Opteron recomendations

peterk19

I was thinkin about ordering an opteron 146 or a 148 from overclockers.co.uk and was wondering whats the best sli motherboard for it? also what ram would people recommend for this?
if anybody has any other recomendations processor wise let me know.
Cheers
Pete

gline

peterk19 wrote:

I was thinkin about ordering an opteron 146 or a 148 from overclockers.co.uk and was wondering whats the best sli motherboard for it? also what ram would people recommend for this?
if anybody has any other recomendations processor wise let me know.
Cheers
Pete

i got a brand new stepping 146 from komplett and i have it @ 2.85ghz on air. For ram id recommend 4800 gskill or mushkin redline 4000
for mobo go asus or dfi. (asus for easyness or dfi for best oc)

peterk19

would there be much difference between the 146 and the 148 regarding overclocking potential?

gline

peterk19 wrote:

would there be much difference between the 146 and the 148 regarding overclocking potential?

not sure tbh,dont know anyone with a 148

if you have the money get a dual core opty, i would have if i had the money

peterk19

i could probably stretch to a 165 opteron would it be much worth it or hold on to get something better

gline

peterk19 wrote:

i could probably stretch to a 165 opteron would it be much worth it or hold on to get something better

id get a 165, dont know how well they oc but id say it would be ok , google oc results on them

B00MSTICK

Depends which stepping you get really - I'd go out on a limb and say all get to 2.4 at least

gline

B00MSTICK wrote:

Depends which stepping you get really - I'd go out on a limb and say all get to 2.4 at least

what stepping you got?

gline

For some results try

http://wiki.extremeoverclocking.com/wiki/Opteron_Steppings
and
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=28&threadid=1732211

B00MSTICK

CCBWE 0551WMPW - Can get to 2.6 @ 1.45 and 2.7 @ 1.5 (as it is now). Temps are 25 Idle and 44 Load @ 2.7

DemonOfTheFall

It seems like the new X2 3800+s are overclocking just as well as the Opteron 165s, just to let you know.

Because they're using the Manchester core, the good chips aren't being skimmed for FXes and 4800+s. Better chance of hitting it lucky on a sweet chip.

conzy

The only advantage the 165 has over the X2 3800, is 2 1mb caches, instead of 2 512kb caches.

Basically the X2 3200 is like to Venices, The 165 is like 2 San diegos.

Both CPUs usualy overclock to around 2.7- 2.8ghz.

But the 165 will perform better at the same speed.

Also DFI mainboards are brilliant and are only hard to use if you dig very deep;)

But remeber just because its an opty doesnt guarentee an overclock.

My Athlon 64 3700 is now at 2.95ghz at 1.47 vcore, I would like to see an opty do that:D

P.s the only difference between a 146 and a 148 is the 148 has an 11X multiplier

DemonOfTheFall

conzymaher wrote:

Both CPUs usualy overclock to around 2.7- 2.8ghz.

I absolutely wouldn't agree with that. Look around the overclock data threads at loads of sites, You see plenty of people topping out at 2.6ghz. They're just the people who have bothered to report their overclock aswell, theres many more out there who got crappy overclocks and haven't bothered posting up.

gline

DemonOfTheFall wrote:

I absolutely wouldn't agree with that. Look around the overclock data threads at loads of sites, You see plenty of people topping out at 2.6ghz. They're just the people who have bothered to report their overclock aswell, theres many more out there who got crappy overclocks and haven't bothered posting up.

well all the ppl i know with optys and that is a fair few got at least 1.8 with any flavour , 144, 146, etc

Cuddlesworth

Depends on how it was manufactured. Amd are using two different procceses at the moment.

gline

krazy_8s wrote:

Depends on how it was manufactured. Amd are using two different procceses at the moment.

ah yeh i agree you are not guarenteed 100% to oc well, but the worst i think u will see on an opty will be probably 400mhz overclock which aint so bad, i havent heard of any that wont overclock more than say 200mhz.

conzy

Demon of the fall, How come you contradict every thing I say in every thread???

I said

Both CPUs usualy overclock to around 2.7- 2.8ghz.

But remeber just because its an opty doesnt guarentee an overclock.

I specifically said that a good overclock is not guarenteed with a opty

Also the opterons are manafactured with the SSOI manafacturing process, which yields higher clocks and lower temps over the SOI process

DemonOfTheFall

conzymaher wrote:

Demon of the fall, How come you contradict every thing I say in every thread???

Because usually what I'm correcting is you telling people that they need to buy expensive ram to have a fast system, which couldnt be further from the truth. Find a benchmark where a low CAS timing makes any difference in real world usage, then I'll stop.

As for the OC thing, i just think it's annoying when people are led to believe they can expect a 50% overclock.

conzy

It wasnt just CAS Latency, you cannot compare Budget Twinmos ram with (3-4-3-8) timing to Performance ram at (2-2-2-5).

RAS to CAS, and RAS Precharge have a big influence on Stability and performance also.

Nowhere in that thread did i say "set CL from 3 to 2, and theres a big increase in performance"

I said " I had budget ram at (2.5-4-4-11) and I got Crucial Ballistix at (2-2-2-5) and there was a massive increase in performance.

I thought we already made up:o

As for the OC thing, i just think it's annoying when people are led to believe they can expect a 50% overclock.

And remember I never guaranteed an overclock:

Both CPUs usualy overclock to around 2.7- 2.8ghz.

But remeber just because its an opty doesnt guarentee an overclock.

B00MSTICK

I pretty much guaranteed an oc to 2.4 on a 165, If im proven wrong then Ill release a formal apology. The 3800 X2 might be a good deal, I got my 165from scan for £200 though so the extra cache only cost me ~ £7

peterk19

Cheers for the replys lads im probably gonna go with a dual core 3800+ on the DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 SLI-DR Expert, im not 100% on which ram to get but ill probably order these in the next week once i decide on the ram
cheers
Pete

DemonOfTheFall

peterk19 wrote:

Cheers for the replys lads im probably gonna go with a dual core 3800+ on the DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 SLI-DR Expert, im not 100% on which ram to get but ill probably order these in the next week once i decide on the ram
cheers
Pete

Nice choice, I'm getting the same board and processor next week. I'm going for the 2048 meg Corsair XMS C2 kit, probably. Only €215 for reasonably overclockable high quality ram. I have a 1024 meg kit of that at the moment and it does 220mhz at 2.5-3-3-6 which is pretty dandy for the price in my opinion. I might splash for OCZ gold though.

B00MSTICK

Make sure whatever RAM you get is compatiable with the Expert, aswell as your PSU especially if you tend to overclock. www.dfi-street.com is a mine of info

peterk19

i dont think ill be overclocking it too much tbh i just think its about time i moved up from socket 754 and agp

gline

peterk19 wrote:

i dont think ill be overclocking it too much tbh i just think its about time i moved up from socket 754 and agp

let me know if ur selling your old gear

TBH i DEFINITLY wouldnt get an expert mobo unless you are overclocking, terrible waste of money. A cheaper asus or abit would be fine if you dont plan on ocing much. DFI are only good for high overclocks. Also they are tricky, if you go through dfi-street you will see the amount of weird problems you can have with it, also i am on my 3rd now, 2 rma's They are a tricky board

peterk19

gline wrote:

let me know if ur selling your old gear

TBH i DEFINITLY wouldnt get an expert mobo unless you are overclocking, terrible waste of money. A cheaper asus or abit would be fine if you dont plan on ocing much. DFI are only good for high overclocks. Also they are tricky, if you go through dfi-street you will see the amount of weird problems you can have with it, also i am on my 3rd now, 2 rma's They are a tricky board

Cheers Gline what board would you recommend with similar spec to the DFI ill give you first choice on my old parts when i get the new system working
just so ya know its a socket 754 athlon64 3400+ and the mobo cant remember the model off handhand and a Gainword geforce 6800GT Ultra
1.5 gig standard Kingston pc3200 ram
no idea what the chip is worth so any indications would be helpfull

gline

peterk19 wrote:

Cheers Gline what board would you recommend with similar spec to the DFI ill give you first choice on my old parts when i get the new system working
just so ya know its a socket 754 athlon64 3400+ and the mobo cant remember the model off handhand and a Gainword geforce 6800GT Ultra
1.5 gig standard Kingston pc3200 ram
no idea what the chip is worth so any indications would be helpfull

an asus a8n based board would be ok, nice and cheap or the abit a8n delux.

or even the dfi sli-d is a lot cheaper. but there is no need to get a top of the range mobo if you dont plan on overclokcing a hell of a lot.

dont know how much your stuff is worth tbh, havent dealt with socket 754 in awhile, but i am interested anyway, just depends on wether i have money on the day or not

B00MSTICK

Yea if your not going for overclocks go for an Asus or MSI board, as Gline said DFIs can be finicky, although mine was my easiest build yet (must have been lucky it seems)

Whats the 3400+ core?

peterk19

B00MSTICK wrote:

Yea if your not going for overclocks go for an Asus or MSI board, as Gline said DFIs can be finicky, although mine was my easiest build yet (must have been lucky it seems)

Whats the 3400+ core?

Not sure on the core ill have to check when i get home

conzy

Yeah DFI boards are a bit picky, My Lanparty SLI-D hasnt given me an ounce of trouble and has decent features, like Memtest built into the bios, and it overclocks great, 2.95ghz

But my Socket A Ultra infinity DFI had all sorts of crazy problems and eventually just died.

If you are overcloking it is highly recommended that you connect all 4 molex connectors on the DFI boards;)

But I would highly recommend the DFI, and like i said, they are only as complictated as you want them to be.

I wouldnt get the expert, get the good oul sli-D, its €80 cheaper

Also the DFI boards love TCCD ram, OCZ platinium works great.

I have Crucial Ballistix in mine and they are rock stable at DDR560.

The 165 is clocked 200mhz slower but has twice the cache, the X2 3800 is clocked 200mhz faster but has half the cache, I think I would go for more cache seen as you are overclocking it anyway

Optikus

My opteron rocks its a newer stepping too, which suggests that AMD haven't made them crapper yet, as previously thought. I'd agree with Boomstick on saying that you'll get a gaurnteed OC of around 2.4 with the good steppings. Also i highly reccommend DFI boards, have had two so far and no problems with either.