Upgrade advice- Opty 170/X2 4200/mobo etc

CGrieves

CGrieves

CGrieves

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My brother in law has offered me decent cash for my current AGP solution: A64 3200+, X850XTPE etc, and a mate has just given me a PCI-E 7800GT Extreme (seriously!), so now seems a good time to upgrade the rest. I'm not interested in waiting for Conroe, particularly since they will likely be in short supply and expensive. I'm really after a solid value upgrade, not bleeding edge. I used to overclock to the max but must admit I've kind of lost touch with what's hot and what's not these days....

Given that they seem to be highly rated, I'm probably going to go for a DFI LanParty NF4 SLI-DR EXPERT, unless anyone thinks otherwise.

I'm stuck between an Opteron UL170 or an X2 4200+. I do play games but I'm willing to sacrifice the odd frame-per-second if the Opteron will boost general PC usage noticeably.

I will definitely overclock- are the current Optys from OCUK likely to be a decent stepping?

I already have 2x1Gb of Kingston ValueRAM. I am overclocking at the moment, but am held back by my current mobo, so I'm not sure how far the RAM will go. I'll suck it and see and upgrade that RAM later if necessary.

Also, if it will increase my chances of a good clock, I'll happily go for a better cooler.

Any sage words of advice from the Wizards would be appreciated, Cheers! :)

EDIT: My case is a Silentium T1 with a 350W nominal Seasonic. Will that be OK?- It will just be the CPU, mobo, graphics card and two SATA drives as RAID-1.
 
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Firstly, a decent X2 or Opty system is going to need more than a 350W PSU to power it.. ESPECIALLY if OC'ing, as your going to need those rails to be super stable :)

As for the MB, the DFI is great, offers LOADS of OC'ing functions, however doesnt have dual x16 PCI-E slots.. So you may wish to go for the ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe instead. (It has a lot of OC'ing options too)

CPU wise, I have to say I havn't had to much experience with Opty's so I cant really comment (but im sure someone else will!)

The RAM is going to be a MASSIVELY limiting factor if OC'ing, it just isnt going to be able to keep up with even a small OC with low timings.. Upgrade that ASAP.

Hope that helps :)
 
yeh i agree you will need a psu with more juice and better Overclocking Ram dependent on the type of overclock your after
 
Ah OK, thanks for the advice. I'm not keen on changing the case as the Silentium is so quiet. So I may get the bits and go for a mild overclock.

Any opinions on the Opteron UL170 versus the X2 4200+?
 
CGrieves said:
Any opinions on the Opteron UL170 versus the X2 4200+?
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The Opteron for sure! Opty has 1MB L2 cache per core whereas the 4200 only has 512kb L2 cache per core. In terms of clock frequency, the difference between the two is merely 200MHz, which you can easily gain with a mild overclock (but what you cannot gain is cache). I'd take the Opty over the 4200, no doubt!
 
senorstealth said:
The RAM is going to be a MASSIVELY limiting factor if OC'ing, it just isnt going to be able to keep up with even a small OC with low timings.. Upgrade that ASAP.
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Wrong. The ram will be absolutely fine, just put it on a divider and keep it as close to 200 as possible. A64s arent affected by running a divider like some intel systems are.
 
Another vote for the Opty, got a 170 @ 2.9GHz with 1.35V on an A8N32SLI (not the best clocking board but I like ASUS) :)

As has been said you can stick a divider in so that you can run the ram with tight timings and still push the CPU to a good OC. You will need a good HSF though as they push out a fair bit of heat, I went water cooled when I did my upgrade.
 
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All good info, thanks.

Any recommendation on a good air cooler?

Also does the 16X PCI-E thing really make a difference, or is it just like AGP 2X 4X etc, i.e. virtually unnoticeable in the real-world?
 
I don't hink they've fully pushed the limits of the 8x agp bandwidth yet so i think not much difference just agp is being phased out, so no new cards.
 
CGrieves said:
All good info, thanks.

Any recommendation on a good air cooler?

Also does the 16X PCI-E thing really make a difference, or is it just like AGP 2X 4X etc, i.e. virtually unnoticeable in the real-world?
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no realworld difference, and the Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940) (FG-000-AR) is a great cooler
 
The sycthe ninja might be your best bet when it comes to air cooling, however the freezer is the best value for money
 
Thanks guys, all ordered. I went for an Antec Sonata II (450W) and a Freezer 64 for the moment, with an Opti 170 and the DFI Expert, plus a few extra fans.

It actually makes things easier getting a new case as I can sell my current PC as a whole to my brother in law rather than transplanting the bits into his. New build ahoy!

Cheers!
 
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