted May 28, 2006 People always say how X2's suck at gaming - yet my X2 3800 (socket 939 btw) is perfectly fine on BF2 or COD. I highly recommend you go with 2x1GB memory (OCZ is great, I've seen the platinum 2gb pc3200 at $140 after rebate which is fantastic) Personally, I think SLI is a bust, you're better off just investing in a good card (maybe one of those new 7900's if you have the $ ) Overall - go socket 939 because it will be out for a while, PCI Express (a no brainer) 2GB dual channel RAM. Also, go with SATA Raid 0. I really wish I would have done that on my PC since I built a few at work and their is a noticable difference (especially if you are loading game levels from an ISO on your hard drive.) You can snag 2 160GB SATA-300 drives for a good price now - or even get two Raptors for OS and such with a large IDE drive for backups. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Honda_Boy Posted May 28, 2006 Author Report Share Posted May 28, 2006 remeber, we already discussed the HDD issue a few weeks ago, I'm goin for a single large capacity IDE drive. SLI is out of the question for now, $ is an issue, I'll probably try and get a single 7900GT, not GTX. Until my parents chip in before college starts it'll probably have ot run on a PCI GeForce 4 MX 420. Possibly a low end 6 or 7 series card if I have a little left over.It's not that X2's suck at games, rather games do no utilize more than one core. usually when you are running a game, your not running anything else thus dual core is pointles. BUT I might want to use some stuff that can use dual core and I'd like know some. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
xxkbxx Posted May 28, 2006 Report Share Posted May 28, 2006 Dual core is great for decoding DVD's while you browse the internet and download music. When you're not playing games, you're usually doing more than one thing. I'm pretty sure that BF2 works off both of my cores (based on the Task Manager charts) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Honda_Boy Posted May 29, 2006 Author Report Share Posted May 29, 2006 (edited) I'll probably go dual core cause of the tiny price difference. A single core 3800 costs 284 and a dual core version is only 297. I may spring for the 4200 though.*Upon further deliberation, i've decided to go single core. I'm going to get a 3700 instead because it is only 235 nd has double the cache of a 3800. Edited May 29, 2006 by Honda_Boy Quote Link to post Share on other sites
xxkbxx Posted May 29, 2006 Report Share Posted May 29, 2006 I'll probably go dual core cause of the tiny price difference. A single core 3800 costs 284 and a dual core version is only 297. I may spring for the 4200 though.What is the price difference betweem the 3800 and the 4200? I've read that the 3800 is pretty overclockable to the 4200 speed without going stupid on it. IMO, I wouldn't pay extra unless you were going to the Toledo core (the 4400+ which is about $100 more) Guy I work with overclocked the 4400+ ton speeds as high as the most expensive X2 CPUI always hate the game, add $20 bucks get a little faster, or just add $100 - it never ends Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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