AMD 64 4000+(1x2.4GHz) or AMD 64 X2 3800+ (2x2.0GHz)

[neomaine]

- AMD Athlon 64 4000+ San Diego 2.4GHz 1MB L2 Cache Socket 939 Processor ($60US)
- AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Toledo 2.0GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket 939 Processor ($80US)

The trusty old 64 3500+ died today and unsure really what to go with to extend the life of my 939 mobo and not have to swap out other peripherals. I'm now running Vista Ultimate (32bit) with 2GB ram and a 512MB video card and looking for something to compliment these components.

The price difference doesn't mean a whole lot to me so I'm simply looking for the extra bang. Though the PC is mainly used for light work with the usual email, internet and word processing, a significant percentage of the time its used for some heavy gaming and video rendering...with folding running whenever possible.

Since this could be my first foray into dual core, I guess what I'm really asking is whether or not a single core at 2.4 is better than a 2x2.0 dual core.

[budz]

dual core will be much faster than a single core especially when multi tasking. my 2 cents!

[Joe The Dude]

dual core will be much faster than a single core especially when multi tasking. my 2 cents!

I agree.
With a Dual Core CPU, you will notice a big improvement with Video Encoding ~ It'll cut down the time to encode video to about half, depending on the encoder you are using.

Games will also show a moderate increase in preformance.
However, games that are optomised for Dual Core processors will show even more of a preformance boost.

[nonoitall]

Definitely the X2. A lot of video processing is multi-threaded, and 2GHz should be fine for games. Besides, it's always nice to be able to run two applications at once without sacrificing performance on either one. Chances are you can overclock the X2 3800+ to 2.4GHz anyway, if you're into that and you want the best of both worlds.

[jman98]

Go dual core for sure. My most recent PC is 2+ years old and has a single core CPU. It's woefully inadequate for dealing with H.264/X.264 at any level. It can barely handle HD video with it from a recording standpoint. If you buy a single core CPU, I promise you that very soon you will deeply regret it as it's already obsolete technology.

[neomaine]

Thanks for the input everyone. Looks like I'll be ordering the X2 here shortly.

[TBoneit]

Are you sure it is the Motherboard? Usually it is the mobo dies and not the CPU.

[neomaine]

I'm sure. Initially, because we have pretty poor power at our house (don't know why...) I tend to lose power supplies. Between four PCs, usually one a year.

- I replaced the power supply, no change.
- Opened it up, reseeded everything. Same.
- Pulled everything (I mean everything, down to the screws) apart, vacumned it all out. Nada.
- Unplugged all the peripherals keeping only the monitor and the keyboard.
- Unplugged all the drives. Still no POST.
- Replaced the video card with an older, but good, one. Zip.
- Finally remembered that my youngest son's PC has the same mobo and cpu. Pulled my CPU out and put it in his motherboard. Same symptoms as mine. CPU fan comes on...nothing else. Put his CPU back in, he's flying away. CPU is definitely bad.

Should have checked the CPU first but I haven't had one go bad on me since a Cyrix 386sx (maybe the dx, I forget which one had the vaunted 'math-coprocessor built in') years ago. I first thought motherboard too. But...

Actually, from a logical standpoint, I've only really shown that the CPU is bad. Very well could be the mobo too. Damn. Tboneit, I hate you.

[budz]

But...Actually, from a logical standpoint, I've only really shown that the CPU is bad. Very well could be the mobo too. Damn. Tboneit, I hate you.

He's giving you good advice so check to make sure it's not the mobo dying. A few months ago I replaced a P4 socket 478 mobo after having a power surge. At first I thought for sure the cpu was dead but there were no burn marks on the it. So I bought a cheap Biostar Via chipset mobo which I had no choice because the socket 478 intel chipset mobo's are just about obsolete except for Ebay.

Buy a good power supply like ANTEC.

[TBoneit]

Well I guess you already know the next step. Put the known good CPU in the suspect Mobo. Better safe than buying the new CPU and finding out now you also need the obsolete 939 Socket Mobo. Of course there is also the chance the Mobo damaged the CPU so, up to you.

Usually the mobo supply dries up before the demand due to dead Mobos and good CPUs.

BTW have you tried either a good fulltime UPS or a line conditioner. I used to have one that would output proper line voltage over a range of 85 to 140 volt input. Sadly it finally bit the dust. But it was good during brownouts and such.
Cheers

[overloaded_ide]

Ya, what Tbonit said!

because we have pretty poor power at our house (don't know why...) I tend to lose power supplies. Between four PCs, usually one a year.

BTW have you tried either a good fulltime UPS

No reason to ever lose a system due to just bad grid power! Get a high quality UPS, preferably SINEWAVE! The UPS will charge it's batteries and use those to compensate when the power drops too low, keeps power at a decent level. And if you get a normal type surge or other stuff the UPS handles that also. A Surge from a lighting strike, well sometimes nothing will handle that. But for just normal power problem use a good quality UPS!

You can get them cheap if you need to, used with dead junk batteries, just wire up the correct volts with Deep cycle batteries and your good to go agian.
I use a APC 2200, sinewave, BIG WATTS like 1500 or 1750 watts (I forget off hand) for lots of stuff running on 2 115amps deep cycle batteries for 24V. Works great, I got power when the grid is down and protects everything when the grid is up.
Also I run a Matrix 5000 UPS on 4 deeps cycles at 48V for a half house backup.

We have a really crappy power company here with shitty service, since I started running UPSs I stopped blowing out so many items![/code]

[neomaine]

Yup, had a bunch of family over last night so never got around trying the good CPU in my pc. Don't have the heart to pull it out of my son's pc again. Here's hoping that its just the CPU. Should be in tomorrow.

And yes, have been buying Antec's. Found out early on that cheap PSUs were just that. Though, my son's PC is running the cheapo Rosewill that came with the case he wanted. Have to keep an eye on that one...

I hear everyone about the UPS. Had one for a few years until it finally bit the dust. They were having a sale over at Best Buy too. I don't need my pc for anything so important that it couldn't shut down as soon as the power went out. So truthfully it'll be the line conditioning that I'd need it for.

I'll follow up over the weekend as everything comes back. Please, please, please be just the CPU. Everyone hold hands and pray now...

[RabidDog]

I dont know .. I think a lot of the time a faster single is better than a dual core.. 99% of games are single cored. ALso if all your existing software is only single cored, then the only benefit of a dual core is the ease of multi tasking. However I do think for future sake a dual core is better. Now I understand when people say american power is waning . We only get Brownouts in the Uk from a few Lagers followed by a Ruby Murray

[neomaine]

Yup, the mobo AND psu ended being fried as well. Picked up a 550 psu and scrambled to find an ABIT AV8 939 mobo (already had the cpu...) with agp.

Also, lost the file system on the backup video drive, inconvenient but no big loss. Counldn't recuva anything. Be nice to have it back but I can live without. It came up with the rest of the system but I coulnd't get Vista to see the file system.

Looking for UPS sales this weekend....

Thanks for all the input from everyone, really appreciated.

(Note: Anyone have any insights to something else, free, besides Recuva that could look at a reformated hard drive to find anything there?)

[Heywould3]

just to put a bit more into the pot.. there is always the opteron dual cores for the 939. you can get the 165 for which is 2x1.8ghz or the one im gettin the 185 2x2.6. there are more options but you want dual core for sure.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010340343+1051707439&name=Socket+939
thats a link to the newegg page on the 939 chips that are still being sold.

[neomaine]

Looks like the price actually went UP $8 on the X2 that I bought just a couple of weeks ago. Thanks for making my day!

[Heywould3]

r-studio might work.. its worked great for me. they have fat and ntfs versions so be sure to get the right one.

[neomaine]

I'll check it out. I haven't put anything on that drive yet just in case something like this came up. Thanks!

[TBoneit]

Go to www.ontrack.com and try the trial version of Easy Recovery Pro. It won't recover for free but will tell you if anything is there and status. They have a lowcost version that only recovers so many files per session which may be what you need.
I have had it work for drives where Xp saw a drive letter, but nothing else. Not size of drive, free or used etc. I've used it also on drives that only showed up in device manager and disc management. As well as drives with bad sectors. It can recover recover deleted and from a format of a drive. It seems to work pretty good.

Note: I do not work for them and am only a happy user. I've made back the $$$ I paid many times over in revenue and happy customers. And of course If any problems I can point to commercial software being used. The only times it doesn't help is drives that do not spin up or give the clack of death.

[neomaine]

Thanks for the tip. Will try it out. I've got a few of these to look at now that work at the partition level. I'll be working on it this weekend. If I don't find anything after this, then I'm giving up and using the drive again.

Everbody, thanks for all the recommendations. I've really tried each and every one. Its just....fun.

PS: Tboneit. I don't really hate you...