OT: need CPU upgrade advice

TheHappyFriar wrote on 9/25/2007, 7:29 PM
I got a 939 MB. I want to get a new CPU for under $100. the best X2 I can get is the AMD X2 4200 OEM. But.. my Asus A8R-MVP can run Opteron's too. So... I can get an Opteron 165 Duel Core. (note: that's not the best, just the one under $100).

The main differences I note is the 2.2ghz & 512kb cache (X2) vs 1.8ghz & 1mb cache (Opteron).

I searched through several pages of results for a X2 vs Opteron Duel Core comparison & couldn't find one. It was (at best) X2 vs single core Opteron or X2 vs multiple single core Opteron's.

anyone ever see/do any comparisons?

Comments

FrigidNDEditing wrote on 9/25/2007, 11:43 PM
it seems to me that when I was looking into the tech, if you didn't get an Opteron 2xx it was just not really the way to go, so I might say the 4200+?


but don't quote me on that

Dave
craftech wrote on 9/26/2007, 2:48 AM
I would be careful with that board. Rev 1 had a bunch of issues. I would also NOT overclock it despite ASUS claims otherwise.

That said the Opterons run hotter than the AMD X2 4200, but if I were to get an Opteron for the board it would be the OPteron 170 for $116 delivered. It is a retail package so it includes the fan and heatsink.

Do you have an aftermarket fan and heatsink already?

John
TheHappyFriar wrote on 9/26/2007, 6:46 AM
according to cpu-z I have rev1 of the board. I have the fan that came with my 64 3000 so I'd be ordering a new one for the 4200.

when I got my original AMD 64 3000 I wanted an opteron but didn't due to price reasons. I found out a week later that if I did more searching, I could of gotten a duel-cpu Opteron MB, a single 2xx CPU & the good memory for ~$50 more then I spend for my 64 3000 rig, all at the same ghz. I don't want to make the same mistake now, especially since this will be the last upgrade for ~2 years.
wafalcon wrote on 9/26/2007, 10:22 AM
One t hing I would like to add is:
AMD 939s are really bad with Ram memory. They can only support 1 Gig of ram running at DDR400, If you put any more ram in it than MB will clock down to 333. It is all about the controller chip that is in the 939 CPUs.

I am in the same situation as you are and I am looking for a 939 Dual core CPU that will support more than 1 gig of ram and still run at full speed.

If anyone knows anything about it, I would really apreciate the info. Otherwise I will switch to Inel CPUs.
TheHappyFriar wrote on 9/26/2007, 6:31 PM
you 100% sure about that? I had 1.5gb in there initially & it was running at 200mhz (doubled to 400). The only reason I switched down to 1gb was because I found that duel-channel (2x512) was slightly faster rendering then single channel (3x512).