Getting then OC'ing a Athlon 64 3700+ or an Athlon X2 3800+

[FxCMYfOB]

I'ma really big noob when it comes to this because I'm planning to buy a new comp soon, so I was wondering which processor I should get. I still don't know if I want to overclokck it because I am sort of scared, but I really do want to. Anyways, that comp specs will be:

AMD Athlon 64 3700+ w/ 1MB Cache Or AMD Athlon X2 3800+ w/ 2 x 512 KB Cache
Zalman CNPS9500 LED Ultra Quiet CPU Cooler
Asus A8N-E w/ DualDDR400, 7.1 Audio, Gigabit Lan, SATA2.0, PCI-E x16
Mushkin XP4000 Xtreme Performance Black Series DDR SDRAM, 2GB Dual Pack
Antec Performance TX1050B SOHO Tower w/ 500W SmartPower 2.0
Antec 500W SmartPower 2.0 Included with Case
Seagate 300GB Barracuda 7200.9 SATA II w/ NCQ, 16MB Cache
eVGA e-GeForce 7900 GT KO 256MB PCI-E w/ Dual DVI, HDTV-Out

I was also wondering if the motherboard I chose supports SLI. Please help me and feel free to comment on what parts I should change.

P.S. The computer will mainly be used for gaming but I will still be doing other things on it too.

 

[rottenotto]

Really, don't be afraid of overclocking.... it's a lot simpler than it seems at first. I just built my first system, and I'm having tons of fun getting it OC'd to 600 Mhz faster than stcok speeds.


Were I you, I'd read as much about the topic that I can. Sites that include the word "overclocker" in it provide very helpful tutorials ( google it), and generally have forums there that are very helpful with specific questions.

That system just cries out to be overclocked. If you go with the 3700+ , order the one with the E4 stepping, not the E6. The E6's tend to be faulty Toledo dual cores with the faulty core disabled.

Best of luck..
Otto

Oh, and no- that mobo does not support SLI... this one does[L=http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131517]. However , bear in mind that in SLI mode, the cards will run in 8x mode, not 16x. Only a few boards out now will suport PCI-E 16x2.

 

[Bobthelost]

Right, in reverse order:

No your motherboard does not support SLI, which is a good thing as SLI is often a poor upgrade path (unless you're buying another card in the next six months i wouldn't bother).

You're spening too much money on overclocking RAM, using RAM dividers you can OC the CPU and leave the RAM at stock speeds, since A64s don't care about RAM speed it's not a big performance hit.

For gaming the X2 will not be significantly faster than the 3700+. Odds are that the single core will OC further, and since the performance gain seen from dual cores are minimal to say the least. However if you're going to do stuff like encoding DVDs the dual core will make a massive difference. If you can i'd go dual core for the other applications and for the epenis waving ability.

 

[FxCMYfOB]

So I guess i'll go with the 3700+ then, my friend has it and he says it's really good. I don't understand what you meant about my RAM. Can you explain more?

 

[JPH1121]

He's recommending that you buy value RAM. Get RAM that can get 2-3-3 or lower as A64s like low RAM timings more than high RAM frequencies.

If you overclock, you'll be better off with RAM running @ 2-2-2 at 200mhz than 3-4-4 @ 300mhz. High frequencies give you more bandwidth and most of the time, an A64 can't use the bandwidth available to it at 200 mhz with effecient RAM timings.

A lot of value ram can hit low timings at 200 mhz/DDR3200 but can't hit high frequencies with low timings. Unless you are an extreme enthusiast, don't waste your money on expensive RAM.

 

[deadseasquirrel]

You can save a lot of money by getting cheaper ram and a cheaper CPU. Depending on your monitor's capabilities (i.e. what resolution you play games at) and what games you play, the 3700+ or x2 won't perform any better than a simple 3000+ or 3200+. However, the money you save from those 2 things could go into grabbing the GTX or XT or even SLI GTs (if you change your motherboard)... all 3 of those video solutions with a 3000+ will perform better in games than the 3700+ or x2 with a single GT for the same money. Again, though, it depends on what games you like and what settings/resolution you play at.

 

[robertk2012]

Get value ram. If your only gaming the get a 3000 or opty 144 and overclock.....use the money you saved for future upgrades. If you do a lot of encoding then go dual core with an opty 165 or 3800.