I was planning on buying the 3800, but with the recent price reductions was thinking of getting the 4600 instead. Is there a noticeable siginificant difference between these two chips or should I save money and just get the 3800? Any opinions would be greatly appreciated.
if you overclock, you should get the 3800 but if you don't the 4600 is great.the 3800 is an amazing overclocking chip.
I don't overclock. So you'd recommend the 4600 over the 3800? Is the difference noticeable and significant? Right now I have an athlon xp 2600, so I'm sure that either chip outperforms my current cpu.
Well would would you be doing mainly with that chip. If gaming go for the 4600 and if doing everyday tasks. Word processing. Browsing internet etc go for the 3800 x 2!
I play Battlefield 2 all the time so I do game. The main purpose in getting the new cpu was so I could use adobe premiere elements 2.0; the program needed some special chip set in order to be installed. I'm sure the 3800 will suit the task, but if the 4600 will do significantly more then I will get it since there is a price reduction. Nobody has answered my main question. Is there a significant and noticeable difference between the two chips in terms of gaming and random tasks?
What people are saying is that if you want to plug in a chip and go then the 4600 is better for you. If you are looking to get all you can out of a chip then the 3800 is better because you can get the same bang for less money. I have my 3800 oc'd to 2.3 with with new compound and an extra fan.
Yep but not say that the 4600 isnt overclockable either. Ive got my 3700 to 2.8ghz so with the right fans and right thermal paste. You could maybe reach a FX-60 stable?
thanks for your advice everyone. So if I overclock I can push it to perform like a 4600. I think the 3800 will suffice; I'll take the $100 I'll be saving and invest in some more ram.
Wait just a second.....I am in no way saying that a 3800 will perform like a 4600. What I am saying is that you can push a 3800 to its limits and recieve a great result. If you don't have the proper equipment then it will fry. All I'm saying is that make sure your components can handle the OCing and you will be just fine.
To accomodate the new cpu (whichever one I decide to get) I purchased an ASUS A8V motherboard. Here are my current specs: Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra (256 MB) Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-7VT600(being replaced by new ASUS MOBO) RAM: Kingston 1024 MB (PC2700 DDR SDRAM) CPU: AMD Athlon XP, 2083 MHz (to be replaced by new cpu soon) DVD Writer: SONY DVD RW DRU-500A Windows XP professional Those are my current specs. If I get the 3800 I won't overclock I will probably just keep it as is because I have never overclocked before. On yahoo an article says that the x2 5200 is going down to $300 at some sites. $300 is within my price range; should I get that? Sorry for all of the questions, but this is my first time replacing a cpu. I probably won't overclock anything.
good choice ASUS mobos are excellent for over clocking, and secondly I'd just get the 4600, and save ur money for other things like extra ram or something. the 4600 will give u great performance whether you decide to over clock or not. and lastly ur mobo is a socket 939 i believe it only supports x2's up to the 4600, 5000+'s are for AM2 mobos.
Thanks. So 4600 seems like that would be the best choice since my mobo can support it if I want to overclock.
