Who Went (Amd) dual core then switched back to single?

harris1986 · 2 Jun 2006 at 15:04

Hi guys, after my opty 148's mem controller crapped out on me, i changed over to dual core. I was surprised at how zippier windows was but my only main concern at the minute is that i have had to crank my fans up in my case and on my heatsink to cope with the increased heat especially around the pwmic area!

So i'm just wandering how many of you guys switched from dual to single core? (also which cpu's you went from/to?

Stelly · 2 Jun 2006 at 15:09

I doubt that there will be many

Stelly

vanandjuanunited · 2 Jun 2006 at 15:11

Got dual and single. Doubt I will ever go back to single only.

Mr Mister · 2 Jun 2006 at 15:12

solution = akasa amber 120mm over pmw.

harris1986 · 2 Jun 2006 at 15:12

Maybe not but i know for a fact that there are some. I'm just curious as i'm mainly a gamer although i do other desktop stuff aswell (video editing etc) but it just felt like my opteron 148 at 2.8ghz was performing equal and above (in games) than my opteron 170 at 2.6ghz and the 148 was also cooler by a long way! Which would you say would be the best bet?

FreeStream · 2 Jun 2006 at 15:44

harris1986 said:
Maybe not but i know for a fact that there are some. I'm just curious as i'm mainly a gamer although i do other desktop stuff aswell (video editing etc) but it just felt like my opteron 148 at 2.8ghz was performing equal and above (in games) than my opteron 170 at 2.6ghz and the 148 was also cooler by a long way! Which would you say would be the best bet?

Keep the 170, I had a 3Ghz 3700+ San Diego and sold it to get a rubbish clocking X2 @ 2.5ghz, ill never go back.

Bring on the quad cores!!

FrankJH · 2 Jun 2006 at 15:53

I went from a 3700 to a X2 4200 to a Opty 170 and still using the latter two (with the Opty in my main rig) and the 3700 is unused

Would never go back to single core again

Vogon · 2 Jun 2006 at 16:15

I went from an Opty 175 DC @ 2.6 ghz to an Opty 148 @ 2.9, the benefits of the DC were hardly noticable IMO.
I guess I run a cleaner system than the guys that notice the difference, as I would be hard pushed to tell them apart for everyday use.
I prefer the SC TBH, the faster clockspeeds make more of a difference than DC for me.

harris1986 · 2 Jun 2006 at 16:25

interesting vogon

, i think i will wait for my 2gig of gskill zx to arrive and see how much of a performance boost that will give me should make my cpu a lot more stable!

PapaLaz.uk · 2 Jun 2006 at 16:42

Yep, just gone from an x2 4800 to a venice 3000.... http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17582967

FrankJH · 2 Jun 2006 at 16:47

Vogon said:
I guess I run a cleaner system than the guys that notice the difference, as I would be hard pushed to tell them apart for everyday use.

I think you are assuming quite a bit there - especially with the type of people on this board (in my opinion)

I am also surprised that 300mhz is actually that noticable but thats just an opinion.

I have to say I much prefer having one core to sort out windows a/v and associated background tasks ( like mp3 playback etc ) and use the other core for IE / MSN or anything else I may be doing - everything just seems smoother to me personally. Having one whole core dedicated to a game like SSII or Oblivion is also a bonus i believe

trojan698 · 2 Jun 2006 at 17:32

Went from an X2 4400+ to this opty. Gaming performance is a whole lot better although I do notice windows isn't as nippy. All the hassles involved with dual core - setting affinity, fps dropage. Much happier with the opty

Vogon · 2 Jun 2006 at 17:39

FrankJH said:
I think you are assuming quite a bit there - especially with the type of people on this board (in my opinion)

Possibly, TBH just guessing at reasons why some say it seems much faster in windows when I couldn't really tell any difference

One of the games I play a lot is pretty demanding on the CPU, thats probably why I can notice the speed increase more.

Just my opnion

ken1307 · 2 Jun 2006 at 17:50

I had dual-core and using single core now, cant tell the diff lol

guess I dont do multitasking much

squiffy · 2 Jun 2006 at 17:51

Gaming, multimedia- video encoding, mp3 encoding, etc- dual core
HTPC or kids machine/home server/downloading box- single core.

I guess it depends on how much RAM you have also, a upgrade from 256MB to 1.5GB will probably be much quicker than keeping 256MB RAM + dual core system.

I guess a dual core system isn't "in yer face" as much as a video card upgrade, it is there but unless you're a heavy user/load the system and still want it responsive won't notice it. I mean browser is hardly CPU intensive is it? DVD re-encoding really heavy and if you want a system capable of doing that quickly (not setting low priority) plus being fast for other apps need dual core.

sgoaty · 2 Jun 2006 at 17:53

Vogon said:
Possibly, TBH just guessing at reasons why some say it seems much faster in windows when I couldn't really tell any difference

One of the games I play a lot is pretty demanding on the CPU, thats probably why I can notice the speed increase more.

Just my opnion

I went from a 165@ 2.6 to a 144 @2.8 and i do feel a bit of difference in windows especially when i have a lot of windows open. My new 165 should be here any day though

Mul · 2 Jun 2006 at 17:59

Inspite of heat, stick with the Opteron Dual Core. Get some cooling round the PWM area.

Not quite the same but I swapped out the Opteron 144 in my main PC with an Athlon 64 3000 (half the cache), but am keeping the 3000 in my PC as it clocks as high with less volts and runs cooler as well. I don't notice the difference in L2 cache. It's also combined with the factor that I'm too lazy to remove my Evo 120.

Mul

Joe42 · 2 Jun 2006 at 18:17

harris1986 said:
Hi guys, after my opty 148's mem controller crapped out on me, i changed over to dual core.

OT, I think the memory controller on my opty may have died aswell, can you give me a bit more detail about what happened to yours?

Thanks

4Qman · 2 Jun 2006 at 18:32

Changed a few times back and 4th, My 2nd PC a 146 @ 3Ghz is sweet but my X2 @ 3200Mhz just kills it.

Done some Video Editing on the X2 and its just too good to go back to single even tho the single is Silent water setup and the X2 is on Phase.

harris1986 · 2 Jun 2006 at 19:05

Joe42 said:
OT, I think the memory controller on my opty may have died aswell, can you give me a bit more detail about what happened to yours?

Thanks

Hi there Joe, innitially it was strange one morning i switched my comp on did the usual, turned it off came back to it in the afternoon and it's wudn't even power on, i checked everything. Took the comp to my friends did the same, i changed ram to single channel and it booted fine! i thought it was the mobo at first so bought a new board and had the same result, went back to my friends and tried his cpu in my board and booted fine in dual channel memory, tried my cpu in his and wudn't boot in dual channel! So got 2 new cpu's now both of which work fine in dual channel.

Guys in what you have said in that i should get some good cooling for the pwmic area, how would i go about fixing a fan to that area (i have a akasa eclipse)? if i lay the case flat i can wedge a fan in there but obviously wudn't stay there when upright!