Opteron or cheap athlon X2?

IModIntel · April 20th, 2007, 07:24 PM

Hi everyone,

While my dad was playing on his computer, his chipset caught fire

. It is an ASUS A7N8X socket A motherboard. He doesn`t want to get another socket A, but instead get an AMD socket 939 board + CPU so that he can keep his DDR Ram and AGP video card. One of our local retailers will sell us a brand new, never-been-used Gigabyte 939 board for 100$CAD. SO That is not a problem. However for the choise of CPU, I am hesitating for two choises: a 2.2 ghz single-core opteron or an athlon 3800+ X2 Dual Core. The Opteron looks like a kickass CPU, but i still to ask you guys what you think about it, considering that the motherboard`s first BIOS release is compatible with both and that the system will be mainly used for gaming.

Thanks in advance

IModIntel · April 20th, 2007, 07:26 PM

And just as a reminder,

I'm sorry but i dont have any pictures or videos for this scene that was quite funny actually.

xiaomhome · April 20th, 2007, 07:53 PM

I think you should get the athlon 3800+ X2 Dual Core. Dont forget to use dual-core optimizer from amd's site. Opteron are server's processors, they are good only at overclocking, athlon64 is a fully optimized processor and they have a average overcloking depending on the cooler you are going to use.

bulvai · April 20th, 2007, 08:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xiaomhome

I think you should get the athlon 3800+ X2 Dual Core. Dont forget to use dual-core optimizer from amd's site. Opteron are server's processors, they are good only at overclocking, athlon64 is a fully optimized processor and they have a average overcloking depending on the cooler you are going to use.

What in the heck are you talking about? My Opteron 165 hits 2.8Ghz+ on STOCK VOLTS. It also has 1MB L2 cache per core versus 512K for a 3800+.

Opterons are better chips than the X2's because their memory controllers tend to be superior and there is no such thing as a "fully optimized" processor as you suggested.

To the original poster, grab an Opteron 165 dual-core instead of a single core, you'll be extremely pleased.

xiaomhome · April 20th, 2007, 08:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bulvai

What in the heck are you talking about? My Opteron 165 hits 2.8Ghz+ on STOCK VOLTS. It also has 1MB L2 cache per core versus 512K for a 3800+.

Opterons are better chips than the X2's because their memory controllers tend to be superior and there is no such thing as a "fully optimized" processor as you suggested.

To the original poster, grab an Opteron 165 dual-core instead of a single core, you'll be extremely pleased.

Hi bulvai, welcome to NGO forum.
We are talking about a single core opteron and a X2 athlon64, between these the athlon64 x2 is better, i know the opterons caches are bigger, but they are not desktop procs. Opterons arent desing to run single tasks but multiple tasks with high I/O. And i never said that opterons are bad overclockers as you mentioned in the start of your post, they can reach high overclocks with low voltage and stock cooling. If im wrong please just tell me whats wrong.

ps. "fully optimized" for desktop use.

gen.Rage1991hrv · April 20th, 2007, 08:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by IModIntel

Hi everyone,

While my dad was playing on his computer, his chipset caught fire

. It is an ASUS A7N8X socket A motherboard. He doesn`t want to get another socket A, but instead get an AMD socket 939 board + CPU so that he can keep his DDR Ram and AGP video card. One of our local retailers will sell us a brand new, never-been-used Gigabyte 939 board for 100$CAD. SO That is not a problem. However for the choise of CPU, I am hesitating for two choises: a 2.2 ghz single-core opteron or an athlon 3800+ X2 Dual Core. The Opteron looks like a kickass CPU, but i still to ask you guys what you think about it, considering that the motherboard`s first BIOS release is compatible with both and that the system will be mainly used for gaming.

Thanks in advance

hehehehehehhehehe
i would take opteron its beter but dual core is allso very good
if you dad is just playing on it than take dual core cpu (it will give more boost for gaming)

bulvai · April 20th, 2007, 09:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xiaomhome

Hi bulvai, welcome to NGO forum.
We are talking about a single core opteron and a X2 athlon64, between these the athlon64 x2 is better, i know the opterons caches are bigger, but they are not desktop procs. Opterons arent desing to run single tasks but multiple tasks with high I/O. And i never said that opterons are bad overclockers as you mentioned in the start of your post, they can reach high overclocks with low voltage and stock cooling. If im wrong please just tell me whats wrong.

ps. "fully optimized" for desktop use.

Hello there xiao and thank you,

I was simply positing that it may be worth a few extra $$$ to grab an Opteron 165, which are going for around $150, and overclock it for some "free" performance. I realize that not everyone is an overclocker but these things will usually hit at least 2.6Ghz with very little to no tweaking to your BIOS other than upping your HTT and using a memory divider.

On the whole, I agree with you. If it comes down to a single vs dual-core, go the dual-core route every time.

xiaomhome · April 20th, 2007, 09:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bulvai

Hello there xiao and thank you,

I was simply positing that it may be worth a few extra $$$ to grab an Opteron 165, which are going for around $150, and overclock it for some "free" performance. I realize that not everyone is an overclocker but these things will usually hit at least 2.6Ghz with very little to no tweaking to your BIOS other than upping your HTT and using a memory divider.

On the whole, I agree with you. If it comes down to a single vs dual-core, go the dual-core route every time.

Glad we got the point.

Conclusion: Its worth to spend some $$$ for a dual core opteron, but since this not the case the X2 is better.

bulvai enjoy the forum

IModAmd · April 20th, 2007, 11:13 PM

Of my point of view take the opteron for just a lil bit of $$$ and it's works perfecty i seen alot of reviews about it and take the opteron the only main factor in that ! Buy an proper cooling for it because you can cook your eggs for breakfast

Unixlord · April 20th, 2007, 11:35 PM

I'd go for the 3800 x2. A mid priced aftermarket cooler wouldn't hurt either.