Amd cache and Asrock dual

[MikeReiner]

I have a budget system in the works, and I plan on getting this cpu:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103535

if you look closely, it has 512 L2 cache. My friend got an amd64 3200+ when they had just barely came out, and it had 1mb L2 cache.

I just want to know, what is the difference? is this going to have serious performance hits in comparison?

I know the one i'm looking at will perform supurb in games, especially for the price I will pay, but having half the cache is leaving me very puzzled.

And also, I plan on getting this motherboard:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813157081

if you look at it, you will find something very unusal.. it supports BOTH agp AND PCI-E.
I have read some very mixed reviews about this mother board.

I plan to use my GeForceFX5500 in this mother board until i save up enough to buy a high-end PCI-E video card.

What concerns me is, i've read that ATI cards don't work at all, and FX cards will only run in 4x agp mode on this motherboard. that and this motherboard is picky about what video card it uses.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. This will be my first system, although not the first one i've built.

 

[jay8990]

hmm id never heard of an athlon 3200+ with 1MB of cache. basically cache is very very fast acting memory (like ram, but it is within the processor so speedy!!!). it holds the most commonly used instructions so the processor doesnt have to keep going to ram for them. So obviously the bigger the cache, the more common instructions can be held, the greater the peformance.

but you will not notice any real difference. the reason there isnt much cache is because its very fast acting memory its very expensive! so amd will have drawn the line between cost effective and performance! dont let 512 cache put you off! it is still very good!

reading the reviews on that mobo it seems very hit and miss!! i would say if you are unsure on it then look at another one, there are lots of budget 939 boards out there with great features! as for both ag and pci-e im not sure!

 

[MikeReiner]

Thanks for the information on the cache, I feel better about it now.


It's the AGP and PCI-E that attracts me.

If I get a board that only has PCI-E, it will be a long time before I can even use the system, but if I get one that has just AGP, I can't make the switch to PCI-E...
i'm sure you understand what i'm getting at...

 

[alvino]

I have the EXACT motherboard! Haha...

If you're not too crazy about overclocking, this board is AWESOME. I can vouch for that. Also, the quality of the board is very good for a budget board...everything is in a relatively good position, although there isn't Firewire, which isn't a loss for me since I use USB anyways.

 

[MikeReiner]

I have the EXACT motherboard! Haha...

If you're not too crazy about overclocking, this board is AWESOME. I can vouch for that. Also, the quality of the board is very good for a budget board...everything is in a relatively good position, although there isn't Firewire, which isn't a loss for me since I use USB anyways.

Sweet.

I wouldn't mind over clocking to a degree, but i'm just way too paranoid to go very far with it, so thats no problem to me. I also use USB, so firewire doesn't matter to me.

 

[alvino]

Yeah, then you'll love this board...very nice.