Thinking about upgrading my 3000+ Winchester...

[Gigantopithecus]

When I built this system a few months ago the only s939 cpu I could afford was the 3000+ Winchester. I've been allocating some funds towards upgrading the cpu and now have about $300 + whatever I can sell the 3000+ for to upgrade the cpu, so maybe $375-$425?

I do not overclock as I can't afford to wait for an RMA or even worse, the remote possibility the RMA would get denied due to overclocking.

I've been looking primarily at the 3700+ San Diego for its 1mb l2 cache, though admittedly I'm basing the assumption a bigger l2 cache would help not from experience with 1mb l2 caches, but from experience with 128kb & 256kb l2 cache cpus and how they compare with 512kb l2 caches.

I am not a big gamer, and my current rig runs the games I do play just fine for me. The only taxing things I do are number crunching with good sized data sets (with software that can be resource draining), and a lot of fairly extensive multitasking that involves audio encoding. Would an increase in l2 cache help with that? Or simply a faster cpu (ie. 3800+ Venice)?

Thanks for your advice!

 

[Mogadon]

If you do extensive multitasking why not wait a few more months, get together a little more cash and pick up a X2?

 

[mindgam3]

Save yourself a couple hundred bucks and just overclock the winnie until you can afford a x2! It is very safe to do if you read a bit about the settings to use and how to do it you will not ruin your hardware

 

[theMan]

yea, those winnies overclock like crazy. my 3200+ is at 2850 on air.

 

[Gigantopithecus]

Will the x2 cpus require different mobos than the single core s939 cpus? (Are the x2s s939 chips? Haha, I've not been reading up on them at all.)

 

[richardrds]

Overclock your current 3000+ winnie to 2.4Ghz and it will feel like you just bought a brand new A64 3800+. This is a 33% overclock (600Mhz) and probably can be done without any Vcore voltage increase thus making it very, very, very, safe!!!!!

Most 939 mobo's should support the Dual Core X2 939 processors, but a bios upgrade may be needed. I would just OC your 3000+ for now, and save up some more money and buy a X2 after this years Xmas season when the prices will probably drop and mobo bios issues are all worked out!!!

P.S. - It is a shame so many people own these great overclocking CPU's (Wincherster Core) and are afraid to tap into them for more power. Most 3000+ Winchesters can easily get to 2.4Ghz on stock Vcore (1.4V). I am doing it with probably the worst OCing mobo ever released for the S939's, an Abit AV8. I forgot, did i mention it would be safe to do this!!!!!

 

[imported_wyrmrider]

I agree with the moderate oc and wait for x2 crowd
you do not state what your memory is but $80-100 US for a gb of 3200 would not hurt your apps if you do not have already
also a raptor makes it feel like a whole new computer
buying a new venice or san diego makes no sense as soon as you mention "multitasking"

edit just clicked on DESKTOP and you'v already done the above
I would think OC for sure you have great cooling
case air flow good?
hp 2100?
currrently using a 2500 CM myself plus LJ series III

first check out the forums on the MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum

wyrmrider