I currently am using a 3500+ AM2 X1. What kind of increase would I get
upgrading to a 4000 X2?
Thanks.
Dave Feustel
It depends on your usage. The 3500+ is 2.2GHz with a 1/2M cache. The X2
4000+ is 2GHz with dual cores with 1M caches. On most single threaded
applications it would be a wash. There are a few very cache sensitive
programs that can run almost twice as fast with the bigger cache, but
those are the exception, most programs will only run a little faster with
the bigger cache, but that would be offset by the lower clock speed.
Having dual cores nearly doubles the throughput of the system but you'll
only see that if you are running multiple CPU intensive applications at
the same time or if you are running multithreaded applications. If I were
you I'd either do nothing or get an X2 5600 (I'd avoid the 6000 because
it consumes 125W, the 5600 is only 89W), the 4000 is to small a step to
bother with unless you can take advantage of the second core. There is a
big round of price cuts due in the next few days, you should wait a
couple of weeks before doing anything so they new prices have a chance to
show up in the channel.