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AMD Athlon 3200 or 3500?

N

nexgenbuilder

Senior member
I've recently been looking for an easily overclockable cpu from AMD and have narrowed it down to the 3200 and 3500. Just want to know which is best(with a decent motherboard)
All comments will be greatly appreciated since I am obviously a new builder and buying for the first time. Thanks 😀
 
If the price difference isn't that much, go with the 3500 or the fastest CPU that will meet your budget since overclocking is never guaranteed and the higher multipliers will make overclocking easier.

However, from personal experience, I have had three s754 A64 3200+ that could overclock to 2.65GHz from the stock 2200. I have also had three 2800s, that overlocked @ 2.6, 2.4, & 2.2.

Sometimes you're lucky and you get a gem with a low end chip. But othertimes, you get a dud. On a flip side, if you go too high then you defeat the purpose of overclocking.

Also with single core processors, you can get some nice deals on old s939 CPUs + motherboards. However, once you start spending close to $90 for the CPU, you might want to think about going dual-core since you get get an OEM x2 3800+ from eWiz for about $90 which you can of course overclock.
 
For overclocking, I'd definitely go with one of these three chips: link. It's not rare at all for the 4000's and the 3700's to reach 2.8-3.0 Ghz, and you really can't beat the price of that 3400, which should do at least 2.6 Ghz.
 
Thanks guys for your input. Appreciate all comments. Agreeing with Nmascarenhas I think that the 3500 is fast enough for me. Also, does anyone have recomendations for good overclocking motherboards for around $70?
 
Originally posted by: nexgenbuilder
Please people I really need info on good motherboards preferably with PCI-E
Click to expand...

Well, I have the 3500+ on a socket 939 Chaintech VFN4 with PCI-Express 16. Works perfectly.

Since you are a first time builder, I wouldn't buy a mb or cpu with the idea of overclocking anything. Your first build is an opportunity to actually research every component before buying (manufacturer specs, tests, reviews) and then actually going through the process of assembly, and going through the process of troubleshooting. Once you know your baby inside and out, then you might consider tweaking things based on what you have. And then again you might decide that a bad overclock is a possibility and all your work is down the drain. Overclocking should be done only if you have a second PC. Or a lot of money for replacement parts.

Just my 2 cents.

-Bob


 
Originally posted by: Nmascarenhas
I disagree, the Athlon 64 3500+ is a very good first build cpu and is deffinately not slow.
Click to expand...

I had A64 3500+ cpu before and use it for 10 months it seems not so fast enough to me.
 
Originally posted by: nexgenbuilder
Please people I really need info on good motherboards preferably with PCI-E
Click to expand...
You've really waited way too long to be able to find a cheap Socket 939 motherboard, that overclocks well. These are what's left, that allow overclocking to some extent, for less than $100: link, but, just remember that you get what you pay for, especially with motherboards. Out of those, I'd definitely go with the KN8, if I were wanting a very high overclock. The nForce 4 SLI chipset, along with the nForce 4 Ultra are much better for overclocking than the vanilla nForce 4 and the nForce 4x are.
 
I myself took a A64 3500+ Venice to 2.9GHz (1.5v) 10x290 ( 2.8GHz 24/7 stable) using a DFI LanParty NF4 SLI-D with both GeIL Value BH-5 & OCZ Platinum EL CL2 with a relatively basic AC Freezer 64 air cooler.

I di kill it with a suicide run for 3GHz+, 3GHz wasn't stable but I wanted to see how far it would boot with. Final successful boot was 3.13GHz (1.6v) but it died shortly afterwards.

The extra multi does help a bit as you can run on 9x, 10x or 11x for greater flexibility. Back when they were cheap the Opteron 1xx series were great overclockers. If you can find one for cheap i'd highly recommend one.
 
Thanks a lot everyone for your input 😀. I actually did decide to go with the KN8 Along with some good OCZ Ram 2x512. I hope that nobody thought that I've never overclocked before, I meat that this was my first recent build in a while. My last system was a P3 lol 😀 Anyway...thanks again.
 
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