Socket 754 939 opteron im all confused

Right,

I am upgrading my PC and i am getting all confused with the different socket types available.

I am going for an athlon 64 (venice by the looks of things). what is the difference between these and the opterons? and why are the opterons more expensive but slower clock speed?

The mobo im looking to get is a socket 939 nforce 4 ultra, but i do not know how these compare to the new ATI chipset motherboards. What would you guys reccomend?

One last question - does anyone know the serial codes for the e stepping Athlon venices'? its just that there are a number of webpages selling cpus detailing the serial codes but they don't have an E character on them and I am wondering if these are infact E stepping CPU.


Kind Regards

Stephen Tran

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Originally Posted by stephent3

I am going for an athlon 64 (venice by the looks of things). what is the difference between these and the opterons? and why are the opterons more expensive but slower clock speed?

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Single core 939 Opterons are based on San Diego core so 1 Mb L2 cache instead of 512k.
look again - a 2.0GHz Opteron 146 can be yours for £105 whilst the 2.0Ghz Venice 3200+ is £109 ...

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one last question - does anyone know the serial codes for the e stepping Athlon venices'? its just that there are a number of webpages selling cpus detailing the serial codes but they don't have an E character on them and I am wondering if these are infact E stepping CPU.

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http://www.amdcompare.com/us-en/desktop/

Thanks Bro,

So this means that im better off going for an opteron? Do these overclock as well?

939 is the current socket most people are using, Opterons of a good stepping are great overclockers. Opterons also have more cache than a venice core. Nforce 4 mobys are proven to be reliable and stable (in the most part) if u buy them from someone like asus or other big names do a search for some reviews on a board you like the sound of. The new ati chipsets seem to be good overclockers but weak at things like USB2.0 transfer rates tho this may not be a major problem in real world stuff if sending stuff down your usb2 link aint a priority then consider them, to be honest if ure into overclocking stick with Nforce4 and maybe get a DFI board - nforce 4 works and dfi have a great rep for overclocking

I'll look at getting an opteron, but scan is out of stock of the 2.0ghz one at the minute damint it!

I must admit ive gone for a 3500 venice because im not into overclocking so a venice is easier to get hold off and will do the job i need it too