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3800x2 to Opty 170

chesterstu

chesterstu

chesterstu

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The missus has banned all expensive upgrades for the time being but i have just been having a shifty arround ebay and spotted Opteron 170s going for £100. Just wondering if you chaps think it will be a decent increase in performance going from my 3800 X2
 
chesterstu said:
The missus has banned all expensive upgrades for the time being but i have just been having a shifty arround ebay and spotted Opteron 170s going for £100. Just wondering if you chaps think it will be a decent increase in performance going from my 3800 X2
Click to expand...

Hi,

Well as the both run at 2.0Ghz the only difference in the cache. 2x1MB vs 2x 512MB is usually quoted as being worth around 200,
eg X2-4200 2.2Ghz 2x512
x2-4400 2.2Ghz 2x1M

The performance difference will be minimal, if noticable. If you overclock then you may get a little further with the 170 than the X2 but some X2's are doing really well.

Personally I wouldn't upgrade at this time unless it was to core 2 duo seeing as you already have an X2

I've just done this and if you sell your current X2 mobo, memory and X2 I'd be supprised if you needed to spend more than £100 to upgrade.

AD
 
If you are going to overclock it you might get some better number with the 170, but find out the stepping before you put your cash down.

If you are not clocking it, stick with the X2.
 
Depends what stepping you get to be honest. I got one for £110 on eBay and i'm not that pleased with its overclocking potential. At the moment I have only managed 2.5GHz stable. Its definatley the chip and not the mobo/cram as I had a single core overclocked nicely. Even with 1.4v through this it wont do 2.6 happily.

I would try and overclock your 3800 a bit.
 
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Just got a 170 to replace my 4200+, the 4200+ would have major trouble reaching 2.6Ghz, while the 170 is currently at 2.6Ghz stock volts (1.33v) will be trying 2.7Ghz tonight ;)
 
celliott said:
Depends what stepping you get to be honest. I got one for £110 on eBay and i'm not that pleased with its overclocking potential. At the moment I have only managed 2.5GHz stable. Its definatley the chip and not the mobo/cram as I had a single core overclocked nicely. Even with 1.4v through this it wont do 2.6 happily.

I would try and overclock your 3800 a bit.
Click to expand...
Agreed! See how much you can clock it first. The extra cache doesn't tend to make much of a difference.

A few of the 3800's actually do very well and get to 2.8ghz with a little voltage increase! Mine only managed 2.5 and as i wanted more i tracked down an Opty 165 that was a guaranteed 2.8ghz at stock volts chip! Bought that along with the DFI board i have in my sig for £130 so was quite happy. The chip will do 2.95ghz but gets a little warm. If i get brave i may remove the IHS and try to take it to 3ghz.

If you decide you want more then second hand chips are particularly good as you can confirm with the seller both the stepping code of the chip and the possible max overclock too. Then you'll know exactly what you're getting!

gt
 
Cheers guys, think i will stick with the X2 for now. Decto, what x2 did you sell, i really didnt think they were worth that much tbh
 
chesterstu said:
Cheers guys, think i will stick with the X2 for now. Decto, what x2 did you sell, i really didnt think they were worth that much tbh
Click to expand...

Hi,

It was an opty I sold but the X2's are doing ok especially of S939 versions as they are becoming rare. Add in a 2GB DDR and a mobo and I got a little over £300.

As for the C2D, £300 buys an E4300 or E6300, mobo and 2GB DDR2. Both chips should hit 3Ghz with a little bump in vcore.

You can trim it back a little, 1GB if you only have 1GB now funds are tight. Depends on the rest of your system but it could cost you less than you think.

It's worth OCing your X2 or upgrading to C2D but replacing it with and Opty at this time isn't a good deal.

AD
 
i went from a crappy clock x3800 (the dang thing needed 1.55v to do 2.48ghz with watercooling) my new opty 165 which i got in sep just for 175 is clocking nicely at just under 3.1ghz so even if u got 2.7/2.8 (which most of thease do on air) i say go for it
 
KillBoY_UK said:
i went from a crappy clock x3800 (the dang thing needed 1.55v to do 2.48ghz with watercooling) my new opty 165 which i got in sep just for 175 is clocking nicely at just under 3.1ghz so even if u got 2.7/2.8 (which most of thease do on air) i say go for it
Click to expand...
I did this too and my 170 does 2.8GHz on stock volts when my x2 3800 only did 2.5GHz at that voltage. Sold my x2 for £70 so the upgrade only cost my £80 :)
 
chesterstu said:
Just wondering if you chaps think it will be a decent increase in performance going from my 3800 X2
Click to expand...
Not really :( but its something to fiddle around with! :)

You could get some cash for your old 3800 X2 also! :cool:
 
It's all about marketing...

I sold my X2 3800 (second highest clocking Toledo ITW) on that auction site for OVER retail :D.
 
My opty 170 did 2.8Ghz straight out the box at stock volts, running it at that speed now for the past 2 months, reckon i could actually get 3ghz+ out of it as my temps barely reach 45c under load on my water setup.

My next major upgrade will be later this year when AMD release there new quad core's as it would involve a new cpu, motherboard, ram and hopefully a nice shiny new dx10 card.
 
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