What to do?

[akirru]

Hey all,

My rig is as shown:

3500x2
2 gig DDR 1
x1800 xt 512
xp pro
Asrock Dual Sata II


I'm thinking about moving over to a Dual Core, now bar basically building new system or buying the AM2 sisterboard for my mobo I'm stuck with slot 939.

So I was thinking about getting an Opteron 185 as it has a good clockspeed and 2 meg on cache .. is that a good choice? I might like to look into overclocking, is it likely that I would get much out of the chip with the Asrock board?

Cheers
Andy

 

[semi-pro waster]

What is your budget here? If overclocking then the rather obvious suggestion is to go for Core2Duo. Additionally you wouldn't be able use your DDR with AM2 but you could (again with an ASRock board) for socket 775.

 

[Streeteh]

I've got a opteron 175, with a zalman cooler i managed to get it up to 2.8ghz with no problems. At that point the ram starts kicking up a fuss unless i set the divider insanely low, so as far as i know the CPU could make it higher if the ram wasn't holding it back.

So yeah, opterons are good for overclocking, though it is luck of the draw whether you get a good stepping or not.

 

[akirru]

Thanks for the suggestions guys, my highest budget is around £150 or atleast that is what I would like to spend (i might beable to stretch it). So this Asrock board you speak of, is it good for overclocking and how much will it set me back?

Cheers
Andy

 

[Cupra]

Abit IP35-E (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £59.99
(£70.49) £59.99
(£70.49)
Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 PC2-5300C3 667MHz Dual Channel Kit (BL2KIT12864AA663) £57.99
(£68.14) £57.99
(£68.14)
Intel Core 2 Duo E2160 "LGA775 Conroe" 1.80GHz (800FSB) - Retail £49.99
(£58.74) £49.99
(£58.74)
Sub Total : £167.97
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £8.25
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £30.84
Total : £207.06


and sell your mobo, cpu and ram that should up your budget

 

[akirru]

Thanks for that Paul ... will I need to use a custom fan with that setup to get a decent overclock or is the one included sufficient?

Cheers
Andy