I am going to get a new pc, and I have doubts on what to choose. For CPU I have the following choices, with prices AMD Dual Core 3800 268 € AMD Athlon 64 3500 193 € Pentium IV 64 3000 168 € AMD 64 Sempron 3300 127 € I think I should also mention the kind of socket,.. but more or less it is what I am offered. I would like to have an AMD, although I would possibly to get a new fan. What is the difference, in terms of performance, between the Sempron and the Athlon? And, if 64bit processors will only take full advantage of their architecture with "64-bit design approach", what about Dual Core? I don't want to waste money in a CPU designed for, say, a business environment ===================================== Additionally, for graphic cards ATI Radeon X700 PCIE 512 180 € Asus Geforce 6600 PCIE 256 103 € I think the 6600 is enough. PC will be used for playing games. thanks thanks santiago

A strictly gaming machine, then i would say Athlon 64. If you also want to burn, encode DVDs and at the same time probably fold proteins (multitasking) then i would choose the Pentium. You can google each one and see the reviews on them , Pros and cons too. Goodluck. Custom Built 2.8Prescott @ 3.6Ghz, 32/64bit,HyperThreading. WaterCooled. Asus P5GND2-SLI 2GBPC4300DualChannel Win XP Pro

64-bit CPUs don't need 64-bit software. And IMO, dual core CPUs aren't necessary or cost-effective at this time. Best bang for your buck would be a S939 A64 3200+ Venice on an nForce4 Ultra motherboard. If you want a little more "umph", go for a S939 A64 3700+ San Diego. Make sure the motherboard supports the dual core X2 as an upgrade path & you can always get a better CPU some time in the future. If you go for a S754 Sempron64, the 2800+ is the best buy. A S754 system would be cheaper, but the S754 platform does not support dual core CPUs, nor will it ever. This space for rent

Yeah, but I read that by mid next year you will start to see a lot of software programs coming out that will support dual core processors, which is why I bought one. So it maybe worth the investment in getting an X2 either now or wait until the price drops some. What strikes me odd about AMD is that they just came out with an AMD Athlon 64 Venice version with E6 stepping for the S754. Now the S754 is suppose to die-out soon once Semprons make the main stream jump the S939. Since this odd move it looks like AMD is extendeding the life of the S754 a little while longer. To add on to jams point, the S754 doesn't support dual channel either which I always found odd. If you aren't going to do a lot of multi-tasking that will consider needing a dual core system then go with an S939 system and an AMD Athlon 64 3500+ with E4 stepping. To find out how to locate an AMD Athlon single core stepping type look in the ID. The E4 stepping is the "CG" sufix on the ID on S939 version. The older E3 steppings have the "BP" sufix in it for the S939 version. But if you can grab S939 AMD Athlon 64 with E6 stepping in it (which is a rare find right now because it's so new) with "CF" sufix in the ID, then that would be the best buy out of all of the Athlon 64 S939's. AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ 2GB Dual Channel DDR 3200 Nvidia 6800GT SATA II 250gig 7200rpm 8mb cache Gigabyte Nforce 4 SLI

I would also like to add that there is a ID sufix "BW" with E6 stepping in it as well and I think the "CF" E6 stepping is the San Diego core Athlon 64 version and the "BW" is the AMD Athlon 64 Venice core S939 version. Yes, I know AMD just makes things easier to understand everyday....... One good thing about Intel is that they are a little more easier to understand on which version is the newer version by their series. Where as AMD you have to read the ID to know which version is the newer version. LOL, I got a headache now........ AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ 2GB Dual Channel DDR 3200 Nvidia 6800GT SATA II 250gig 7200rpm 8mb cache Gigabyte Nforce 4 SLI

thanks, when you say: "look in the ID" (to find the stepping of a CPU).... what do you mean: the ID that is printed on the box of the CPU? The bids I have don't mention anything about stepping, therefore I shall ask them directly what they are offering thanks santiago