A64 3000+ Vs A64 3200+

[JayMan]

Hey all... I'm currently thinking about building a new PC... Over here in australia the Athlon64 3200+ is about $100 more than the 3000+. Is the extra cache really worth the $100?

The PC will be used to gaming, net surfing, music encoding, video encoding & graphics work (probably 2d & 3d).

JayMan

[poopeyhed2]

Various hardware sites have pitted the A64 3000+ vs. the 3200+. And the 3000+ is the best bang for the buck in the 64-bit arena. It runs nearly on par with the 3200+, just with less cache. Check out anandtech.com for the review.

[FrankieF21]

well actually on newegg.com it is only about 47 dollars more. Im thinking a spending the extra. feelin risky

[JayMan]

Frankie, as i said, currently in AUSTRALIA there is a $100AUD difference... And newegg don't ship international last time i checked.

I'll see how the money situation goes... Might wait till july before i build so hopefully there will be newer out by then...

JayMan

[Jeordiewhite]

$100 aud and $47 usd are about the same thing right?
If I was looking into upgrading, I would wait, as it's not the best time to upgrade at the moment, but the machine will be quite a fast performer, however if you don't want to spend the extra money then you couldn't go wrong with the 3000+, for cache, if you wanted to just splurge and go for it, you probably wouldn't be sorry.
However I still don't see the athlon 64's as practical, but something that most of us will likely go spend on one down the road. Atleast not practical till an os that comes out and supports it and a number of programs and games, however that will be awhile before that happens and only thing your really going on is performance of the processor. It just seems that by the time the athlon 64 gets a supported OS many things will change and advanced, if you need something that will haul and just need a fast machine, go for it. IT will be costing you a good ammount of money, saving the 100AUD isn't a huge difference tho imo.

[JayMan]

Actually at the moment i think $100AUD = $77USD.

I wouldn't be buying the a643000+ cuz its 64bit, i'd be buying it cuz it performs higher than the axp3000+ and pretty much the same price. And the support is there for when everyone pulls their fingers out & gets the x86-64 programs happening...

(as i said in my last post) I think i will wait till the 2nd half of the year... SO then i've paid for insurance/rego/etc for my car & will know how much $$$ i've got to spend on the PC without stretching the budget too far...

JayMan

JayMan

[Jeordiewhite]

Fair enough and good decision, while the athlon 64 bit does out perform just about anything, especially the 3400+, it doesn't seem worth the extra cash when you aren't able to take full advantage of it and might have near obsolete hardware when the OS and program support starts arriving.
Especially now the athlon 64 and opteron has already gone under hardware revision.
However the sheer speed and price aren't a big enough selling point for most people, however i guess it is still something to look foreword to in the future, i just hate to think of it after spending a great deal on my systems. but oh well, they find ways for us to throw more money at.

[FrankieF21]

i am planning on waiting hopefully until they upgrade their non FX chips to the 939 chipset so that it will be more upgradable in the future. because currently it isnt really worth it.

[FrankieF21]

i read i beleive it was here that they will be switching their chipsets at the end of next year so im gonna go ahead and build and then wait until the next chipset comes out and see how that goes.

[squeech]

Syntax Note: The socket will change from 940 to 939 pins, but chipsets will not change (nForce3 and K8T800 will just update code for the new socket without releasing another version).

Maybe I'm too picky

You guys should really head over to Anandtech's Roadmap for all the details (if you haven't already).