Just a simple one for people to yes or no me at. (feel free to back up the opions though!) I'm trying to throw a new rig together before a big LAN this August and I want it to last at least a little while before I have to plunk mobo's out of it and rehaul so I'm going AMD64 Socket 939 on it. Three contenders weigh in:

FX-53 2.4GHz 1MB @ ~$800
3800+ 2.4GHz 512KB @ ~$700
3500+ 2.2GHz 512KB @ ~$490

I'd really like to just snag the 3500+ and hope that keeps me truckin' until hopefully next spring or until a nice FX processor gets a little more reasonable. I just wanna know if going up a step to the 3800+ would bring about what you folks would consider (personal opinions, I know) $200 worth of extra oomph. Specifically in games. I try really hard not to run anything less than the newest of the new in GPU's so that bottleneck won't really be a problem. X800XT is going in this one (if they ever come out!!!), for example. I only run at 1280x1024 or lower with little to no AA/AF also. So anyway, thoughts on whether 3800+ instead of 3500+ would be worth the extra jack? I'd value the opinions of some seasoned pimps over countless questionable review sites any day of the week. Thanks for takin' the time to read this!

Oh, P.S., save your "No no no, go P4" and "What's so bad about Socket-A or 754?" stuff. I like all fast processors equally (I'm Intel/AMD bi-partisan so-to-speak), but 939 is currently the most future friendly as near as I have learned. If I'm wrong however, please feel free to tell me. I'd be more than happy to be educated. *points to self and mouths, 'n00b'*

do i think its worth the extra $200, nope
since its a gaming PC i doubt you would notice, and even if you did notice anything the difference would be so slight that it wasnt worth the $200 anyways.


here are some benchmarks but there in russian i think but you can get the drift from the graphs
http://www.x86-secret.com/articles/cpu/s939/s939-6.htm

Yeh, I've looked at various benchies till I'm blue in the face, but little discrepencies in bar graphs aren't much to convince me. (though, granted, the certainly help and are much better than nothing)

Why do you say that I won't notice since it's a gaming PC? I mean, yes, that will be its main lot in life, but what do you mean? Are the major differences between the 3800 and 3500 for the most part to do with encoding and other such silliness?

I guess I'm just looking a this from a raw performance-to-cash POV. Or a 'bang-for-the-buck' if said 'buck' is $200.

Oh, I forgot to mention this. I'd be getting the OEM version of whatever processor I buy and then putting on a non-stock HSF. I'm looking at a Swiftech MCX6400-V one right now since I've read at a few places that socket 754-compatible HSF's work just dandy with socket-939. I haven't ever OC'ed and probably won't overclock this rig either as I am a collosal **cat** ... *ahem* when it comes to that kind of thing.

Also, the mobo will most likely be Gigabyte's Nforce 3 Ultra socket-939 entry. It's $230 or something like that which is absolutely nuts, I know, but I remember hearing that the Nforce-based mobos are better performers than the new VIA K8T800Pro boards for said socket. Once again, if anyone cares to dispute this opinon, please do. I'd hate to drop extra money on an iffy performance boost. Hence this thread!

If you can afford the 3800, then go on and get it.

Personally, since I'm not rich, I would rather build a computer for 700 bucks.

The decision is yours.

i say go for the 3500+, spend the $200 you saved on some cajones, and OC it to make up the difference

Heh. Thanks Dakas. I needed that. Yeh, I would love to get into OC'ing I just don't like the thought of getting too speed-happy, overdoing it and *pffft* fryin' something. And learning off the 'net may be good for some people, but I need to have someone physically be there to help me through it the first time, I think.

I assure you all, I am many things, but rich is definitely not one of them. I suffer from what my friends refer to as 'Kramer Syndrome', falling a$$-backwards into money and women whilst not working for any of it.

I also have a tendency to spend most of my money on computer-related shYte. The only thing that can (and far too often does) usurp that rule is the girlfriend. But such is life.

The point is, I am a stickler for good framerates (300fps+ in QIIIA I don't care about) I mean no stuttering in 'Far Cry' (pipe dream?) and being able to use post filtering in 'Hitman: Contracts' without the rig having an aneurysm. I rarely use AA and AF as I said and the only thing I upgrade far too regularly is my video card and sound card (don't ask about the latter).

I wouldn't be starting this thread if I didn't care about the money. I care about noticable peformance for my dollar. Bragging rights are nice, but I try not to brag. Last time I did that, my motherboard mysteriously fried half my old computer. Karma's a b1tch.

I'm all for extending the life of computer components, so I'm going to ask... are you saying OC'ing the 3500+ on decent aircooling (no Tornados, I want to HEAR my games, thankyouverymuch ) is a viable, worthwhile and not TOO risky venture? Or am I totally missing something.

Get the 3500+ spend the extra $200 on a watercooling setup and overclock the sh!t out of it

someone correct me if im wrong. when it comes to gaming does the proc. speed matter all that much anyway? obviously a 3500 compared to a 900 yeah. but isnt most of the work being done by the gpu?

Thanks Tekx, I was wondering the same thing and that answers that.

Damn good article, TekXoID. Thanks!

Oy, moving from never OC'ing anything straight into H20 territory? I dunno. That's quite a leap. Plus, mind you I'm initially getting this rig prepared for some LAN action and I've heard that hauling watercooled set-ups around regularly can be a risky business even for experienced folks. Let alone for a lowly, wet-around-the-ears (HAR...) n00bs as myself. But maybe after the LAN in August I'll start looking around. I bet Lokie (always nice to have pimp royalty live near you) would have some input as I know he's got some WC'd stuff. I've always dreamed of a fancy pant Danger Den-based setup.

Well... looks like the 3500+ will do me just fine. If anyone gives me any sh1t for having ONLY a 2.2GHz, I'll just say, 'Hey, you just wait until this little lady has some water coursing through her, muthasucka.'

But that's a topic for another forum on another day. Thanks you guys! As always, having the pimps sound off saves the day (and some cash) again!

Water cooling indeed has some advantages but until CPU's require such
cooling to maintain an acceptable temperature I have no reason to W/C.

Personally, I would go with a ThermalRight SP-97 / Enermax 92MM 64CFM.
I use PCM+ as my thermal interface material, that or Ceramique will do the job.

TekXoID, are you recommending that I get that HSF or are you saying you would do that for your system? Because I popped on over to FrozenCPU and it says that the SP-97 is a socket-A heatsink. I don't know that socket-A stuff will work with socket-939. I'll do a little more research though.

Otherwise, would you say that on the whole, Thermalright would be a better bet than Swiftech? I've heard only good things about both brands in regards to their HSF solutions. There's a Thermalright SLK-948U for Athlon64/FX/P4's there as well. No heatpipes though, so boo on that. However it's the only Thermalright sink I can find taht for sure works with the new 64-Bit AMD processors.

Thoughts anyone? My house is hella hot as it is, so any cooling that doesn't sound like a jet engine (silent isn't necessary though) is more than welcome. My room has 12 full windows and as such, gets quite warm from time to time, even though I have an AC in the adjacent room going full tilt boogie to help.

In your system, the SLK-948U. Heatpipes or not it will still keep temps well below acceptable limits.
Water cooling or not you still are not going to get cooler than ambient, remember that.

Oh yeah, I suppose you're right. Good point. Water's only gonna be so cool, I guess. Hrmm... and phase change and other such fancy stuff is the only real way to plunge below ambient anyway, right?

And that's like another grand. Screw that. Plus I could've sworn I heard that Nventive (the Mach 1, II and GT folks) went out of business. Also, I don't have the patience to wait as long as those machines take to reach the proper temps then turn on. Hellz naw.

Eh, that's a whole other can 'o' worms though. I'll just stick with good ol' aircooling until I can get into a more computer-friendly environment (e.g. a room that isn't lovingly referred to as the 'sun room'. Then go from there. But thanks for the recommendation, Tek! It looks a bit smaller than the Swiftech which can only help! Well... this is all going in a CM-Stacker, so space will prolly not be much of a problem anyway.