Getting a AMD socket 754

[jaeclie]

I am getting a sff (small form factor) computer with 754. What is the best cpu for it. I know the 3700+ is the best for that socket but they have gone up in price and i was looking at the venice 3000+ but please comment about this. Now I belive the 3700+ ,clawhammer, would be better than a 3000+ venice. The Clawhammer has 1 MB L2 but the Venice has SSE3 and the cheapest i have found the clawhammer for is $215 an dthe 3000+ is $120. I've read that the Clawhammers are hotter and i want a SFF so heat can be a problum but i don't really overclock. I want to use it as a gaming machine and right now i have a p4 3.0 GHz w/ a 5700LE PCI (not pci-e, this is dell 3000) and it works fine but i want better preformance than what i have now.

[Tytanium]

Venice is socket 939 and is not compatible with socket 754 motherboards.  Since 754 is an altogether dead socket, I wouldn't even consider it.  939 is AMD's platform now, and will change again to socket AM2 late this summer.

I would highly recommend getting a dual core.  The Athlon 64 X2 3800+ runs at 2.0ghz on the Manchester core and has 2x512kb of cache.  They run about $296 on newegg, not including shipping.  They're great for a SFF machine, or something that you do a lot of editing on, or run multiple high usage programs simultaneously.  Games are starting to adapt to dual core, and just a few examples are City of Villains, CoD2, Quake 4, and hopefully in the near future, UT2007 also supports it, as well as PhysX.

If that's just a little too much, a 3500+ Venice or 3700+ San Diego core is also a great choice.  I run a 3700+ at 2.75ghz 24/7, runs very cool and never had any problems with it.

[neb1211]

I wouldn't really mess around with socket 754 either since it is pretty much a dead socket.  The only processors that really use socket 754 anymore are the Semprons.  

Also I wouldn't really consider upgrading from a 3ghz P4 to an A64 3000+ a worthwhile upgrade.  While the 3000+ would probably perform a little better than the P4, it wouldn't be a significant difference.  

If anything, I would suggest getting at least a 3500+.  I have two computers with venice cored A64 3500+ and they are nice processors.

Another thing you might want to consider is waiting until the AM2 socket comes out.  Then if nothing else, you would probably be able to pick up a nice socket 939 motherboard and processor for less.