Dual-core A64 or Opty?

[SourceQuench]

I am just about to upgrade my system a little (from my current system on left) to tide me over until the next-gen stuff arives (or at least when it's a bit cheaper!)

At the moment I have set my sights on going for an Asrock 939DUAL-SATA2 mobo (want to keep my AGP gfx until I scrape some more cash together), but I am a bit stuck on which CPU to go for - I don't know whether to go for an A64 X2 3800+ (or similar) or one of the Opterons (since I've heard so much about the fact they are good OCers). Most of the time I will be gaming (FEAR, HL2 etc.)

I will probably be overclocking a little since I already have a watercooling set-up (all I need is a new block and ready to go), I was just wondering if anyone could recommend me which would be the better value choice?

I will probably be buying most of the gear at Scan, but if you can recommend anywhere else then that's great.

[Steve B]

im in your situation and i asked exactly the same question

from my sig u can see i went for the 3800+ over the oppy

wouldn't change it for the world, cant wait til it arrives

[Pie_uk]

i would say go for the X2 mate since i have heard opterons not overclocking very well lately , also 3800's have been hitting 2.6ghz quite easily

[SourceQuench]

Cool, I see it's on "today only" (~180 quid) - "I want that one!"

[NightshadowUK]

All dual Opterons have 2MB cache - something worth considering depending on what you're using the system for, although if it is just gaming it won't make much difference to you.

[chazt]

I personally can't see the benefits of having a dual core system at the mo. If I were you I'd buy an opteron 144 or 146, and spend the money you save on a better gfx card.
If you really must have dual core, then consider the new intel pentium d 805, as I hear they overclock particularly well and are an absolute steal at around £85.

[MantisCSS]

all about the 146 m8, such good over clockers, mine is running at 2.8 on stock volts havent tried going higher yet, they are awesome! i use mine for gaming mainly to, CSS

[SourceQuench]

Well I don't *think* I need dual-core at the moment (I don't run any dual-core apps yet), I was tempted by a Opt 146 to save some money (hence my OP) but I wasn't sure if I'd get a good stepping or not (just my luck not to!)

Does anyone else have experience with the latest Optys that you can get?

[Smokey21]

I personally can't see the benefits of having a dual core system at the mo. If I were you I'd buy an opteron 144 or 146, and spend the money you save on a better gfx card.
If you really must have dual core, then consider the new intel pentium d 805, as I hear they overclock particularly well and are an absolute steal at around £85.

Let me guess, you don't own a Dual Core?

[NightshadowUK]

Well I don't *think* I need dual-core at the moment (I don't run any dual-core apps yet), I was tempted by a Opt 146 to save some money (hence my OP) but I wasn't sure if I'd get a good stepping or not (just my luck not to!)

Does anyone else have experience with the latest Optys that you can get?

Recent OEM Opteron 146s (CACJE) are hitting 2.8GHz+.

[latrosicarius]

from my sig u can see i went for the 3800+ over the oppy

wouldn't change it for the world, cant wait til it arrives

How can you be so happy with it, when it hasnt even come yet?

[Pie_uk]

lol, well i have heard that going dual core is much better than single, lighning fast round windows etc, dual core is future proof, for when games really take advantage of it

[Clunk]

anyone trying to put you off dual core, either hasnt got one or hasnt ever used one. day to day tasks are much smoother and hefty tasks like video encoding are doable without having to leave it on over night.

my vote is for the opteron 165. if you get an average one, you might get 2.6ghz, if you get a good one, you might get 3ghz.

[chazt]

very true, i don't own a dual core cpu, nor have i ever used one, I am simply going from what I have read. The thing is that to my knowledge, there aren't really any games around at the moment that take advantage of dual core, and buying things to be future proof doesn't always work as there is always something around the corner that will supercede it.

[ash_rm]

lol, well i have heard that going dual core is much better than single, lighning fast round windows etc, dual core is future proof, for when games really take advantage of it

I wouldn't say you'll notice the speed increase for nomal tasks such as general windows stuff, browsing the web etc. But if you ever do any video encoding and the software supports Multiple threads such as DVD Shrink you'll really notice the performance increase compared to a single core opteron or athlon.

Also some of the newer games are supporting Dual Core CPU's already such as oblivion.

I'm really happy with my Opteron 165. I got it to 2.7GHz with a slight increase of Voltage to 1.42V. Probably could do more but am happy with the temps, 48c on full load (both cores) and 36c Idle with a Scythe Ninja.

My Boss at work bought an Athlon 3800 X2 for £170 here:
http://www.lowestonweb.com/Products/...D-CF1CBC7C038F

I set it up for him and got 2.65GHz prime stable. And to be honest there's not much in it between the Opteron and 3800 X2.

So I'd say get which ever is cheapest, most likely the 3800 X2.

But if you don't do much video encoding and want to save a bit of money you could just go for single core now and upgrade to dual core later.

[Steve B]

How can you be so happy with it, when it hasnt even come yet?

good point, amend to "i will be so happy when it arrives"