looking to leave intel...

D

dclem9834

n00b
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Mar 10, 2005
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right now i have a p4 530 3.0ghz chipi. i would love to get out of intel chips and start looking at the other side. i want to get a socket 939. but im not sure if it is worth it at this point or wait till my chip is a little more out dated so that my next chip lasts me longer.

i guess what im wondering is what amd s939 chip is equal to mine and what would someone recommend as a minimum upgrade (ie the cheapest) that i should be looking at to make it worth the couple hundred i would spend?

oh and leave overclocking out of this, i want to compare stock chip to stock chip
 
a 3200+ or 3500+ is about equivelant to your chip in most apps, but way faster in games...

for an overall upgrade i wouyld recommend a 3700+ San Diego core Athlon 64 or if you can afford it a dual-core Athlon X2 or Opteron

i moved to AMD last year, and currently on a dual-core Opteron, and its worth the transition

if you need any more info/help on what CPU or mobo to buy, just reply or PM me

hope that helps
 
ok i was looking and thinking of dual core, so next question is what is the difference btwn and opty 170 (2.0 ghz) and an x2 4400+ (2.2 ghz)
 
dclem9834 said:
ok i was looking and thinking of dual core, so next question is what is the difference btwn and opty 170 (2.0 ghz) and an x2 4400+ (2.2 ghz)
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The difference is 200MHz. That's about it. :p

Full Folding Ahead!

 
sorry was wrong and didnt edit post quick enough, meant to say the difference btwn opty 170 and x2 3800+ both 2.0 ghz
 
dclem9834 said:
sorry was wrong and didnt edit post quick enough, meant to say the difference btwn opty 170 and x2 3800+ both 2.0 ghz
Click to expand...

Oh, the different there is the cache. The Opteron has 1MB of cache per-core, whereas the 3800+ has 512k cache per-core.

Full Folding Ahead!

 
Also you might think about the fact that the opty's aren't "offically" supported by mobo's, while the X2's are. You might want to hold out for the new socket later this year, esp if you have some good DDR2 memory already in your intel box.

edit: and I'm an idiot and didn't read your sig. Disregard last sentence. For single core I'd get a 3700+ or dual I'd get a 4400+X2 if you can afford it. Opty if you're slightly braver.
 
edit...probs if ur not oc'ing then the best is opty170 still...higher cache
 
The extra cache on the opty isn't worth the $$, very little actual performance difference. I would go for mhz over cache in most cases when it comes to a64's, they seem to do almost as well with 512k vs 1mb unlike intels (there is a difference, it's just small). That's just my experience and why I only went with an x2 3800. I haven't even really felt the need to o/c it once the novelty of pushing it wore off, it'll do 2.4ghz without problem but most stuff I run that actually makes heavy use of the processor is vid card limited anyway, so there's no real point to it. I prefer just running the fans at their lowest speed for quiet operation at this point and getting the most out of my vid card. The exta cache would be virtually worthless to me, however ymmv (especially if you do a lot of video encoding). In gaming, the cache is worth maybe 5% which translates to around 2-3fps in most stuff, and only if you're not video card bound, (which isn't often unless you have a high end sli or crossfire setup).

Just wanted to add that I would not go back or recommend single core after using dual core.
 
Your current system is no slouch, I'm willing to bet. But if you want to ditch it rght now, I recommend a dual core so you at least can actually notice some difference in system speed and response.

Are you also looking to transition to PCI-E graphics or keep it AGP? I think I might know the answer to that since your sig shows an FX5500, but I just wanted to double check.

Also, what is your budget cap for all of this if you do decide to do it?
 
bobzdar said:
The extra cache on the opty isn't worth the $$, very little actual performance difference. I would go for mhz over cache in most cases when it comes to a64's, they seem to do almost as well with 512k vs 1mb unlike intels (there is a difference, it's just small). That's just my experience and why I only went with an x2 3800. I haven't even really felt the need to o/c it once the novelty of pushing it wore off, it'll do 2.4ghz without problem but most stuff I run that actually makes heavy use of the processor is vid card limited anyway, so there's no real point to it. I prefer just running the fans at their lowest speed for quiet operation at this point and getting the most out of my vid card. The exta cache would be virtually worthless to me, however ymmv (especially if you do a lot of video encoding). In gaming, the cache is worth maybe 5% which translates to around 2-3fps in most stuff, and only if you're not video card bound, (which isn't often unless you have a high end sli or crossfire setup).

Just wanted to add that I would not go back or recommend single core after using dual core.
Click to expand...

but given the choice between a Opty 165 and a 3800+ X2, the extra $30 is worth it for the Opty 165

and dont pay attention to the "Opteron not officially supported" claims, thats just AMD propaganda to get you to buy an X2 instead of a dual core Opteron, i have never seen a decent mobo, with the latest BIOS, that didnt run perfectly with an Opty
 
habitual geek said:
but given the choice between a Opty 165 and a 3800+ X2, the extra $30 is worth it for the Opty 165

and dont pay attention to the "Opteron not officially supported" claims, thats just AMD propaganda to get you to buy an X2 instead of a dual core Opteron, i have never seen a decent mobo, with the latest BIOS, that didnt run perfectly with an Opty
Click to expand...

I personally wouldn't get the 165 over the 3800+X2 if you aren't overclocking. That extra 200 mhz is going to make more of a difference. And on the not supported claim, I called asus support when i had a problem with the sli-deluxe and i told them they had an opty 170, they then said "you have an unsupported cpu and you need a diff one" Now if you lie and say you have an X2 instead, you'll be just fine :) I didn't have any troubles with the DFI board even before I flashed it. It was just a single core till the flash.
 
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