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Socket 939 Upgrade Help!

Naan_H

Naan_H

Naan_H

Soldato
Joined
4 Jul 2004
Posts
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LDN
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?
 
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!
 
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!
 
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?
 
Looks like ill be home this weekend to test this lil beauty, the stepping is LCBQE 0722RPAW. Anybody know if this is a good stepping?

also, what are people using to test the CPU? SuperPi? And what are we using to monitor temps?
 
Thats encouraging news, but each CPU is different and it may never even reach that high!! I just installed speedfan and Superpi, hope it will suffice for testing purposes!
 
its installed and ready to go...just running some prime95 and superpi, temps seem to be about 45C. One thing i need to ask you guys tho...when i used to run prime and superpi, cpu usage would always be 100%...but now it doesnt seem to be...is there a reason for this?
 
GeForce said:
I limit mine to 55C full load, but I admit to being a tad paranoid.

Definitely not above 60C though ;)

Jon
Click to expand...

Just been running orthos for the last hour at 2.4Ghz on stock volts (1.35v), so far so good. temps reaching about 55C...hopefully that will decrease as the AS5 'burns' in. Im also using an Freezer64 Pro.
 
GeForce said:
Seems a tad high. Not dangerously high, but high nonetheless.

My 4400+ X2 @ 2.4Ghz at stock volts, also with the Freezer 64 Pro, only tops out at 45C load after 2 hours of Orthos.

Jon
Click to expand...

It idles at around 35C, isnt that ok? I didnt slap on the AS5 like i had before, gave a thin coating on the CPU and just rubbed some in on the copper part of the heatsink. I have always done that in the past and have never had problems. I think its the fact i keep the case underneath the desk thats making it a bit hot down there, not much cool airflow coming in.

Now to try 2.6GHz :)
 
How long should i be testing for stability for with orthos, and on what priority? Is 9 really necessary? Dont want to kill my PC lol....

i tested for a few hours last night at 2.8Ghz and stock volts and no errors were made....does that mean it is stable? priority was set to 1 and i did the blend test. I know some people like to test for days with regards to stability, should i be doing the same?
 
CPU usage with orthos is 100%, been going about 45 mins so far on priority 9 and blend test without any hiccups...doesnt the 100% usage mean both cores are being used?

If i switch to S&M, what settings do i use?
 
Think the max overclock for this opty is 2.8Ghz on stock volts. Tried 2.9Ghz and was about to start orthos when i got a BSOD...gonna try fiddling around to try and get it to 2.9Ghz stable, but im putting my money 2.8Ghz being hte max. Still tho, a 800Mhz overclock is nothing to complain about!

So guys, how does a opty at 2.8Ghz compare to other processors, especially C2D? Just as a comparison, what would be the C2D equivalent of this opty at 2.8Ghz?
 
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