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Opteron 185 - worthwhile upgrade?

Roll

Roll

Roll

Soldato
Joined
20 Apr 2004
Posts
2,743
I was wondering if an Opteron 185 would be a worthwhile upgrade for my 939 system which is currently running a 4000+ single core chip and 2GB memory?

The system is used for surfing, word processing, DTP, burning DVDs and some light gaming.

I'd be grateful for any advice on whether this will make a good upgrade and extend the life on my system, or if I would be better off going for a new motherboard/CPU/memory/graphics all in one go next year. I've come across the Opteron as what seems to be a reasonable price (£140) by the way.

Thanks for replies :)
 
Don't know what anyone else is going to say, but to be honest for what you're using it for I would have thought what you have is fine (you haven't said what graphics card you have, though, so I can't comment on that).

However, If you're going to spend £140 whatever, then I'd suggest selling what you have (presumably you could get around £150 ish) then getting a budget of around £300 for mboard, cpu, ram and gfx (depending on **** card you already have. Possibly something like this, assuming you can re-use your old case, psu, hard-drive etc, then clock the pants off it.

Edit - although obviously hang on a few weeks until the intel price cuts and see what that brings.


Intel Core 2 Duo E2140 "LGA775 Conroe" 1.60GHz (800FSB) - Retail £47.99
(£56.39) £47.99
(£56.39)
Sapphire ATI Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £79.99
(£93.99) £79.99
(£93.99)
EVGA nForce 650i Ultra (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (122-CK-NF66-T1) £54.99
(£64.61) £54.99
(£64.61)
Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 PC2-5300C3 667MHz Dual Channel Kit (BL2KIT12864AA663) £54.99
(£64.61) £54.99
(£64.61)
Sub Total : £237.96
Total : £290.12
 
Thanks PeteLucky7

Currently running a 7800GS graphics card (AGP)

It's looking like a tough one to me at the moment as I'm feeling tempted by the Opteron :rolleyes:
 
What mobo do you have?

I ran an Opteron 165 on a DFI board at nearly 3ghz on air. Awesome performance for hardly any outlay... if you have a board that clocks well! :)

gt
 
Roll said:
Thanks PeteLucky7

Currently running a 7800GS graphics card (AGP)

It's looking like a tough one to me at the moment as I'm feeling tempted by the Opteron :rolleyes:
Click to expand...


Yeah it's a difficult one, the better performance (clocked, at least) and future upgradeability of the intel v the ease of just dropping in a dual core to your current setup.

However I can say that whichever one you go for, for me at least, the jump from single to dual core was well worth it (even though it was only to a 3600 x2 brisbane). So much smoother in windows and general usage.
 
got the same Mobo, overclocking in the bios failed to boot after 240FSB, but i can get up to 300FSB through clockgen. Had a 4000+ at 3Ghz, now have a X2 4200 at just under 3Ghz, so the board should do it if you get a good chip.
 
My 165 ran at 3GHZ right upto the day i dropped it on the floor.Awesome chip :(

If you plan on keeping the majority of your PC as it is for a while i would go for it.
 
I can vouch for the 185 being an excellent CPU, but for what you would use it for it's not really worth the upgrade - you'd be better off hanging onto the cash for a complete overhaul sometime in the future, should you feel the need.
 
Id agree with crowze

went from a 3700+ to 4800+ both at 3gig... made a few fps in games. nothing steller. almost no difference otherwise.

maybe more worthwhile with your sys useage to look at a shiney new monitor, or a nice fast hdd (raptor?) if you wanna spend the cash. depends what you have already

if you arent Oc, then the boost of 200mhz (iirc the 185 is 2*2600mhz/1MB - correct me if im wrong!) might show a bit, and in intense DTP you might see 2 cores come into use some (i dont DTP much, so i cant say for sure). but again, doubt it.
 
Go for it, going dualcore will definately give you a boost. I even thought to myself earlier how smooth everything was even though I had loads of browser windows open whilst installing a game, listening to music, looking through pics etc. And, even if your board only does 240 HTT, you could spend even less than you're suggesting and get an Opty 175 or 180 instead and still hit 2.64GHz and 2.88GHz :D
 
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Cheers for all the replies.

I thought it over a bit and decided to go for it, the new CPU should hopefully be with me later this week.

This should now be the last ever upgrade to my 939 system and tide me over until a complete change of motherboard/CPU/memory/graphics card next year :)
 
Roll said:
Cheers for all the replies.

I thought it over a bit and decided to go for it, the new CPU should hopefully be with me later this week.

This should now be the last ever upgrade to my 939 system and tide me over until a complete change of motherboard/CPU/memory/graphics card next year :)
Click to expand...

You can get a low end c2d a mobo and 2 gb of ram for £200 so i'd say no its not worth it at all.

A low end c2d with a slight overclock will still probably pound a 185 into the ground.
 
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OP has invested now, so its time for advice on the upgrade from SC to DC.

the XS forums have a guild up someplace, i have the link at home will post later
 
Fair enough in what you say YorkshirePadd26, but I just didn't need the hassle of going through a complete upgrade of CPU/motherboard/memory and graphics card right now.

I'm happy with my decision and think theres a good chance of my system now taking me through to late 2008/early 2009.

Thanks to everyone who posted :)
 
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