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Socket 939 Upgrade Help!

Naan_H

Naan_H

Naan_H

Soldato
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Hi all,

I have a A64 4000+ clocked at 3Ghz at 1.35v (stock) on air. Prob the best £50 i ever spent! Anyway, i have just installed Vista Ultimate 32bit and comparing it to windows xp i find it chugging along a bit, and was thinking whether an upgrade to dual core would be worth it? I already have 2GB ram installed.

Would i see much performance increase if i upgraded to an X2 4200+ (£50)? Or would an Opty 170 be the better way to go (~£70) with the extra 1Mb cache? I dont mind overclocking too. Im willing to sell my 4000+ too.

I do want to play games like crysis (and other dx10 games) in the future, but i will prob upgrade my gfx card (currently on a 6800 AGP) first before anything else when crysis is released (i have PCIe on my board too). I know its early to say but would a overclocked X2 4200+ or Opty 170 be able to handle games like crysis?

I know its a lot to ask but thanks for any suggestions!
 
Thanks mate, really useful info. What about the opteron 170... it uses the Denmark core, how does it compare to machester and toledo? iirc , dont opterons run cooler and possibly clock better than regular A64's?

Any idea how these dual core A64's / opty's will run crysis (or unreal 3 for that matter) with a brand spanking new dx10 gfx card bought at the time of release of those games?

Im hoping one of these CPU's with a new gfx card will be ok, saves me doing a full upgrade to a C2D. Also does vista utilise dual core technology?
 
The Denmark core and Toledo core are the same. There was a discussion on this a while back. Basically "Denmark" was going to be a codename for a CPU that AMD subsequently cancelled, so it became the codename for a 2x1mb L2 So939 Opteron. Hardware wise, it's exactly the same as a Toledo.

Yep, Opterons will run cooler. When you say they "clock better", that's true up to a point. They clock better because they run cooler, which gives you more overclocking headroom.

However, as you can see in that other post, a Toledo/Denmark won't overclock as high as a Manchester, simply because the extra cache usually holds it back, even when the core is capable of more. That said, the 170 will still overclock very well. So you'll be able to get a nice high core clock, with the added bonus of 1mb L2 cache per core. I would think 2.4Ghz at absolute minimum. More likely 2.6Ghz, and up to 2.8Ghz if you get a good stepping.

All versions of Vista support dual (multiple) cores. As far as games go, I'm afraid I won't even pretend I have a clue. Not really a games person me, so I'll let someone more knowledgeable answer that question :)

Jon
 
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GeForce said:
The Denmark core and Toledo core are the same. There was a discussion on this a while back. Basically "Denmark" was going to be a codename for a CPU that AMD subsequently cancelled, so it became the codename for a 2x1mb L2 So939 Opteron. Hardware wise, it's exactly the same as a Toledo.

Yep, Opterons will run cooler. When you say they "clock better", that's true up to a point. They clock better because they run cooler, which gives you more overclocking headroom.

However, as you can see in that other post, a Toledo/Denmark won't overclock as high as a Manchester, simply because the extra cache usually holds it back, even when the core is capable of more. That said, the 170 will still overclock very well. So you'll be able to get a nice high core clock, with the added bonus of 1mb L2 cache per core. I would think 2.4Ghz at absolute minimum. More likely 2.6Ghz, and up to 2.8Ghz if you get a good stepping.

All versions of Vista support dual (multiple) cores. As far as games go, I'm afraid I won't even pretend I have a clue. Not really a games person me, so I'll let someone more knowledgeable answer that question :)

Jon
Click to expand...

its ironic you dont know much about games, look at your name, might have called you an nvidia fanboy :P only joking!!

The opty 170 has 2x1MB cores, the X2 4200+ 2x512KB cores, so according to your post that should be a 400Mhz increase at stock levels with the extra 1MB cache (i cant find any X2 4400+ anywhere). So in comaprison dont you think the opty is better if it can reach 2.6GHz? I guess its gonna be the last CPU upgrade for this board, so i have to really decide if i wanna fork out for the extra £20 on the opty over the 4200+.

Somebody please decide for me!
 
Naan_H said:
its ironic you dont know much about games, look at your name, might have called you an nvidia fanboy :P only joking!!
Click to expand...

Haha :D I do tend to always use nVidia cards, but I've got nothing against ATi at all :cool:

Naan_H said:
so according to your post that should be a 400Mhz increase at stock levels
Click to expand...

Sorry I phrased that badly. The extra 512kb of cache per core is roughly equal to a 200mhz "real world" speed increase in total (ie. around 100mhz increase for each extra 512kb).

If it were me, I would go with the Opty for the additional £20. I reckon it really will show its worth over the 3800+/4200+. But that's what I'd do, obviously it's up to you :)

Jon
 
Im inclined to do the same, like i said its the last upgrade ill do on it so might as well spend the extra 20 quid. when i get a brand spanking new gfx card, if the opty 170 isnt up to running new games then ill upgrade properly to C2D. At least this way i have the opportunity to test it out to see if its good enough, and if it isnt, oh well! In the meantime with the upgrade, windows should run a lot sweeter.

Ill sell the A64 4000+ i have, its an amazing chip tbh. To reach 3Ghz on a low voltage is pretty amazing. Hopefully ill get anything around £30 for it.

Thanks for your help Geforce!
 
Yep you'll see a nice speed boost in Windows and general multitasking with that Opty ;)

And you should be able to get £30-40 for that 4000+ I reckon.

Glad to help :D

Jon
 
Will do, but probably wont be able to test it till next weekend as im going away this bank holiday weekend. Just out of interest, what programs are you using to test stability? and on what volts / temps are you getting 2.8Ghz?
 
I'm in the same position as the OP with a 4000+ @ 3Ghz

As I am ram limited to PC3200 stuff that doesn't clock, I will be heavy on the divider usage.

What could I expect from a 3800+ in an A8N-E?
 
The A8N-E uses the nForce 4 Ultra chipset so you should be able to hit 2.6Ghz on stock voltage. Add a little Vcore and you should be able to hit 2.8Ghz with the 3800+ X2.

Obviously no guarantees, but that's how the recent ones seem to be doing :)

Bargain if you ask me.

Jon
 
Should be absolutely fine I reckon :cool:

As I said I can't guarantee anything, how well your chip will overclock depends entirely upon your chip. But going by recent results, you may even be able to manage 2.67 on stock volts.

Jon
 
I upgraded my AMD Athlon 3200+ with a AMD Opteron 165 and overclocked that to 2.7Ghz on air and at stock volts. It is currently running at 40 degrees on normal use and reached approximately 50 when stressed - this is with the A64 Freezer fan running at 50%.

Should I sacrifice quietness for speed, and try making it even faster?
 
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