Which Athlon 64 for my new system?

[darXoul]

I'm buying my new rig soon and I need your opinions regarding processors. I'm getting a GF 6800GT (probably Leadtek), 1 GB of PC3500 Kingston HyperX memory and... yea, that's my question I'm currently considering 3 CPUs:

- Athlon 64 3000+ ($ 223 in my country);
- Athlon 64 3400+ ($ 431);
- Athlon 64 3500+ ($ 496).

Why A64 3000+? Good price... Besides, I've recently read an article on HardOCP where they overclocked it from 2 GHz to 2.45 GHz, yielding very significant performance improvements.
Why am I hesitating? Performance IS quite a bit lower than in the case of 3400+ and 3500+. Plus, it's socket 754.

Why A64 3400+? Price is now reasonable (by European standards) and it seems to be quite a bit faster than 3000+.
Why am I hesitating? Price difference between 3400+ and 3500+ is relatively small (well, around 65 bucks), and it's socket 754.

Why A64 3500+? Good performance, plus it's socket 939, and not really way more expensive than 3400+.
Why am I hesitating? Performance is not THAT stellar in comparison to 3400+ due to smaller cache (in fact, 3500+ even loses in some benchmarks, or is barely faster) = price premium not really justifiable; socket 939's upgradeability might be an illusion. My next major upgrade will come in ca. 2 years and by then, I think I'm going to need a different mobo anyway, with DDR2/PCI-E and maybe also BTX + other, new standards. Isn't s939's "future proof" label exaggerated and misleading for people like me?

Tell me what you think and which one you'd get

 

[Marsumane]

Originally posted by: darXoul
I'm buying my new rig soon and I need your opinions regarding processors. I'm getting a GF 6800GT (probably Leadtek), 1 GB of PC3500 Kingston HyperX memory and... yea, that's my question I'm currently considering 3 CPUs:

- Athlon 64 3000+ ($ 223 in my country);
- Athlon 64 3400+ ($ 431);
- Athlon 64 3500+ ($ 496).

Why A64 3000+? Good price... Besides, I've recently read an article on HardOCP where they overclocked it from 2 GHz to 2.45 GHz, yielding very significant performance improvements.
Why am I hesitating? Performance IS quite a bit lower than in the case of 3400+ and 3500+. Plus, it's socket 754.

Why A64 3400+? Price is now reasonable (by European standards) and it seems to be quite a bit faster than 3000+.
Why am I hesitating? Price difference between 3400+ and 3500+ is relatively small (well, around 65 bucks), and it's socket 754.

Why A64 3500+? Good performance, plus it's socket 939, and not really way more expensive than 3400+.
Why am I hesitating? Performance is not THAT stellar in comparison to 3400+ due to smaller cache (in fact, 3500+ even loses in some benchmarks, or is barely faster) = price premium not really justifiable; socket 939's upgradeability might be an illusion. My next major upgrade will come in ca. 2 years and by then, I think I'm going to need a different mobo anyway, with DDR2/PCI-E and maybe also BTX + other, new standards. Isn't s939's "future proof" label exaggerated and misleading for people like me?

Tell me what you think and which one you'd get

If you're an overclocker, get the 3000+ due to it being almost 1/2 the price of the other 2. The only reason y id get the other 2 is upgradeability (939) or if u wanted to oc one of them to, say 2.6/2.8ish because you are a performance freak like many people are on this forum. But overall, your best bet for the money is the 3000+.

 

[imported_tss4]

yeah get the 3000+. Much better deal. The second choice would be the 3500+ with 939 board, but you're right you'd probably just buy a new board in couple years anyway. The 3400+ seems like a waste of money. You don't need that performance, and if you do in the future, you can just wait for the price to go down and then upgrade the cpu

 

[darXoul]

Thanks for your feedback, guys. Yea, I guess the 3k+ is a good option but:
a) somehow, I'm tempted to get something faster;
b) I've never been an overclocker, simply because I found most non-hardcore (i.e. w/o water cooling, etc.) OC attempts rather useless - only for own satisfaction and not really for a noticeable performance boost. I am fairly positive I will overclock my A64 though. It's just I'm a bit afraid of getting a 3k+ CPU with poor OC-ability which might simply disappoint me.

You're probably right though. The price difference is really significant. For those saved bucks (or in fact, zlotys, since I live in Poland) I can get a good mobo, CPU fan and sound card.