Upgrade to a 4200 X2 from a 3700 San Diego for $70?

Caxus

Just curious if anyone thinks it's worth it to go dual core and a little faster for $70. It would mostly be for games, not so much multi-tasking. Do most of the newer games take advantage of dual core cpus? I know $70 is cheap but part of me is afraid there will be almost zero difference. Also, the X2 i'm looking at has a 512k cache whereas my sandiego has a 1mb cache. Would I be wasting $70 or would i notice a difference? Thanks.

mas0n

1) NEW games are really starting to take advantage of multiple cores
2) Most games show very little improvement with increases of L2 Cache to AMD processors
3) Both CPUs have the same frequency of 2.2GHz

From my point of view you have nothing to lose.

mas0n

Tom's Hardware has some very good charts for questions like these. For example:

FEAR is not a multi-threaded game, and as such the results of your upgrade would be unnoticeable: http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu_2006.html?modelx=33&model1=487&model2=479&chart=169

Quake however, IS a multi-threaded game (after the latest patch) and the results of your upgrade would be well worth your $70: http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu_2006.html?modelx=33&model1=487&model2=479&chart=166

And like I said most new games that are worth a toss are multi-threaded. If you are wanting to play the latest Source games, this would be a well spent $70 and may hold off further upgrades for a while.

This is all assuming you are not GPU limited, and I'd like to state for the record that I am an upgrade whore.

Caxus

Wow, what a great link. I've been looking for something like that for ages. Thank you.

Caxus

Is there any difference between a Toledo and a Manchester? Manchester is $63.50 while Toledo is $70.

mas0n

Manchester uses E4 stepping and Toledo uses E6 stepping. I seem to recall the E6 being a better overclocker and it also had some tweaks done to the integrated memory controller, I believe to offer better support for 4 DIMMs.

stoopid

I would shoot a little higher if your board supports the 5,000+ range X2. I don't think there's enough difference (L2 cache increase or not) to justify the $70.

I'm waiting for the 5x00+ to come down to that price before upgrading my 4400+.

mas0n

There is no 5000+ series for 939, The highest model numbers for 939 were the X2 4800+, FX-60, and Opteron 185.

stoopid

mas0n wrote:

There is no 5000+ series for 939, The highest model numbers for 939 were the X2 4800+, FX-60, and Opteron 185.

Thanks for the update .

For my own upgrade I'll need to look at whether my board is AM2 or 939. I guess I assumed it was 939 because it's OEM and the max processor they sell in this lineup is 4800+. I also assumed they were releasing the 939s for a while more before forcing people to AM2. Assuming = ASS out of U and ME. Okay, mostly just ME. lol

In this case, I would definitely wait for the 4800+ to come down to your pricing. It's the final cpu upgrade you'll be able to do so I can't see doing 2 upgrades.

**Update - I'm confused - there's a 5,000+ model aspire. Maybe I have an AM2 after all. Time to crack open the case and look up the motherboard manufacturer's info. Sorry for the threadjack, but thanks for getting the gears moving on this.

mas0n

All of the 939 CPUs are EOL now, the last one in production being the 4200+. I doubt you will see much of a drop in price for the 4800+, or at least not one worth waiting for and I'd assume it would go up before it came down. There are a limited number in the wild and people with 939 rigs will be snatching those up.

Also, the 4800+ is only a 200MHz increase over the 4200+

4200+ is 2.2GHz w/ 512K per core
4400+ is 2.2GHz w/ 1MB per core
4600+ is 2.4GHz w/ 512K per core
4800+ is 2.4GHz w/ 1MB per core

I bet a 4200+ would hit 2.6GHz with very little effort and outperform them all if one was so inclined. Personally, If I wanted to upgrade a 939 to an X2 on the cheap I'd grab a 3800+ Toledo for $60 and clock the hell out of it. With a good board, most the Toledo hit 2.7 before they need a bump to voltage.

stoopid

mas0n wrote:

I bet a 4200+ would hit 2.6GHz with very little effort and outperform them all if one was so inclined.

That's 100% true, assuming one can/does overclock. I'm a few days behind on things right now (been busy with other stuff the last few months). As usual, the PC market is moving swiftly! lol

Turns out I have an ECS ( ) AM2 board ( ). No idea what the max cpu can be, but I imagine the 5600+ would work.

mas0n

Yeah, all it takes is a few months and you're a generation behind!

mas0n

Oh and btw Caxus, you probably know this, but you can also purchase the AM2 Upgrade Card for that ASrock 939-Dual SATA2 and move on up to AM2+DDR2. Not something I'd personally recommend, but an available upgrade path nonetheless!