Advice on X2 choice..

[amking]

As the holidays have drawn to a close I really think I am about ready to take the plunge and go for that system I have been waiting to build since forever ago....

But as I now look @ the greatly changed X2 prices and updated benchmarks on various sites, I still don't know what to get chip wise (although I am all but sold on the A8N32 board). What kills me in these benchmarks is that it just doesnt look like the extra cache has that great of an effect...whereas I always thought it would make a big difference =\ . In any event, price isn't so much a concern, and I would definately say I am looking @ the higher chips in the line. Oh, and I won't be overclocking beyond a couple hundred mhz, so that isnt the biggest thing either. What I gather so far is that the 4600+ is the smarter buy over the 4800+, which is what I originaly had wanted....where I'm torn though is that I really just want to build a great system and be done with all these small upgrades I have done because I've been disatisfied. Please post any thoughts or advice you have....or even better yet if you have exp with one of these chips and can speak to that, I'd appreciate it.

 

[chinkgai]

i have experiences with all the chips except the 3800+ and the 4600+

if money is an issue, get the 3800+ and overclock it. on average they hit about 2.5-2.6ish

if money is less an issue, get the 4400+, simply for the extra cache...benchmarks may not utilize the cache as well as a real life application may

almost no one will recommend a 4600+ nowadays cuz a 3800+ is almost guaranteed to hit that speed.

for max overclock...get the 4800+...which is what i currently own

i am 3ghz prime stable with it.

also consider the cheapest opteron dual core (all of which have 1mb cache)...which is stock at 1.8ghz but is also nearly guaranteed to hit 4400+ speeds (not hard at all to go beyond 4800+ speeds too from what i've randomly seen in threads)