is the AMD64 X2 5400+ a good processor for great multitasking and gaming?

Question

5400+ is a 2.80ghz dual core but its only got 1mb of L2 cache.

To answer questions about how much ram and motherboard, things like that.

Ram is going to be 2gigs i think 667mhz 800mhz either Ultra or OCZ Dualchannel

Motherboard- ABIT KN9 SLI Socket AM2

along with a XFX 8500GT (256mb DDR2)

Answer 1

The one you speak of only has 512KB cache per core. I have the 5600+ and am very pleased with it. I am getting a 3dmark06 score of 10,925. That is with a 8800GTS 640MB card and 2 gigs of ram. I am not overclocking anything either. That is the reason I went with the AMD.

I dont know what performance difference there would be between the two. The price difference between the two is not that much though. I do like these as ram operates at the full 800mhz.

Answer 2

Hello; That's a great processor! But the more important thing is the motherboard its installed in... how much RAM does it have, how much will it take? What kind of Video card does it have?; does the Video card have it's own RAM? How much? If it doesn't have one, does it have a slot for one?

Yes, believe it or not, a computer with a much slower CPU will smoke your system, if it has the RAM & Video card to truly be a fast system! I often tell ppl that the CPU is the 3rd of three concerns when considering an upgrade... unless it's a really old CPU. Remember, the addage; "you get what you pay for" rings true in buying, or in building a new computer.

If you are buying a "super computer" at a cheap price, like a friend of mine recently did, all he had to do was upgrade his RAM, & Video card... until he found out they shorted him, buy putting a lame 250watt power supply in the system, it was another $160 to buy a new power supply, to bring his system up to specs for a new video card! You gotta look at the whole picture: RAM, Processor, Video Card, Power Supply, and UPGRADABILITY!

I hope this helped!
Marcos

Answer 3

That's probably 1MB of cache per core, for a total of 2MB. I have the X2 6000+ and it is very nice...plays all of my games great (along with my GeForce 7950 GT video card).