3700+ to 4800x2? (939)

[Nocky666]

Just wondered whether it was worth upgrading from a 3700+ to a 4800x2? Whilst considering performance increase and longevity. Ive found a 4800x2 retail for £200 new. At the moment im using a 939 socket mobo and i'm not really prepared to change to a new mobo, memory, cpu, etc due to cost, so i'd like to make use of what ive got if i can.

I mainly play games, but what i'd really like to know is how long will it last me what with vista and dx10 gfx this year :S Or should i wait a while and start on a new build later this year?

My spec atm is:

amd64 3700+ @2.2ghz
A8N Sli SE
2gb ram
nvidia 7900GT 256mb

 

[steve258]

I think you should get the 4800+, there is still a bit of life left in 939 yet, though I would personally go for 3800+ and oc it.

Slap in a Dx10 card and you have a pretty good gaming rig.

 

[YoungBlood]

For me personaly, the best bang for buck is the x2 4200 at around £100. I also saw the x2 4800 for £200, but could'nt justify putting that much into a socket 939 system. £100 was bad enough but still a lot cheaper than a full upgrade to a AM2 or C2D.

If you can afford the x2 4800 then sure go for that, but I have my x2 4200 clocked at 2.5ghz at stock volts, with a bit of tweaking im sure I can get it to hit 2.6-2.7.

Also think its undervolted

 

[Nocky666]

Very nice mate, i'll consider the 4200x2 and thanks for your replies

 

[Sean_UK]

I think you should get the 4800+, there is still a bit of life left in 939 yet, though I would personally go for 3800+ and oc it.

Agree with steve258's sound advice, no point paying £200 for the 4800 which is a hell of a lot more than i paid last month.

 

[J.D]

For me personaly, the best bang for buck is the x2 4200 at around £100. I also saw the x2 4800 for £200, but could'nt justify putting that much into a socket 939 system. £100 was bad enough but still a lot cheaper than a full upgrade to a AM2 or C2D.

If you can afford the x2 4800 then sure go for that, but I have my x2 4200 clocked at 2.5ghz at stock volts, with a bit of tweaking im sure I can get it to hit 2.6-2.7.

Also think its undervolted

Very nice on stock . Mines hits just slightly higher. 2.62Ghz with stock volts. 2.7Ghz with 1.42v and 2.8Ghz with 1.48v. I've had it at 2.95Ghz with 1.55v but do you think my AC Freezer pro can handle it?? hehe certainly not.

Nocky666, go for it. If your a gamer then with a bigger screen resolution (over 1280x1024) then it's mainly on the graphics card so an 8800GTX in either a Conroe or X2 setup would run roughly the same. As shown above you can get some good chips out there. An overclocked X2 or Opteron at 2.6Ghz and above is a good performing PC still. Now save up for R600 or 8800GTX and your laughing although your current card is still very nice.

 

[555BUK]

Get a Dual core Opteron 165 (available for £99). Your motherboard should handle atleast 300fsb (with memory divider if needed) and 2.7GHz will be easy. There is no point in spending more on a 939 chip.

 

[Nocky666]

I like the idea of buying something like a 3800x2 from overclockers and trying to overclock it to 2.6ghz because it will save me about a 100 quid. BUT, and its a big but lol, i dont really know how to overclock cpus and aren't all that confident in the bios thingy lol.
Is it just a case of altering a couple of numbers in the bios?

Also ill be buying it retail so is it capable of running those speeds with stock cooling?

Thanks guys

 

[steve258]

The stock cooler that comes with X2 3800+ is a basic aluminium one, if you get high end X2s or opty 165 you will get a nice copper HSF.

Wither way a decent aftermarket cooler is recommended - Freezer 64 pro, Scythe Ninja, Tuniq tower.

To really push your cpu to max you will need to tweak the FSB, CPU Voltage, HTT multiplyer, RAM divider and RAM timings, and maybe HTT / northbridge voltage if you have them in BIOS, plus a few stress testing software in windows - Orthos, memtest, 3dmarks 2006...etc

 

[J.D]

I like the idea of buying something like a 3800x2 from overclockers and trying to overclock it to 2.6ghz because it will save me about a 100 quid. BUT, and its a big but lol, i dont really know how to overclock cpus and aren't all that confident in the bios thingy lol.
Is it just a case of altering a couple of numbers in the bios?

Also ill be buying it retail so is it capable of running those speeds with stock cooling?

Thanks guys

For cheapness and half decent air cooling, go with the AC Freezer 64 Pro.

Also go here to learn a little about overclocking. http://forums.extremeoverclocking.com/forumdisplay.php?f=283

http://forums.extremeoverclocking.com/forumdisplay.php?f=294


It's quite easy once you get the hang of it and realise that changing FSB will change your RAM speed. The more your speed goes up on the CPU you have to compensate with the RAM in either higher latency or higher RAM timings (From lower timings 2-3-3-6 1T to higher/looser timings 2.5-3-3-7 1T). Best thing to do is to run a divider and keep your RAM at stock all the way until you are finished overclocking the CPU. Once you have your CPU at its peak then can you start to work on your RAM.

My X2 comes at 2Ghz standard. For me running 2.8Ghz I am at 10x (Multiplier) 280FSB from 200FSB (stock) from 1.35v (stock) to 1.48v (voltage on CPU, when you come to a barrier keep raising vcore in the smallest steps till your at 1.55v max on air or 55'C in heat under full load. Always stick to the guidelines when learning and as your confidence builds with hands on experience you will know yourself what your capable of pushing it. Right I'm just giving a very short and basic view to overclocking. The real deal and guide is best to be read on the links I've provided.

A very important bit though consists of keeping the HTT at a 1000Mhz or under. Right, in your Bios it should say HTT usually somewhere in the CPU/Overclocking menu. Anyhow the option that has 1x, 2x, 3x ,4x ,5x is the one I'm talking about. Right as you seen above my FSB is 280 multiplied by 10 to make 2800Mhz 2.8Ghz. My HTT is set to 3x. Why?. Well you get my 280FSB and multiply between 1x - 5x to get it the closest to 1000 as possible. I run it at 3x for 840Mhz. Yes this is quite far away from the 1000Mhz the PC runs at from stock but I've had my HTT multiplier from 600 up to 1000 with no noticeable difference. So the goal is to keep it under 1000Mhz.

Right I'm going to shut up now as all the information is in those links so I'm just wasting my time. Please PM me or post away on either here or on Extreme Overclockers for some help if needed. We've all got to start somewhere. I knew nothing much about overclocking around 2 years ago. Well there's not much you can do with a 2400XP Athlon Thoroughbred .

 

[Byron5184]

Im doing a similar upgrade, 3500+ to X2 4200 (939), my question is cooling, would the cooling fan from my 3500+ be sufficient with the X2 4200 or would a new cooling fan be required (or does the X2 4200 come with a heatsink/fan)? Also, what PSU makes are worth getting because i have an Asaka 460W atm and im not sure if that would be good enough with the upgrade, my gfx is a 256mb 6800GS. But money is limited after buying the CPU. Any recommendations for either, if they need to be upgraded? Thanks

 

[Sean_UK]

460w psu 'should' be ok, tbh the stock cooler from your 3500+ wont be good enough and i would expect idle temps to be on the high side. Loads bash on about the Artic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro...which is fine if your not overclocking the dual core, however get something more recent that was designed for dual core in my opinion and will allow some respectable o/c should you decide to have a go.

 

[Byron5184]

cheers