Opteron or Athlon64

I'm going to building a new system soon, probably on an Asus A8N-SLi Premium motherboard, for use as a gaming machine.

My dilema is whether to get an Athlon64 3700 "San Diego" for £155 or to go for an Operon 144/146/148 (£115/£140/£170).

I know there can be difficulty getting hold of the Opterons. I also know they need to be overclocked to get the most out of them.

Does anyone know if the overclock well with the stock heatsink and fan or do I have to spend another £30 on a cooler ? I don't mind doing a bit of O/Cing but I'm not hard core.

Speaking of which does anyone know how hot O/Ced Opterons get ? I don't want to be baked in the summer :O_o1:

I get the feeling that the Athlon64 is the "safe" bet, but also that I might be missing an opportunity to get a really nice chip at a discount price, with the Opteron.

Any thoughts ?

Opterons are nice, but I feel they HAD their hayday.

http://www.lowestonweb.com/Products/...A-6E9DB9746A47

Erm, it really depends on what steppings the Opterons that Scan have in at the moment are (does anyone know??) but generally the overclocks people do with Opterons are done on stock cooling.

I had exactly the same dilema before Christmas and I decided to go for the 3700+ San Diego as it has a higher stock speed, it overclocks so easily and I really do love it but that's not to say you shouldn't go for an Opteron. If you're on a budget, I'd be tempted to save the £50 and have some fun overclocking!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by NightshadowUK

If you're on a budget ...

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My money tree has dutch elm disease :lol:

I don't think there's much to choose between them. I may well let fate decide (i.e. get whatever my Mobo supplier has in stock).

Thanks for the advice.

imho the opteron is the est choice i have been in the same situaition as you and i decided on the opty pm your hotmail tlk bout it, lol not a chat up line btw you live close to me :)

At the 144/146 level I would go with an Opteron for the extra L2 cache compared to the equiv. A64.
Once you are at the 3700+ level there isn't too much difference.

The stock hsf is fine upto a point (probably~2.7/2.8GHz) but is going to be noisier at that than an aftermarket one.
On the whole 90nm K8s run pretty cool but your CPU cooling & case airflow come into it too.