I'm a little bit of a laymen when it comes to computer hardwear. I'm building my first comp and it's about time to look at processors. So I had a question for you guys. Would I get better performance out of, say, a 3.2Ghz P4 w/2MB L2 or a 3.4Ghz w/1MB L2. I'm trying to figure out how heavilly to way the impact of the L2 cash, mainly on gaming, when trying decide what will give me the best bang for my buck. So what do yall think?

WOw way to techy for me lol. i'm not sure what L2 is O.o is it like hyper threading or something?

just get a AMD 64-FX 53(?) and you will be fine =P

yes i tend to agree, I wish i had gone with an AMD instead of a P4. if you plan on gaming with it then go with AMD.

Yes and don't jip out on the Vid Card... go for something nice, not a Radeon 9800 Pro

Only bad part of my setup

hmm i got a 9800 pro O.o though i had it last year. so it wasn't old then -.-

Yea, it wasnt old then, but now I can only sometimes run BF2 on high settings

oh btw check thihs out

http://www.roma-victor.com/game/guilds.php

Actually, I've already got my motherboard and it only suports Intel. Don't realy want to buy a whole new motherboard to get an AMD.

ah well then you will ahve to go with P4 then. i'm stil not sure what L2 is though, but if money is an issue just make sure you get a good graphics card O.o

My quick question, anyone know what brand has a decent thermo electric cooling unit for my CPU. I really wouldn't mind having the cPu at 32F (0C)

I'm stuffed now. My parents won't allow me to upgrade the computer at all, we bought it two years ago. I have no idea what we have, its just there.

don't know much about pc's but i know amd is the way to go

of course, that probably didn't help you at all....

ah yes, and is geforce 6600gt good?

I'd go for a larger L2 cache if i were u. of course, not being you, i went for amd.
u can get better performance from the 3.2GHz if fte fsb is 800MHz. else, the fsb will slow you down more than the L2 cache

Just a not that the L2 is cache. And there are 3.4GHz that have L2/ 2MB. All in what you want to pay. Its gravy but for gaming AMD is a better processor but as you said you already have the motherboard for an intel. 3.4 will give you alittle bit more power than the 3.2. If you go for the 3.4 find one that has the L2 at 2 MB.

I use the AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+.... Hope that helped.