p4 820d to am2 3600+ - should I?

[annilation]

I saw the newegg deal for a biostar 550 board and a amd x2 3600 for $150. I have a 820d I use for my daily rig now but my fileserver is starting to show its age and would like to use the 820d for my fileserver upgrade. Would the x2 3600+ be an improvement over my 820d?

 

[Vengance_01]

Once O/C yes very much so. Most pp are reaching 2.6-2.8 and some are even hitting 3GHZ. I hit 2.85GHZ 100% stable on my 3600 with only 1.375 volts in the bios. At this speeds I say Its close to a 6600 and pretty even with a 6400 or beating it in most cases. For the price, you can't go wrong with that combo. Are you looking for best bang for your buck or all out preformace. Because if you do have the money, I certainly recomend a Core 2 setup if you can afford it. But at 95$ this is the best bang for your buck Dual Core chip out ATM

 

[annilation]

I would not want OC. I just want a stable quiet pc.

 

[quadnad]

It would certainly be an improvement, but nothing that would blow the doors off your house. Check out this comparison which features an 820 going up against a stock Opteron 144, 165 and 3800+ X2. I'd estimate with the small boost from the extra RAM bandwidth (DDR2 vs DDR) you can estimate that the 3600+ will perform in between the Opteron 165 and 3800 x2.

The 3600+ x2 will consume significantly less power than the 820 (it will consume about the same power as the Opteron 144 does thanks to 65nm), and perform probably ~10% better on average. So again, nothing huge, but a good deal considering how cheap the system would be to build.

PS It'd be a crime not to overclock that thing. People have been hitting 3 ghz without much problem, just as rock stable as though running stock.