My A64 Setup

[a12bc3]

I want to build a PC with the new athlon 64 processor, but I don't know what the difference between the 3200+ and the 3000+[Performance wise] is.
I am going to use the ASUS K8T800 K8V Deluxe MOBO and some PC3200 Ram, & I have moderate intentions to OC.

Is the price the only difference b/w the two chips?
Which one OCs better?
Are the 64bit chips great as is, or is OCing needed like the 1700+'s and 2500+ Bartons, to achieve awesome performance?

[P.S. I know there is 1Mb cache on the 3200+, apposed to 512k , but what is the performance gain in it?]

THANX

 

[The Coolest]

There is only a few % difference in performance in some apps, and none in others.. Basically there is nearly no loss in performance between the two chips, only thing is the 3000+ costs much less

 

[xcelerator]

the 3000+ is more worth it.........its half of the 3200+ in price and you won't see much difference

 

[DaveB]

Are the 64bit chips great as is, or is OCing needed like the 1700+'s and 2500+ Bartons, to achieve awesome performance?

I OC'ed my A64 3200+ to 2.26 GHz, but it ran very fast at default. So there isn't any need to OC, I just can't help myself.

 

[a12bc3]

Me neither, but thanx dave =)

My setup will constitute of the 3000+ because I will prolly sell my PC in 3-4 months anyways.

 

[rickd]

im running my A64 3000+ at 2.20 ghz on stock voltage so i dont think the 3200+ is not worth the price difference

 

[Quailane]

Are the 64bit chips great as is, or is OCing needed like the 1700+'s and 2500+ Bartons, to achieve awesome performance?

So there isn't any need to OC, I just can't help myself.

Heres the spill, when my stepdad bought a shiny new compaq several years ago when the palomino 1700+ processor was the best athlon under the sun, we thought the performance was awesome. As time passed it got overtaken by far from new processors and chipsets. Well, you're going to overclock. Maybe later rather than sooner but you should take that into consideration. You should buy parts that can overclock well when the performance feels less and less as newer things come out. I personally would go for the VIA chipset and an athlon 3000+. If you're going to buy this processor you should splurge on some really nice ram.

 

[Y.E]

regarding overclocking the a64 do u just up the fsb? and is there a pci/agp lock on the via boards? dont know much about a64 but was thinking of buying a new system myself

thanx y.e

 

[PiMpShiN]

nforece3 is the best for the a64 from what i've heard.

 

[Damian]

It depends what you're looking for. It hits higher FSBs (has a PCI lock whereas the K8T800 doesn't AFAIK; I still don't exactly get it) but the HT bus works at 600mhz and not the 800mhz of the VIA. Thus, at a given FSB, the VIA is faster. So if you're shooting for low CPU speeds and low FSB speeds (remember the multi is locked to 10x or lower) up to about 230 or so, get VIA... after that (if you have extreme cooling), your PCI/AGP devices are going to hate you, so then you should go nforce3.

Or you could wait for the nforce3 250 to come out.

 

[Y.E]

wait so there is only a 1/6 divider on the via board? so at 230 that is at 38 isnt that already too high? via should really lock the pci/agp

 

[Gautam]

The PCI bus is locked, but the AGP isn't, at least that's what I think... The nForce3 has both unlocked. Most people need to buy PCI66 hard drive controllers with them to run stably.

 

[Maxvla]

The PCI bus is locked, but the AGP isn't, at least that's what I think... The nForce3 has both unlocked. Most people need to buy PCI66 hard drive controllers with them to run stably.

Via chipset = no locks of any kind
NF3 150 = AGP lock but no PCI lock
NF3 250 (march/april '04) = Both locks