Opty 165 or X2 4200?

[Fireburst]

I am currently building my first rig and I am trying to decide which processor to drop into my Gigabyte K8N Pro-Sli S939. I know I have some limited overclock options with this board but I am unsure if it would be better to go for the 4200 X2 or a 165 opty.

I would be grateful for any advice from anyone who has used this Mobo in the past.

 

[StevenG]

go for the 165 nearly all the 165's are getting 2.6+ also the opty has 2x1MB

 

[hominid]

With the 165 you need to be sure you can get your board up in the 270-280HTT range to get the overclock that is available with this chip. So if your mobo can't handle that overclock you'll be wasting some of the potential of the Opteron.

Mine does 2.56GHz @ default volts, but that is on a 285MHZ HTT (iirc), also does 2.7+ on 1.45V but gets toasty at that..

 

[oweneades]

Another option is the X2 3800+ OEM availble here on OCUK for around £190. Could that with a decent cooler and it will overclock nicely (plus saving you some money).

 

[gpuerrilla]

165 else for cheaper go with oweneades option.

 

[easyrider]

The x2 4200 is not worth the extra over the x2 3800.
But the 165 is worth the extra over the x2 3800 but needs a mobo that can do high FSB to utilise the overclock.

 

[Fireburst]

I think I will go for the 165. If my mobo can't utilise it fully then I can always replace further down the line.

I am currently video editing on a P4 2.5 and I really need some speed. I am hoping the extra core will stop everything locking up if I try to check my emails whilst doing a 80 gig render

 

[StevenG]

80gig render?? what the hell do you render?

 

[Fireburst]

Sorry, that was a typo it should have been 8 gig which is large enough. 8 gig is not that big when dealing with high quality dv footage. I often break footage down into smaller parts when working on it but a 8 gig render is quite normal and with the advent of HD the file sizes are going to get a lot bigger.