This is pretty much old news to some people in the overclocking community, but most of you guys are not really in that crowd I don't think. Anyways. For AMD, the CLAWHAMMER was the best core they had for awhile. They ran it all the way up to the 4000+ series. Hell, then they came out with the FX-55 series chips, which are STILL really pricey ($800+ USD) even though they have been out for months. This was all well and good. The FX-55 chip was considered one of the best in the world (It WAS the best for many as well). Then AMD got a hair up their butt and made a new core. The San Dego core (rememebr taht name, it's important). What's important about this core is that it has 10s of millions more transistors. At the same time, it uses power more effieciently has a smaller architecture. Meaning its much much faster, with little power need increase. Now, this core uses 90nm technology which is the smallest on the market today. Why the backround history on it first? Simple. Because all the previous chips before SAN DIEGO were CLAWHAMMER which had many many many problems with overclocking, and heat (amongst other things). IT's an AWESOME CORE. So good that the FX-57 came out at over $1300 USD just for the chip, which runs at a blistering 2.8 Ghz (It blows all other chips in the world away, easily can top 5800 MB/S read speeds, some people with the right mods have it over 6500 MB/s). Now, the San Diego was so good that they decided to use it to REPLACE the clawhammer in most cases. This means that you get the same CORE as an FX Series chip in the 3700+ as well as the 4000+ (All Athlon 64s). Check out the price differences, and you will see why this is such a great thing.... [rul]http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?Manufactory=1028&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=509%3A16549&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&description=&MinPrice=&MaxPrice=&SubCategory=343&Submit=Property[/url] FX-57 . . . . $1011 . . . . 2.8Ghz FX-55 . . . . $811 . . . . 2.6Ghz 4000+ . . . . $368 . . . . 2.4Ghz 3700+ . . . . $273 . . . . 2.2Ghz NOW: HERE IS THE FUNNY PART! THEY ARE ALL THE EXACT SAME THING, THE ONLY DIFFERENCE IS THE MULTIPLIER! All of the San Diegos has a BASE FSB of 200MHz. The MULTIPLIER is 11 in the 3700+ and 14 in the FX-57! So you can OVERCLOCK IT TO BE AN FX-57 with very little effort! Just change the multiplier! Simple as that! Now, there is a risk of BURNING OUT YOUR CARD... But look at it this way.... You can buy 3 3700+ for the price of one FX-57! My personal opionion would tell you to stay on the safe side, get a 4000+ for under $400, then OC it to 2.6 and leave it that way. Its only a 200Mhz OC, which shouldnt affect stability or longevity at all. If you take this to the extreme, for $300 you can have one of the fastest CPUs in the world (Turn it into an FX-57, which is regarded as the fastest CPU in the world ATM). Kinda cool, eh? Hope you all get a chance to use this! -Preist
Sorry to burst your bubble, but the 64 series has a locked multiplier, only the fx series has an unlocked multiplier thats why is so expensive.
