I was doing a google search for just this question and asked whether there was significant difference between the AMD Athlon 3500 and the 3700 becuase I have a cashflow issue. I don't game, I use it primarily to surf/email and I do graphic editing. Would I be better off with the 3500? Or can I go even lower?
Thanks
Robin

"I use it primarily to surf/email and I do graphic editing"

1st of all, it's an Athlon64, not an Athlon...Athlons have been out of production for years. considering what you're gonna use it for, you definitely can go with a cheaper processor. What exactly do you plan on doing? Are you gonna buy a prebuilt system or build your own?

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And core are you comparing, the Vencie 3500+ and San Diego 3700+?

If so, then the main diff is the L2 cache size. Venice has 512kb L2 cache and the San Diego core has 1mb L2 cache.

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+
2GB Dual Channel DDR 3200
Nvidia 6800GT
SATA II 250gig 7200rpm 8mb cache
Gigabyte Nforce 4 SLI

Thanks for replying. Sorry about the misspelling or mispronunciation.

I will be purchasing a system from Monarch. It is a custom build. I was told that I should go with a higher processor and a lower end graphics card. I don't know. I am a novice about hardware and just want to get the right thing.

I'd go with a Athlon 64 3200+ rather than either of the other two. You may even wanna go with a Sempron system instead.

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Thanks for the reply. I believe I will go with the 3200. I think that's the one I chose to start with.
Then I kept changing my mind..LOL!
:)