Ledhed

Having trouble deciding on my own. I know the X2 is 5-10% faster stock. I also know the Opteron 165 overclocks like a damn beast from 1.8ghz up to 2.7ghz. What do you guys think?

Here is a graph of the OC one site achieved with the Opteron.



Full Review:
http://techreport.com/reviews/2006q1...0/index.x?pg=1

jbruneau

I guess it depends on the onboard memory controller, and overclockability. How many sticks of RAM are you running (2x512, 2x1024, 4x512)? What do you use your system for?

__________________
Jonathan

Let's face the obvious. Yesterday we were nerds. Today we're the cognitive elite. Let's conquer. - Chester G. Edwards





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Ledhed

Heavy Gaming, Video Editing, Burning CD's (a lot I trade live music), Ripping CDs, Encoding Video, AutoCAD, Solid Works etc etc

2x1GB on the RAM

jbruneau

Have you tried overclocking your current system? Do you know how far your RAM can go?

I'm just thinking if you're running 250FSB on the CPU, and 200FSB on the RAM. Upgrading your CPU to get 300FSB on the CPU, and 200FSB on the RAM may not yeild that much performance. On the other hand, if you can follow 1:1 on the CPU, you'd be laughin !

I'm sure OCZ would be happy to help you out with timings and overclocking though, you can find them over here: http://www.bleedinedge.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=45. They are great!

__________________
Jonathan

Let's face the obvious. Yesterday we were nerds. Today we're the cognitive elite. Let's conquer. - Chester G. Edwards





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Mastamune

MMM you are doing a lot on that machine.
I would go for the opty even if you don't OC it to these speeds you can still OC it nicely above the X2 3200.

Ledhed

Well guys my current system setup is all there but the CPU. Im still building it. I have all the parts but the CPU and Im just wanting to make sure that I want the X2 3800+ instead of the opty 165. My Mobo isnt that great of an overclocker so I dont think I should rely on overclocking to get the performance I want with this board.

jbruneau

Well, both CPUs are dual-core, and would be more than capable of handing the applications.

What's going to tell for me, is whether or not the RAM can follow the CPU 1:1 (or close to), it should be able to by keeping the 2.6v and loosening the timings. If it can't, when he overclocks it then the FSB is going to choke, and be a bottleneck for him..

If you don't mind me asking, what is the price difference between the two? If the X2 is cheaper, and you're not going to overclock then get it ! If the Opteron is cheaper, and you may overclock a little then get it !

__________________
Jonathan

Let's face the obvious. Yesterday we were nerds. Today we're the cognitive elite. Let's conquer. - Chester G. Edwards





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Ledhed

The X2 is about $35.00(US) cheaper than the Opteron

jbruneau

Well, if you are going to be running stock speeds (CPU & RAM), with mild overclocking than get the X2. You'll be running faster than the Opteron, and your ram will be at DDR400 2-2-2-5 (or 2-3-2-5 pending on rev1 or rev2).

The motherboard you have is difficult to overclock as well, just a sidenote, from what I have read on the OCZ Support Forums.

I hope this helps! Any questions, please, feel free to ask !

__________________
Jonathan

Let's face the obvious. Yesterday we were nerds. Today we're the cognitive elite. Let's conquer. - Chester G. Edwards





<!-- System Specs are to the Left -->

Ledhed

I have never overclocked anything but my Video Card. How difficult is it to overclock RAM or CPU. Also how much real performance gain do you get by overclocking RAM? I wouldnt imagine that much in gaming. Like you said my Mobo isnt the best overclocker. I got it for the ability to run my AGP card and then later get PCI-E also all the reviews of the board were very good it runs as fast as some of the top dogs costing twice as much.