Performance increase from P4 3.2 --> AMD 3700+ SD

[shinryuu]

Hello,

My computer is 2 years old. I currently have a Pentium 4 3.2C w/ HT Northwood, ABit IC7-MAX3 motherboard, 2 GB of RAM, and an AGP ATI A-I-W X800XT.

I used to do quite a bit of gaming, but recently that has all tapered off to almost nil.

Now, I use my computer for graphics, web dev, office, production, nero, watching movies and anime, minor gaming, etc, and all of this with HUGE multi-tasking. (perhaps having like 3-10 programs open at all times). Also, overclocking is NOT an option. I really need stability for office/server type of usage.

So, I was thinking of upgrading, using the following:

AMD 3700+ San Diego core.
ASRock 939Dual SATA2 (just because it has AGP, and I can upgrade to PCIe later).
...I will keep my A-I-W X800XT, but buy new 2 GB RAM, new PS, new Case. (The old computer will go to my sister). So, looking to spend ~$600 max.

What is the performance delta between the 3.2C and the 3700+ SD core? Is it worth the upgrade? Will I get better performance in what I am doing currently? Or will the multitasking be severely affected?

Any advice is appreciated.

 

[biostud]

Only upgrade that would make sense is if you got a dualcore setup like the 3800+ X2. The P4 is generally better at multitasking than the regular A64.

 

[Ike0069]

Originally posted by: biostud
Only upgrade that would make sense is if you got a dualcore setup like the 3800+ X2. The P4 is generally better at multitasking than the regular A64.

Agreed.

 

[Ctrackstar126]

Ditto

 

[Lonyo]

Why buy new RAM? I assume you have PC3200 RAM to match the 200MHz FSB (x4) of the CPU oyu have, so why can't you use your existing RAM?
Even if you want to overclock, just use a mem divider, running 200MHz RAM won't do too much to hurt things compared to slightly faster RAM.

 

[shinryuu]

Originally posted by: biostud
Only upgrade that would make sense is if you got a dualcore setup like the 3800+ X2. The P4 is generally better at multitasking than the regular A64.

Hmm, i realize that. I was just curious to know what the performance difference would be. I mean, if the difference in multitasking with a 3700+ would be just about 10% slower, but overall performance is 100% faster, then its worth it, to me.

It seems to be that the benchmarks show that single threaded programs run slower on the x2? or running one or two programs is not as fast?

Still a bit confused, whether I should upgrade or not.... hehehe.

 

[shinryuu]

Originally posted by: Lonyo
Why buy new RAM? I assume you have PC3200 RAM to match the 200MHz FSB (x4) of the CPU oyu have, so why can't you use your existing RAM?
Even if you want to overclock, just use a mem divider, running 200MHz RAM won't do too much to hurt things compared to slightly faster RAM.

I would buy new RAM because I would leave the old RAM in the old system, as it would be practically complete, so my sister or someone can use it.

 

[raildogg]

Well I just got my 3700 San Diego and over the Pentium 4 3.0, its a huge upgrade. I had a Athlon 64 Newcastle before but this smokes everything.

 

[shinryuu]

Originally posted by: raildogg
Well I just got my 3700 San Diego and over the Pentium 4 3.0, its a huge upgrade. I had a Athlon 64 Newcastle before but this smokes everything.

Nice! Yea, thats the chip I am planning to upgrade to. What would you say is the performance increase overall from your old and new system? 30%? 50%? 100%?

Thanks.

 

[redhatlinux]

30% increase in performance is just not realistic. If you are lucky you will see 15% improvement. The 'smoking' probably came from a re-install of windows, and a reformat.