CPU upgrade for AM2

[jfenwick]

So am building a comp for the wife slowly over the next 5 or 6 months. She uses it only for office/school/internet and music (ipod) stuff and plays absolutely no games on it. Going to do a cheap AM2 build and instead of getting her a new CPU I'll upgrade mine and bump the 3600+ to her.

Here is what I'm thinking:

NCIX.com - Buy AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Dual Core Processor Socket AM2 2.6GHZ Retail Black Box No HSF Unlocked - ADO5000DSWOF In Canada.

Is there anything else worth considering for an upgrade? Is it worth considering the 6400+ for $50.00 more?

NCIX.com - Buy AMD Athlon 64 X2 6400+ Dual Core Processor Socket AM2 3.2GHZ 2X1MB 90NM Unlocked Retail Box *No HSF* - ADX6400CZWOF In Canada.

Where do you guys see these prices going over the next year? will the 5000+ black box drop much more or is it bottoming out around $100?

 

[ricanflow]

The 5000+ can hit 6000+ speeds without touching the voltage, its the better buy.

 

[Nagasama]

^absolutely^
i can run mine at 6400 speed with stock volts.
it can hit 6000 speed no problem and then some, lol. i could probably undervolt it at 3ghz.
easily you can raise the multi to 16 and get 3.2 with no voltage increase.
i'd say wait if you can, the 5000 will get at least 25-30 dollars cheaper in the next month i wager. i just paid 130 for mine about 2 months ago

EDIT:hahahaha jfenwick your post reminds me of my moms "office" rig....
x2 4200 abit nf4 ultra 2gb gskill HZ WD 160gb 7300gt or le or whatever lol...slap a VC in there and you got a gamin rig lol. i just thought that was funny. when i buy a quad core, i'll pass this rig on to my wife. wives are good for hand-me-down computers.

 

[veg1992]

was the x2 4200+ the Brisbane or the Windsor?

 

[LeftEyeBlind]

Would a 6400+/5000+ clocked at 3.0Ghz have any advantage over a 3600+ at 3.0Ghz? Or would I be paying to some extra Mhz only, And would L2 Cache really boost performance?

 

[Nagasama]

there wont be any difference performance wise between the 3600 and the 5000 at 3.ghz except temps (which is actually a big dofference). the 5000 will do 3ghz probably at like 1.3V or less. a 3600 aint gonna do that.
the 6400 is 3.2ghz. the l2 cahce will make a small differerence in performance.

 

[LeftEyeBlind]

Is their any AM2 cpu [like a phenom?] that I can get that will give me a fat performance boost?

 

[veg1992]

there wont be any difference performance wise between the 3600 and the 5000 at 3.ghz except temps (which is actually a big dofference). the 5000 will do 3ghz probably at like 1.3V or less. a 3600 aint gonna do that.
the 6400 is 3.2ghz. the l2 cahce will make a small differerence in performance.

6400+ probably will have a bigger edge because it has more cache, but yes it is a small difference

 

[Nagasama]

vdogg the 4200 is a windsor.
lefteyeblind the phenom will not give a huge huge increase unless you are doing some heavy duty multi-tasking. that and it is questionable that it will reach 3ghz easily. the BE phenom looks like it will, but i dont know cos i dont have one at the moment.

 

[gurusan]

5000+ BE for sure.

Steer clear of the Phenom for now. Things may change with the B3 stepping..but I am doubtful as to whether it will ever be a good choice to buy.