hi,

I am planning on getting a new Athlon64 X2 and NForce 4 Ultra mobo.


===>>> I don't overclock and I don't play games.
I also cannot find dual core opterons socket 939 in my country and I don't want to order online.
This is gonna be a PC for desktop use mostly.

I am running Linux , *BSD and Solaris since I am studying OSes /smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' />

I will be using 2GiB of DDR400 in 2x1GiB sticks.

I want this PC for internet , movie/dvd encoding and playing video in high analysis (I'll get a Nvidia 6600 PCIe at least) , programming , TV viewing and maybe recording and I will be using a Satellite PCI card (SkyStar 2).
I will use some database software but keep in mind that all the above are for gaining knowledge and NOT using my machine as any kind of server.

3800+ = 512KB L2 each core @ 2.0Ghz
4400+ = 1MB L2 each core @ 2.2Ghz

4400 is ~200euros more expensive than 3800+.

I will use Gentoo and that mean tha I will compile a lot.
Probably I will have 1GB of RAM as tmpfs.


1)For the use that I am decribing above do I need 1MB L2 @ each core ?

2)I will use Gentoo and that mean tha I will compile a lot.
Probably I will have 1GB of RAM as tmpfs.
I was told that if I have high memory usage cache helps. Any comments on that ?


Any suggestions apreciated.

i think the 4400+/1mbL2 would help you a LOT.
since you are not going to OC the 4400+ is really the best choice for a DC. i used to own one myself.

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QUOTE(TheReturnOfAZ @ Dec 2 2005, 07:44 PM)i think the 4400+/1mbL2 would help you a LOT.
since you are not going to OC the 4400+ is really the best choice for a DC.  i used to own one myself.
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It's not the clock that interests me in this case but mostly the L2 cache.

To tell you the truth from some talks that I had with some guru guys they told me that in movie encoding or in the other stuff I wanna do, L2 cache does not matter so much.
Vector unit matters a lot actually /smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /> (SSE, SSE2 , SSE3 )

I was told also that 1MB L2 cache helps only in applications that really require a lot of memory for reading/writing to it.

But as I wrote any comments/suggestions are welcome /smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' />