CPU Upgrade

[BL4CK]

Currently I have the ABIT AV8 mobo, and i'd like to upgrade my CPU from Athlon 64 3200+, I don't really wanna change my mobo unless I have to. I'm interested in a "server" cpu I guess because i've seen what Xeons and Opterons can do, but I don't know much about the CPU's these days which is why i'm asking. Right now I run windows. I do alot of programming related work (compiling), compressing/extracting rars/zips/tars, and I do alot of testing of network programs; when I'm working on a very large project, I often find myself running between 2 and 4 VMware machines at the same time. I'm not a gamer at all. (if this matters) I have a two 10K rpm hdds in a raid0. What would be the best CPU for me? If you have any other questions that would help figure out what CPU I need, ask away
thx

[gshv]

Upgrading to dual-core processor should give you pretty good performance boost. I'd go with Athlon 64 X2 4800+ or 4600+ (should be easier to find than the 4800+). Your board supports Opteron processors, so you can also upgrade to Opteron 185. This Opteron is faster than the 4800+, but it's more expensive.

Gennadiy

[BL4CK]

Would a Xeon be better than a Opteron in my case? And isn't there still alot of applications that are not able to use more than one core at a time?

[gshv]