Which Athlon64 CPU is better?

[ShaunIOW]

I've got one of the Biostar 210P shuttle size systems that takes a socket 754 CPU.

Favorite atm is an Athlon64 3400+ but which one is better?

Athlon64 3400+ 1mb cache 2.2Ghz (clawhammer)

or

Athlon64 3400+ 512k cache 2.4Ghz (newcastle)

is more cache or a faster clockspeed the better option?

I use the PC mainly for surfing the net, web design, office applications, DVD creating/burning, occassional video file conversion and RPG/strategy games not FPS ones.

The rest of the spec will be:

1Gb PC3200 RAM (2x 512Mb sticks)
ATi 9600XT 128Mb graphics card
2x 160Gb 7200rpm/8Mb cache hard-drives
LG 16x DVD writer

Cheers

 

[sangyup81]

are you not overclocking?

if you aren't, the 512k cache version with higher clockspeed will be better for your general usage

 

[ShaunIOW]

Cheers for the reply.

No, not really into overclocking - although I did O/C my current 2500+ cpu to 3200+. For this new one I want to keep the heat down so don't think overclocking it will be a good idea as I need stability as it'll be on 24/7.

 

[Jeff7181]

Go with the higher clockspeed rather than more cache. The extra cache only helps in very specific situations, but the 200 Mhz speed difference will effect just about everything.

 

[t3h l337 n3wb]

Yeah, the cache will only give you like a 4% performance increase in certain programs from a processor with the same clock speed. However, 200Mhz will give you a better performance increase.

 

[ShaunIOW]

Cheers for the help - I'll go for the 512k version then.