Myths *official* AMD question thread!

[myth]

Ok, obviously I have created several threads about AMD, and mobos ect... This thread should help to reduce all that cluter!

So my question is, is an 3800 worth double the cost of the 3500? I'm simply asking cause I'm batteling it out on ebay right now with 16 hours left and I am wondering how much I should bid... I can get a 3500 brand new for $280, but the 3800 retails for $630! So does 200 Mhz make that much of a difference? Or is there more to it?

[StormPC]

I fail to see how making yet another thread could help "reduce all that clutTer", but..

Is it worth it? Only you can answer that. Is 200MHz a big difference? Yes...but...the difference between the overclocked max MHz will probably be less than 200MHz, probably closer to 100MHz. The advantage of the 3800+ is the high multiplier. If you have crappy RAM you can still get decent overclocks with the high multi.

Any A64 will stomp your Intel rig pretty good, especially in games. If I were you I'd get a 3200+ Winchester. They run at 2500MHz+ on stock volts and are faster clock for clock than the Newcastles. AND THEY ARE CHEAP!!!

[myth]

I plan to not overclock this CPU simply cause its going to be running on a fanless heatsink... And 200Mhz doesnt seem to be worth $400 let alone $600... but then agin I'm thinking intel, perhaps 200Mhz means more to AMD...

[Stewart]

Well, no its not worth it, as the 3000+, 3200+ and 3500+ all overclock past stock 3800+ speeds, for much, much less. My 3500+ is at 2.6ghz, stock FX-55 speeds, and I know there is more headroom, I'm just not going to push it any further.

If you are not overclocking, then maybe it is worth going for it... maybe. You save so much money by overclocking the other 3xxx Winchesters though that I'd say money on the purchase price of the CPU and buy a proper heatsink.

[StormPC]

200MHz (especially on an A64) DOES make a bigger difference than on Intel CPUs, and for several reasons which I will not get into. 3800+ is not going to be substantially faster than a 3200+ Winchester (unless you don't overclock at all). If you really want good performance in games and benches and you have 3800+ money you're better off picking up an FX-53. There are still some around. If you want an absolute monster then FX-55 all the way!

[Firelord]

how big is that fanless heatsink? Its gonna have to be absolutley huge cos A64s kick out some heat! Get a Thermalright Xp-120 and a quiet 120mm fan such as a panaflo or http://www.akasa.com.tw/spec/fans/spec_ak_183_l2b.htm do a much better job and some OCing headroom.

IMHO your asking for trouble going fanless.

[funnelhead]

Myth - if you are going fanless then i would advise getting a Winchester core (ie 90nm) as they have the lowest wattage of any high performance chip around at the mo - 66 watts max, and the cool and quiet tech means they will run even cooler when idle as they will automatically reduce their speed and voltage. A 3500 Winchester will still have serious power, and if it turns out that it runs cool, well then you can overclock from there.

If you are going fanless, go Winchester.

[myth]

I am kinda qlueless as far as OCing an AMD... On my intel I just up the buss and volts... How do you OC an AMD?

[funnelhead]

On an AMD 64 (mult locked like intel) its pretty much the same deal.... Only the FX chips and the mobile chips are multi unlocked these days for us AMDers. As always good ram helps. It seems AMD 64 loves having low latency mem timings as well - lots of peeps talk about going for the 1T overclock. don't ask me that one

If you want a fast system with a fanless cpu ( ie limited clocking potential) then i guess optimising areas other than the box are gonna be pretty important, so a large dollop of good ram and a fast HD aint gonna go amiss.

Whats the box for Myth?

[myth]

On an AMD 64 (mult locked like intel) its pretty much the same deal.... Only the FX chips and the mobile chips are multi unlocked these days for us AMDers. As always good ram helps. It seems AMD 64 loves having low latency mem timings as well - lots of peeps talk about going for the 1T overclock. don't ask me that one

If you want a fast system with a fanless cpu ( ie limited clocking potential) then i guess optimising areas other than the box are gonna be pretty important, so a large dollop of good ram and a fast HD aint gonna go amiss.

Whats the box for Myth?

I'm ditching my Intel mobo and P4 for an AMD setup, mostly net suffing and music with the ocasional games...

So whats the FSB? I read they dont have one! So whats the Buss speed? Is ddr 3200 all it needs? I read about it being at 1,000 MHz So thats not ddr 3200.... Right?

[Lee H]

FSB is really the "speed" in Mhz between the Memory controller and the processor. Now as the AMD 64 have the memory controller built into them they run at the speed of the hypertransport system (939 has a 2000Mhz Full duplex hypertransport). THIS is why AMD 64 kick intels flabby buttocks when it comes to gaming as they have oodles and oodles of memory bandwidth to play with.

As for memory - they use DDR 400 MHz. Some good quality DDR 400 with low latency i.e 5-2-2-2 is ideal as A64 runs better with LL than intels.

[BUFF]

On an AMD 64 (mult locked like intel) its pretty much the same deal.... Only the FX chips and the mobile chips are multi unlocked these days for us AMDers.

Not true - all AMD64 are multi unlocked down from their default multi but only the FX are unlocked up from default multi.

As for overclocking it's a bit more complex than just upping volts & bus speed.
http://www.insanetek.com/index.php?page=overclocka64
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...hlight=kv8+pro

tbh if it's mainly for surfing & music what you have is more than enough.

[myth]

(939 has a 2000Mhz Full duplex hypertransport).

well then wouldn't a stick of mem at 500Mhz be better? As for timings My XMS runs at 2336 not the greatest, and in an AMD rig it cant even do that!

[myth]

I just read that not all the sata ports are locked! I also read that when they are it decreases performance!

That is an unfortunate nature of how the PHY connects into the Hypertransport bus both externally and internally - to lock the bus removes a great deal of performance from all 4 ports.

Found here.... http://forums.hexus.net/showthread.php?t=32858

Now my concern is that I use 4 sata drives! If I OC I will need them all to be locked! So is the via chip set afected by this as well? Or can it have all four ports locked without any performance loss? and Vaul, are the ports locked on that ASUS A8V Deluxe you got?

[StormPC]

I just read that not all the sata ports are locked! I also read that when they are it decreases performance!



Found here.... http://forums.hexus.net/showthread.php?t=32858

Now my concern is that I use 4 sata drives! If I OC I will need them all to be locked! So is the via chip set afected by this as well? Or can it have all four ports locked without any performance loss? and Vaul, are the ports locked on that ASUS A8V Deluxe you got?

Really not an issue because if you are overclocking an AMD64 with even 1 SATA drive it is best to use a PCI RAID controller. If you do not you are just begging for a scrambled OS.

[myth]

Really not an issue because if you are overclocking an AMD64 with even 1 SATA drive it is best to use a PCI RAID controller. If you do not you are just begging for a scrambled OS.

Say what? There is no way I'm using a raid card! I refuse to use my raptors off of my PCI buss! If thats the case then I will buy a P4 EE if I have to!

*Myth quickly searches newegg for a new Intel setup....