Sorry if this has already been asked but I couldn't find anything on it. I basically have a pretty decent gaming machine which the essencials consist of my Athlon 64 3000+ (754 socket), 1 GB (2x512) ram, and a 6800 Non-ultra. The thing is though, the AMD X2s are really looking attractive now, probably getting the 3800+ X2 because it seems to be the most affordable right now. FRom what I understand though is that the two cores are not actually clocked individually to the level that a single core 3800 would be clocked. Does this mean that when playing a game (that isn't multithreaded) that the performance may not even improve at all over my 3000? I like the idea of having an X2 because I also do some video editting and it would be awesome if i could render some videos while gaming or at the very least run my antivirus and game at the same time. This is going to be a big upgrade for me if I do do this because of my older socket and my video card is also AGP, so I would have to get a new motherboard and possibly a new PCI-express video card.

So basically my question is if anyone has done a similar upgrade from a processor that was already decent and whether you thought it was worth the 300 or so dollars that it cost to do so.

I have not done this but from the articles I have found, I would say just stick with your current AMD 64. With the x2, the dual processors, the main problem is that programs have to be written specificily for the x2 for the dual processor to be of use. Since the technology is newish, there has not been many programs written that take advantage of this feature... So in my opinion, I think it would be pointless.

This is just my opinion though, but I would just wait a little bit and get a AMD FX. They look a lot better then the x2's and also the FX's are really nice for gaming systems. That's my suggestion, but the only thing is that AMD FX's are currently kind of expensive :\

in the end, its up to you.... if you want to spend the money and get a nicer board and cpu. I hope my little info helps, I have been searching amd products lately because I am thinking about building a new computer soon.

I agree. I really dont think an upgrade as small as yours is worth the price. I dont even have 64-bit processor and my computer still runs really quickly. Dual-cores are not really that important right now since very little software utilizes their options and such. Stick with the one you have.

Yeah, as others have said the 64bit Processors are fine, even if you have the slowest one . The Socket 939's are about to be superseeded by AM2 within a few months anyway. This new socket will be able to use DDR2 (which is faster and slightly cheaper than DDR) RAM, and while initially won't provide much benefit, will probably in the long run develop into faster memory speeds.

Wait until AM2 comes out, and if you still want a socket 939 X2 CPU then go for it, as it should be cheaper by then

Oh, and yes I do believe I've read that say a single core chip of the same clock speed as a dual core, run faster (the single that is). So, unless it's necessary you have a better video editing processor immediately I would definitely say wait.