[dob]

Hi im building a new pc and the 3700 san diego and 3800 venice are the same price i know the san diego has the better core but the venice obviously has higher speed
which would be a better buy, which would give better overall performance would how does a 3800 perform to a 3700 in terms of AMD? because if theres hardly any difference would i be better with the san diego?

[Advertisements]

The 3700 model has a larger cache (1Mb versus 512k on the 3800 chip). This will make it faster than the 3800. It's generally considered a far superior chip (not just because it's San Diego core but also because of the cache size). The 3800 might run 200Mhz faster but it doesn't make a scrap of difference in this day and age.

Therefore, go for the 3700 if there's no price difference.

[Neil Jones]

The 3700 model has a larger cache (1Mb versus 512k on the 3800 chip). This will make it faster than the 3800. It's generally considered a far superior chip (not just because it's San Diego core but also because of the cache size). The 3800 might run 200Mhz faster but it doesn't make a scrap of difference in this day and age.

Therefore, go for the 3700 if there's no price difference.

[warriorscot]

Actually in terms of relative speed and performance the AMD rating system is based on chip performance the 3700+ performance is slightly lower at stock speeds than the 3800+ but only by the equivalent of 100Mhz on the pentium equivalency scale which isnt that much and its lower heat output and overclockability and larger cache balance it out, ive allready answred the question for you in the other topic you started.

[dob]

warriorscot: sorry i wasnt sure if you had seen it and wanted a quick opinion so i could go ahead and order it thank you for all your help in the other the thread you've helped me get my head around a lot of things
have decided to go for the san diego chip, so now ive got:

case with psu
gigabyte socket 939 motherboard (onboard graphics+sound)
3700 cpu
1gb ddr400 ram
80gig sata hdd
dual layer lightscribe DVDRW
floppy drive
17"tft with speakers

all for £350 delivered not bad for the price i dont think!
can somebody just confirm this is all i need i dont think ive missed anything i should need to build it, going to buy an anti-static wriststrip from ebay now is there anything else i need, the cpu is retail version so im assuming ill get the heatsink/fan and the thermal paste with that

thanks for everybodys help so far, oh and one final question (sorry!) ive got a choice between a hitachi, a samsung, or a seagate barracuda drive all the same price, any suggestions or are they all the same? cheers

[dob]

sorry its between the samsung and seagate, just noticed the hitachi only has 2mb cache the others have 8mb! i would say the seagate but im sure somebody knows more about it than me!

[warriorscot]

Either or both excellent companies and the drives are more or less the same. Looks like everything you need, for the wristband just get em out an electronics shop, borrow one, or just make sure to ground yourself against the case before you start work and during.

Seems not bad for £350 actually its a little suspicous with the monitor to be honest.

[dob]

priced it [i]all up on aria.co.uk thought it was cheap but thats what it says so not going to argue!
how would i go about grounding myself to the pc then? would i plug it in but not flick the switch at the wall and then just hold the case with one hand and work with the other? or did you mean ground it using a wrist strap etc?
ive seen wriststraps from £2.50 delivered on ebay would be handy to have one, they have crocodile clips on the end is it just a case of plugging the pc in to wall, again not flicking switch and then clipping the croc clip to the case and wearing the strap?

[warriorscot]

Yeah i know ive got a wrist strap, got it off my uncle it as like 1 or 2 pounds from the local electronics store(think it was from maplin but most places have them), not worth paying delivery on if you ask you can often get a loan of one. Grounding you just need to touch the case thus eliminating a difference in charge between you and the PC you only need to touch it now and again and when you work youre always touching it all the time anyway.

[dob]

ok cheers for that will do that then. one final question, this is the very last i promise ive run out of things to ask you!
when im working on it should it be plugged in and with the mains switched off ie allowing any charge to run down the cable into the earth of the house or can i just sit the case on the desk and touch it now and then and thats it? i heard you were supposed to plug something into the mains so charge could dissipate away? cheers for all your help mate youve been a great help

[dob]

change of plan! im really sorry to all those who helped me, but i can get exactly the same pc except with a dual core athlon 64 3800+ x2 with a 17" tft for £362 delivered from an ebay store! for £12 extra im sure a dual core would be better the board is pretty much the same but is made by asus and doesnt have firewire, which id never use anyway!

[warriorscot]

Asus dont make good AMD boards and ebay isnt a good place to get parts, the 3800+ costs like £5-10 more in most shops, it depends on what you are doing in many things the 3800+ is slower it multitasks better but single threaded applications wont see an advatage.

3700+ in retail costs £91ish, £60 for OEM the 3800+ is just over a £100.

[dob]

the place i was going to get the 3700 from was £75 inc vat and the dual core was £105 both were retail versions

what i saw on ebay was an already built pc, not just the parts
so is the dual core 3800 x2 not really as superior to the 3700 as its made out?
do you think i would be better off just building the pc ive already mentioned then? because i would be using budget parts anyway so probably mostly the same as this system off ebay, its from a proper shop that sells on ebay?

[warriorscot]

Well the 3700+ is a single core with a 1Mb cache operating at 2.4Ghz if i remember might be alittle less though, the 3800+ is two cores operating at 2ghz with a 512k cache, basically two 3200+ so with some things itll be better like multitasking which makes it good for cheap PCs that are just going to be used for plodding on the internet WP stuff like that they are good for working PCs but they are a little on the slow side for a P that would do any gaming for example and not really worth it for a non gamer unless you are a really heavy user and do alot of multi tasking. The 3700+ is cheaper and itll be better at one thing at a time and itll be good at games.

So youve got to balance it out, the dual cores are pretty good but the 3800+ is slow on the single cores(although its not slouch its equivalent to two of what i use in my PC now). It is a tricky decision that one although is think it would be better to save the cash and maybe put it toward a better PSU.

The thing with buying the parts yourself is you have a good idea where they came from and there is budget quality parts and budget rubbish when you pick yourself you can make sure you get the slightly better stuff. If its a shop selling on ebay its probably a real shop somewhere so you are paying for the handling and construction as well as the shops own overheads so its likely to be crappier possibly refurbished parts.

[dob]

Cheers for that i see where you're coming from and agree with your point that im probably better buying all the bits and building one with a 3700 SD core, but then i found this(!):
http://cgi.ebay.co.u...ADME:L:RTQ:UK:1
but that is incredibly cheap for whats in it is suppose it all depends just how much stuff he buys in bulk, its the exact same spec as the one i priced up myself but with the 3800 venice single core so practically the same as the 3700 SD and an extra gig of ram and is slightly cheaper ok the case looks crappy but im not bothered about that
i saw the v data ram thats in the picture for pretty much the same price as the ram i chose (thats if that is the ram they actually use)
still think im better off building one though, cant quite decide it is tempting plus theres no hassle of putting it together

[warriorscot]

That is very suspicous and i would doubt they are even putting a legal OS on there as otherwise the systems parts come to only £150 all together and the board isnt a good one but its still £40 worth £100 CPU and the memory 2Gb for that price sounds dodgy, if it looks to good to be true it probably is, also it says there clock speed of a 3800+ is 3.8Ghz which is wrong its over a Ghz slower its a rookie mistake.

Golden rule for electronics, never buy off ebay.