Ok well i'm going to college in the fall. I'm looking to build a new computer. I game pretty hard but I also do other things while I am gaming like being on AIM or firefox and listening to music, or writing papers and what not (like i said i will be at school).

I was thinking of getting the Athlon 64 3700+ for gaming, but will that decrease my computers performance for when I do other things such as the things listed above?

Is there a chip that is good for doing multitasking and gaming?

If you know of something let me know. Thanks for all your help!

go dual core for multitasking, depends on your budget

it depeneds. Dual-core is overhyped in many areas. A lot of people assume dual-core is better overall, but it's not in terms of high preformance 3D.

For starters the cache is split in 2 which is good for encoding video files or anything that is large because dual-core can do 2 major things at once like it can relay the video while at the same time do the encoding process, because the cache is broken up into 2 lanes. Single cores have one main cache lane where a multi-process has to use one lane.

It terms of direct 3d preformance a single core is better considering it has one main lane of cache where it doesn't fork in to 2 lanes of cache like dual cores have to do which in returns creates an extra step that the dual cores have to preform then the single core.

If you are doing minor multi-tasking you aren't going to notice a diff in preformance.

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ OC 2.7ghz
2GB Dual Channel DDR 3200
Nvidia 7800GT
SATA II 2x 200gig 7200rpm 16mb cache RAID-0
Gigabyte Nforce 4 SLI

Thanks for the help guys. I do have one more question though. A lot of people are saying that in the future games will be made for dual core so would it be worth it now to get a dual core for that reason?

It's not the future yet & right now, 99% of games are NOT optimized for dual core. And when it comes to apps that aren't optimized for dual core, there is a huge trade off when running a dual core CPU. For example, to get comparable performance to a 3700+ San Diego (approx $220), you'd have to get an X2 4400+ Toledo (approx $460) or an Opteron 175 Denmark (apporx $500). So you should really consider what you're gonna use your system for to see if it's justifiable to pay more than double for a CPU that you may only take advantage of 5-10% of the time? Maybe I'm wrong, but when I think of multi-tasking, I think of running two CPU intensive apps a the same time, not running AIM while I'm working with Microsoft Office or playing a game...lol

Supposedly there's a huge CPU price war about to take place, so you might wanna wait a few weeks to see what shakes out. If you've been paying any attention to prices, the 3200+ Venice has already dropped below $100...a couple of weeks ago it was selling for about $135

Jam I am aware about the price war and i've been reading that the x2's are going to be dropping in price towards the end of July, and i figure I dont want to get a new computer for a couple of years. So maybe i am better off getting a dual core because future games will be optimized for it. It is better to spend the extra hundred now then to have to update the whole thing later, right?

And I've been hearing a lot of these Opteron CPU's latley? Whats the difference between them and x2's. They are Dual Core aren't they?

You can get a single core CPU for less than 1/2 the price of a comparable X2 or Opty & use it until you feel the dual core is *truly* a necessity, then you can sell it & replace it with an X2 (or Opty). To me that would make more sense...but it's it's your money & your choice. You wouldn't have to change the board or any other hardware, just the CPU. However, another thing you should consider is whether you should go with a socket 939 nForce4 setup or with the new socket AM2 nForce5. The AM2 platform uses DDR2 RAM & the new nForce 500 chipset series supposedly corrects some deficiencies in the nForce4 series. However, there are several versions of the nForce5 & you'd have to review them to see which one best suites your needs.

http://www.viperlair.com/reviews/cpu_mobo/nvidia/nf590/

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2006/05/23/nvidia_nforce_5/1.html

The S939 Opteron's are basically the cream of the crop of the San Diego & Toldeo cores that have undergone more rigorous testing to insure stability for use in servers.

If you are looking at an Opteron 64 on a unified platform then the only chance you will be able to get one is on the socket 939, because after that the Opteron 64's and Athlon 64's are parting ways again on the new platform. AM2's will be used for Athlon 64 FX, Athlon 64 and Semperon 64 using 940 pins. The new Opteron 64's will be going on the Socket F using 1207 pins.

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ OC 2.7ghz
2GB Dual Channel DDR 3200
Nvidia 7800GT
SATA II 2x 200gig 7200rpm 16mb cache RAID-0
Gigabyte Nforce 4 SLI

Does this mobo support dual core chips? It only says Athlon 64(FX)/Sempron on it.

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=246486

Someone, anyone. Hah!

I'd really appreciate it. Thanks.

Oh, come on. You've got to do a little leg work yourself.

http://www.dfi.com.tw/

Go from there. You'll thank me later.