newb to present day cpu question

[ITPaladin]

Since both run at same clock, but the opteron has the 1 mb cache and I guess built-in memory controller, what kind of jump in performance would I see?
I am looking to go to a budget 939 system.

 

[Furen]

AMD said that you could expect to see a 30% performance boost from going from a k7 to a k8 hammer with 1MB L2 and a single-channel DDR controller. Extrapolating that to 90nm San Diegos I'd say aroung 35%.

 

[ITPaladin]

I am looking at ebay....gotta be careful. One auction with a buy it now option has the cpu for 155 but you pay $20 shipping. In the text they say they include an arctic cooler ultra 64 for free with buy in now only ("a $50 value").
A simple google will tell you you can buy it for $20.
So you are paying $20 for the cooler since I doubt something that small will cost $20 in shipping.

 

[Furen]

Some coolers (dunno about the ultra64) are pretty heavy, so they might jack up the shipping on that too.

EDIT: If I was you I'd wait for a bit since these are still in short supply. If you can wait for a week or two I'd guess there will be some out there at good prices from decent resellers (I'm not too big on eBay).

 

[ITPaladin]

Also looking at tankguys. With the fedex 4 day shipping they are cheaper than monarch as long as you care to wait for supply.

It seems it would be better to get the 146's? Only like $20 more than 144.

 

[Furen]

If you check AMD's official prices you'll notice that these chips are actually supposed to be really cheap (the 146 is supposed to be like 150), so if you wait for supply to stabilize (who knows when that'll happen) you could save quite a bit. I, personally, dont like preordering, so I'd wait for the things to be in stock before pulling the trigger.