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3700+ for $340 or 3200+ for $190?

S

shud

Golden Member
Ok, kind of in a dilemma here. Not only would the 3200+ Venice be easier on the bank account now, it'd also save me some money for an X2 when their prices drop more within my range (be that in 4 months or a year).

But the 3700+ offers the 1MB cache and apparently OC's to 2.8ghz with decent airflow and a good board (going DFI Lanparty). The 3200+ would also allow me to go with a 6800GT instead of an x800XL. I'm not too interested in OC'ing video cards, though, so that isn't that big of a deal.

Would I notice a significant improvement in gaming and multi-tasking with the 1mb cache of the 3700+, and are X2 prices really going to drop at all in the coming months?
 
if your not overclocking the gpu, the only real difference between the x800xl and 6800gt is that the nvidia card has shader model 3 and sli, i think the xl is a tad faster (though you probably wouldn't notice it), still it looks like more and more games are using it so it would probably be better to go 6800 with a 3200+

the 6800gt will probably have a higher resale value as well, the x800xl can only be used in crossfire with the x800pro (meaning 4 of its pipes will be disabled, ie you gain 8 pipes net), the 6800gt sli is close to an ultra
 
when gaming, the most important thing is the gpu. the cpu wont effect much. especially when you can overclock it like crazy 😉
 
Originally posted by: shud
Ok, kind of in a dilemma here. Not only would the 3200+ Venice be easier on the bank account now, it'd also save me some money for an X2 when their prices drop more within my range (be that in 4 months or a year).

But the 3700+ offers the 1MB cache and apparently OC's to 2.8ghz with decent airflow and a good board (going DFI Lanparty). The 3200+ would also allow me to go with a 6800GT instead of an x800XL. I'm not too interested in OC'ing video cards, though, so that isn't that big of a deal.

Would I notice a significant improvement in gaming and multi-tasking with the 1mb cache of the 3700+, and are X2 prices really going to drop at all in the coming months?
Click to expand...


My thought is go with the cheaper processor.

Honestly, the difference in performance between the two isn't that huge. I'd say pick the cheaper one, save the money for either a better video card (which will show a significant difference) or keep it for a later X2 purchase.
 
if you're gonna replace it with an X2, then there is no reason not to go with the cheapest placeholder processor available. A 3200+ would be great - in fact, a 3000+ will still OC for some great performance, and save an extra $50. In my opinion, it's NEVER worth it to pay more than $40 for another speed grade, especially when overclocking will top out around the same point regardless of model. Go for a 3200+/3000+ and whichever is cheaper, X800XL or 6800GT. All the money you'll save will help bankroll a nice upgrade to an X2 and possibly a R520/G70.
 
If you watch your adds
we have bought and seen 6800 GT's at Comp USA for way under $200 US

I agree with those who say 3000+
1gb value ram
good HSF
excellent PS
motherboard which which has X2 Bios
check motherboard forums first
video card is a tough call as I'm not a gamer but do use CAD and Adobe
save your money till later on the CPU
1mb L2 cache value is very application dependent
you will not see much increase in games unless you were running PC2700 ram or something
you would see a difference in CAD and Photoshop
and here 2gb would make more difference than an extra 512kb cache
multitasking depends... the integrated memory controller masks a LOT of sins...
wyrmrider
 
Originally posted by: wyrmrider
If you watch your adds
we have bought and seen 6800 GT's at Comp USA for way under $200 US
Click to expand...

Any links to a <$200 6800GT PCI-e? Cheapest seems to be around $350+ online. Are they really that cheap when on sale at a local B&M store?

 
Thanks for the opinions, guys. I don't like to OC THAT much, but I'm willing to do 5 or 600mhz, so I think I'll go with the 3200+. At my internship I'm making $16/hr this summer, so it's not like I need to be so frugal as to drop to a 3000+...it's just the cheap bastard in me winces at the $340 tag on the 3700+ and the knowledge of G70s and X2s within my means in a few months makes me lean more towards a cheaper proc.

I am indeed going to go with 2GB of RAM and run a divider, already decided on that. Again thanks for the input!
 
Go with the 3700+. You can overclock it like crazy and that 1MB cache is nice to have on your side. I want the X2 as well, but wait until the prices are reasonable and the chip has had time to mature. If you settle for the 3200 you're going to be counting the days until you get the X2 - not so with the 3700+ monster. Invest in the 3700+ and you'll have all the time in the world to wait for the X2 chips to become affordable 😉
 
Originally posted by: wyrmrider
If you watch your adds
we have bought and seen 6800 GT's at Comp USA for way under $200 US
Click to expand...

PCI-e?

No, didn't think so. The OP is talking about the S939 DFI LanParty... which is PCI-e.
 
When looking for a new CPU, I think it's a good idea to look at prices through Bizrate.com or pricegrabber(.com or .ca for Canada).
The socket 754 3700+ at ZipFlyZoom was like $264 US or something like that if I remember well. While a couple of vendors had them for over $500 US. Duh, what's up with that?

Anyway, it's not completely true that all games use mostly the GPU. UT2004 uses the CPU a lot. But, with anything like a 6600 GT or 9800 Pro or above, the game plays on max settings etc no problem. I'm so excited about UT2007 I might get a socket 754 mobo just to get a Sempron 3700+ when they come out. (It's on AMD's roadmap.) Then I would get a Geforce 8.
 
If you go with the 3200+ seems as if for the most recent chips that are shipping that you will achieve in the 2.5-2.7ghz range. Not to say you can't go higher, I'm just seeing more people getting in that range. I am running 2650mhz stable. Just a thought. That will hold you over until the X2.

That 1MB cache as much as people hype it up, has little to no gain for gaming. From my knowledge its more for high end applications. Even if it helped games, whats the difference between a game loading 5 seconds or loading 6 seconds? doesn't really make a difference.
 
you just need a good board with a 3000, save the bucks and put it either in a better gpu or save it for an x2 later
 
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