hey guys,

a friend asked me to build him a system, and i can lower his costs by selling him my opteron 144 with water cooling and motherboard which clocks all the way up to 3ghz stable, woudl that be a good thing for him? because spending on dual core would be pushy for him.

is a single core processor still good for gaming?
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Let me put it this way: gaming on a single core versus dual core right now makes almost no difference. In the near future the benefits of running a dual core system will improve with Crysis, Supreme Commander, Alan Wake, the Source engine, and the Q4 engine. To honest, if I were building/buying a new system for anyone looking for performance, I'd definitely go dual core (both for the gaming benefits and the multitasking benefits).

As for price (and since the motherboard you were using obviously is capable of the HTT) why not just have him get a 3600 X2? It's only $105, has all the same cache of the standard X2s, and runs stock at 1.9Ghz. It's 65nm, and many people have had luck getting them to 3Ghz (some even on stock cooling). In my opinion the 3600+ would be the best option.

EDIT: Sorry, I just realized that the 3600 is AM2 only. He could always pick up a used 939 3800+ X2, especially considering they're only $120 brand new he shouldn't have any problem finding a cheap one. With all the people switching to C2D, just check the FS/FT forums.
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If you are playing a single core game, yes. If you are playing a dual core game, yes.
There are a few games out there where you would suffer but none that I know of which are released at the moment.
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Alt + Tab is a little smoother with a dual core.
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Alt + Tab is a little smoother with a dual core.

my alt tab problems pretty much went away once I got 2 gigs of ram. even with ram hog BF2.

I still game fine on a single core venice @ 2.5 and do not plan on changing processors until multi threaded software (games) are more mainstream, as well as quad-core. I think it'd be foolish to buy a dual core right now, if you've already got a decent speed single core. the buy-in for dual core, especially intel (processor + mobo) is pretty high when really its just a stop gap until the real multi processors (quad core) show up. this is one place where consoles are a step ahead of PCs.
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i downgraded back to single core for now. I barely notice the diff unless encoding - which i don't do often. Just holding out till K10.

As to OP, single core still rocks in current games. Having a vid card and enough RAM is far more important.
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for 100$ you can get a Dual Core. These things are hitting 2.7-2.8 on decent air a decent mobo. IMO there is not any reason for him not get Dual core. I think you are just trying to dump your aging tech on him:rolleyes:
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in a way yes, i am trying to get rid of my 3ghz opteron 144 and 2gb of ram with water cooling. But currently he is running a athlon xp 1800+ and 256mb of ram. he wants to play games but has a budget on the computer he can build. A part of me feels wrong but a part of me says im giving him a deal....

i mean 3ghz, 939 motherboard, 2gb pc3200 ram, water cooling all for 300-400 bucks.....? he would have the rest of his money for a 8800gts and a copy of vista.
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in a way yes, i am trying to get rid of my 3ghz opteron 144 and 2gb of ram with water cooling. But currently he is running a athlon xp 1800+ and 256mb of ram. he wants to play games but has a budget on the computer he can build. A part of me feels wrong but a part of me says im giving him a deal....

i mean 3ghz, 939 motherboard, 2gb pc3200 ram, water cooling all for 300-400 bucks.....? he would have the rest of his money for a 8800gts and a copy of vista.

It'll be a major upgrade for him, I just think that for such an unbelievably minimal investment he can go dual core (and benefit from the overclockability of your w/c setup).
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or just charge him $50 for the 144. BAM. $50 more into video card.
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i mean 3ghz, 939 motherboard, 2gb pc3200 ram, water cooling all for 300-400 bucks

Ummm, don't try to push your old stuff on your friend for a price. Plus if he isn't good with hardware, giving him a water cooling solution might not be a smart thing.

For $400 you can help him get a E4300 ($145), DS3 ($120), and 2GB DDR2 PC6400 ($150).

If you really hunt for prices, you can easily get all the above for under $350.
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for 100$ you can get a Dual Core. These things are hitting 2.7-2.8 on decent air a decent mobo. IMO there is not any reason for him not get Dual core. I think you are just trying to dump your aging tech on him:rolleyes:

For $100? Show me. :)
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Ummm, don't try to push your old stuff on your friend for a price. Plus if he isn't good with hardware, giving him a water cooling solution might not be a smart thing.

For $400 you can help him get a E4300 ($145), DS3 ($120), and 2GB DDR2 PC6400 ($150).

If you really hunt for prices, you can easily get all the above for under $350.

I wanna know where your shopping.
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For $100? Show me. :)

I think he thought AM2, just like I did initially. It's $105 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103036). Lots of em aren't having any issues hitting ~3 on the stock heatsink.
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I think he thought AM2, just like I did initially. It's $105 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103036). Lots of em aren't having any issues hitting ~3 on the stock heatsink.

Dang, I wish I would have gotten an AM2, thats ridiculously cheap!
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I would include a Case and 480 watt powersupply also.
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A fast single core will probably be fine for the next year, but newer games are going to start requiring multicore. Alan Wake is going to require a minimum of two cores. One just for the game physics.
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Dang, I wish I would have gotten an AM2, thats ridiculously cheap!

unbelievable isn't it? It would serve as an awesome proc for an HTPC box.
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show you dual core for $100?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103733

$115

x2 3800+ @ 2.0ghz
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