X2 3800 or opteron 165

deicistdeicist Manchester, UK
edited February 2006 in Hardware
So, I'm gonna upgrade from my slightly long in the tooth s754 3200+ in a couple of months and I'm looking to buy into dual core. I'm not adverse to overclocking and I've been looking at the opteron 165 with interest. Now, the 3800 and the 165 are about the same price in the UK (around £230, $400ish) and I'll need to buy an AGP board because I can't afford to replace my 6800GT at the same time. So.....

I'm looking at a DFI-Lanparty Nforce3 board, do these support dual core out of the box?

does the overclocking headroom and extra cache on the opteron make up for the slower stock clock speed compared to the 3800?

what kind of overclock can I hope to get from the opteron? (I'm hoping for 2.6GHz - 2.7GHz but I guess anything around the 2.5 mark would be good)

Comments

  • ShortyShorty Manchester, UK Icrontian
    edited November 2005
    To the best of my knowledge, only nForce4 supports dual-core. Im not seeing any support for dual core on nForce3 series boards at all from a quick check on the MSI & DFI sites :(

    I have a 3800+ X2 and it's a great chip. Im not an overclocker, so haven't pushed it but I think 2.5 is perfectly achievable from what I've read on other peoples experiences :)
  • muddocktormuddocktor
    edited November 2005
    Nforce3 does support dual core; that's the chipset on my Epox EP-9NDA3+ board. I'm almost positive that the DFI board supports X2 procs too.

    If you are looking for a value dual core proc, the Opty 165 is the way to go. I've been reading of average overclocks in the 2.5-2.8 range for the 165 and higher than that for the 170 and 175 Opty's.

    BTW, the Epox board I'm running is a pretty darn good board in it's own right. It doesn't have quite the options that the DFI NF3 board has in bios, but it's decent. The biggest lack on it is the lack of high vdimm volts but if you use TCC5 or TCCD or the 1 GB sticks using the Infineon drams you should do OK. It's also easy to vdimm mod the board too, which is what I've done with just 1 resistor added. :cool2:
  • lemonlimelemonlime Canada Member
    edited November 2005
    I'd agree that the Opteron 165 is the better choice. The extra cache is great, and you'll have no problems squeezing an extra 400-600MHz or so from the chip, even at default vcore.
  • GnomeWizarddGnomeWizardd Member 4 Life Akron, PA Icrontian
    edited November 2005
    My nforce 3 on my asus is running the X2
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited November 2005
    I'm looking to buy into dual core
    OOH, you really don't want to do that. Noooo, you don't. :rolleyes: I won't be able to hold you off in Folding if you go and run a highspeed AMD X2 with two instance of Folding running simultaneously. Bad decision, bad, bad. :rolleyes::rolleyes:
  • ShortyShorty Manchester, UK Icrontian
    edited November 2005
    Leo ;D

    I also stand corrected! I couldn't see any BIOS updates or anything on the site telling me that it did, so I assumed the worst :o
  • deicistdeicist Manchester, UK
    edited November 2005
    Leo... thanks for reminding me, I have 3 PCs at home that aren't folding at the moment, need to get those up and running :D

    Cheers for the input all, think I'll be buying a 165 very soon :D

    edit: now I'm thinking about it I also have 2 hyperthreaded P4's sat in the server room that aren't folding... cheers for the reminder Leo, that's another 7 instances to get going :D
  • csimoncsimon Acadiana Icrontian
    edited November 2005
    deicist wrote:
    Leo... thanks for reminding me, I have 3 PCs at home that aren't folding at the moment, need to get those up and running :D

    Cheers for the input all, think I'll be buying a 165 very soon :D

    edit: now I'm thinking about it I also have 2 hyperthreaded P4's sat in the server room that aren't folding... cheers for the reminder Leo, that's another 7 instances to get going :D
    cheers to you Leo! :cheers:
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited November 2005
    now I'm thinking about it I also have 2 hyperthreaded P4's sat in the server room that aren't folding...
    How much you want for them? Although most of my builds have been AMD, I am a hyperthreading-Folding fanboy. :D
  • deicistdeicist Manchester, UK
    edited November 2005
    heh, no, I meant I have 2 PCs sat there that could be folding for me....and they are now :D
  • KwitkoKwitko Sheriff of Banning (Retired) By the thing near the stuff Icrontian
    edited February 2006
    Just put the money down for my Opty 165. I can't wait until I get this puppy!
  • KometeKomete Member
    edited February 2006
    Opteron 939 all ther way.

    Well you could buy the Asrock Dual-sata2 939 mobo. It takes agp and pci express. IT has gotten good reviews and ocing for a board that only cost 70bucks. Won't lie to you there have beens some horror storries but for the most part people seem real happy with it. I think I'm going to get it to justify buying a opty 165.

    Here are some pros and conns I got off anouther forum talking about it.
    Pro's
    *CRAZY UPGRADING! agp/pci-e/socket939/m2
    *Low power consumption. 20-Pin powersupply. Dont need a 500watter to run these.
    *Asrock are using it, which means nice, cheap, innovative boards.
    *Since Asrock is a subsidiary of ASUS, that means Quality parts and manufacturing.
    *As quick as any other chipset
    *Better flexibility (AGP + PCIe) than other chipsets
    *High FSBs are easy 350htt +, and minimal cooling is required to use them;Northbridge heatsink is high quality.
    *TGI (dual monitor support)
    *7.1 Realtek audio
    *It has all the fine features you normaly find in a highend chipset
    *Japanese made Rubycon Capacitors
    *SATA2
    *RAID
    *Great stable overclocking.
    *Easy volt mods
    *Very professional custom BIOS, with unlocked overclocking features such as 100mhz memory divider.
    *Socket M2 add-on card. FUTURE PROOF!
    *BLUE PCB!!! goes well with my albatron vid card!

    Con's
    *Floppy port located at bottom of motherboard
    *274+HTT hard to do without bios flash.
    *Nobody knows about them yet (not many people trust ULi, not ASrock.)
    *No GigabitLAN (not that it'll help you download faster anyways )
    *Lower voltage options.

    http://forums.extremeoverclocking.com/showthread.php?t=196664
  • RWBRWB Icrontian
    edited February 2006
    Komete wrote:
    Opteron 939 all ther way.

    Well you could buy the Asrock Dual-sata2 939 mobo. It takes agp and pci express. IT has gotten good reviews and ocing for a board that only cost 70bucks. Won't lie to you there have beens some horror storries but for the most part people seem real happy with it. I think I'm going to get it to justify buying a opty 165.

    Here are some pros and conns I got off anouther forum talking about it.
    Pro's
    *CRAZY UPGRADING! agp/pci-e/socket939/m2
    *Low power consumption. 20-Pin powersupply. Dont need a 500watter to run these.
    *Asrock are using it, which means nice, cheap, innovative boards.
    *Since Asrock is a subsidiary of ASUS, that means Quality parts and manufacturing.
    *As quick as any other chipset
    *Better flexibility (AGP + PCIe) than other chipsets
    *High FSBs are easy 350htt +, and minimal cooling is required to use them;Northbridge heatsink is high quality.
    *TGI (dual monitor support)
    *7.1 Realtek audio
    *It has all the fine features you normaly find in a highend chipset
    *Japanese made Rubycon Capacitors
    *SATA2
    *RAID
    *Great stable overclocking.
    *Easy volt mods
    *Very professional custom BIOS, with unlocked overclocking features such as 100mhz memory divider.
    *Socket M2 add-on card. FUTURE PROOF!
    *BLUE PCB!!! goes well with my albatron vid card!

    Con's
    *Floppy port located at bottom of motherboard
    *274+HTT hard to do without bios flash.
    *Nobody knows about them yet (not many people trust ULi, not ASrock.)
    *No GigabitLAN (not that it'll help you download faster anyways )
    *Lower voltage options.

    http://forums.extremeoverclocking.com/showthread.php?t=196664

    I bought that board, and it was a horror story all the way to it's demise. As if it not working right in the first place was bad enough it went and died on me. Artifacting in games, crashing, then dieing. I wouldn't touch that board with a 100ft pole. I guess you get what you pay for.
  • KometeKomete Member
    edited February 2006
    RWB wrote:
    I bought that board, and it was a horror story all the way to it's demise. As if it not working right in the first place was bad enough it went and died on me. Artifacting in games, crashing, then dieing. I wouldn't touch that board with a 100ft pole. I guess you get what you pay for.

    Bro you are not the first person to say that. I think you either get a good board or a faulty one. I have a friend that has one running a non dc opty and has it prime stable at 2.75. After seeing his results I'm going to give it a try. Worst case senario I'll just send it back to newegg and get a DFI sli mobo. LIke i said there has been Horror stories but for those that have a working one they sing their praises.
  • csimoncsimon Acadiana Icrontian
    edited February 2006
    Kwitko wrote:
    Just put the money down for my Opty 165. I can't wait until I get this puppy!
    please do us all a favor when you get it and post your steppings and whatever else you come up with!
  • Mt_GoatMt_Goat Head Cheezy Knob Pflugerville (north of Austin) Icrontian
    edited February 2006
    csimon wrote:
    please do us all a favor when you get it and post your steppings and whatever else you come up with!
    Chris,
    You are correct and I am a baaad boy! I was so happy to finally get my rig up and running again that I just put it all together and never even looked at my new 170. :wtf: I guess I will need to order a big typhoon just so I can look. :crazy:
  • KwitkoKwitko Sheriff of Banning (Retired) By the thing near the stuff Icrontian
    edited February 2006
    csimon wrote:
    please do us all a favor when you get it and post your steppings and whatever else you come up with!

    Well my baby arrived today via UPS. Here are the marking on the die cover:
    OSA165DAA6CD
    CCBWE 0551VPMW

    I did a quick Google on the stepping but since it's relatively new there isn't much info out there. Some cursory checks show people reporting 2.5 and even 2.6 with this stepping. If that's the case, I'm excited to see what this puppy can do!
  • ShortyShorty Manchester, UK Icrontian
    edited February 2006
    Well this...

    http://www.short-media.com/review.php?r=300

    Will help you overclock that new processor Mr Kwitko :D
  • KwitkoKwitko Sheriff of Banning (Retired) By the thing near the stuff Icrontian
    edited February 2006
    Holy smokes!!! 55 pages????? That has got to be the most comprehensive guide to overclocking I have ever seen. If I can't figure out how to properly overclock after reading that article, then we are all in trouble.
  • QCHQCH Ancient Guru Chicago Area - USA Icrontian
    edited February 2006
    Snuffie should be able to overclock with that guide!!!!!
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