Did I make a mistake choosing the 939 X2 4800+ over a comparable Opteron?

D

dubbyah

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 12, 2005
Messages
174
I bought a 4800+ X2 recently for 270.

Someone told me that this was idiotic and there was absolutely no reason to get this as opposed to an Opty, because I could get the Opty to at least 2.8...

I'm kinda bummed out that I just spend almost 300 dollars for a chip that is overshadowed by a much better deal...

any opinions?
 
What's done is done. Why not just enjoy what you have. That's a very nice proc.
 
I wouldn't worry about it. Your X2 might overclock just as well. You think you feel bad, I paid $360 and got one of the worst Opteron steppings back in March.
 
I wouldn't get too worked up about it just yet. Overclocking is still a random thing so your X2 will still overclock better than some opterons, possibly better than most. Its pretty unlikely that you would be able to tell the diffrence between your chip and an opty at stock or overclocked unless you are into benchmarks.
 
I'll tell ya what, i upgraded from a 3200 to this baby, it has blown away my expectations. I have yet to put this thing under a full stress, I LOVE this chip. IMHO it will last for a long while before being outdated.
 
It was a mistake choosing s939 period. Why didn't you get socket AM2, at least it's rumored to be compatible with K8L.

But rantings aside, you did fine. There is very little difference between the two, and the 11x multi on the Athlon over the 10x on the Opteron will help overclocking.
 
InorganicMatter said:
It was a mistake choosing s939 period. Why didn't you get socket AM2, at least it's rumored to be compatible with K8L.

But rantings aside, you did fine. There is very little difference between the two, and the 11x multi on the Athlon over the 10x on the Opteron will help overclocking.
Click to expand...

An x2 4800 is a good investment over a lower end CPU if you had a 939 setup already, but not for buying new. The AM2 x2 5200 (2 x 2.6Ghz w/1mb L2 each) is around the same price or cheaper and would have been a much better deal overall, especially if the socket is K8L compatible.

Is there a reason you chose 939 if you didn't already have it? If I still had my 939 setup, I would have chosen the Opteron 185 for $335. That's a lot for a 939 CPU, but being able to avoid new memory and a new board is an added plus until I had more for an upgrade. I spent $800 for my Core 2 upgrade (but I can't say I regret it, quite the opposite).

Where'd you buy it from? If it was recent and you have the boxing etc, you could return it, but would probably have to take a 15% hit. eBay is another possibility :confused: Although none of that matters if you're happy with it, of course :)
 
just return it if you just bought it, save yourself the money get a opty 165
 
InorganicMatter said:
It was a mistake choosing s939 period. Why didn't you get socket AM2, at least it's rumored to be compatible with K8L.

But rantings aside, you did fine. There is very little difference between the two, and the 11x multi on the Athlon over the 10x on the Opteron will help overclocking.
Click to expand...

175's got a 11x multi lol

as mentioned before, just be happy with the decision you made. no use in mulling it over now that it's all done.

now go and try and squeeze out some performance from that 4800+ and let us know how you do...
 
InorganicMatter said:
It was a mistake choosing s939 period. Why didn't you get socket AM2, at least it's rumored to be compatible with K8L.

But rantings aside, you did fine. There is very little difference between the two, and the 11x multi on the Athlon over the 10x on the Opteron will help overclocking.
Click to expand...


am2 is a dead end stop gap, there is no reason to buy one. none at all. rumors are rumors don't buy anything based on a rumor.
 
I wouldn't shoot down your 4800+ until you know what it will and will not do. I have a 4800+ that is doing 2.84ghz 12.5 hours orthos stable at only 1.38v. Not too shabby for a non opty eh?
 
being a S939 User... I agree AM2 is not much of a better choice.. personally i'm waiting to see what AM2+ is gonna bring to the table before another build.
 
The only thing AM2 has over S939 is DDR2... and guess what... DDR2 has no better throughput than DDR1 does.... DDR2 may run at a higher frequency.. but unless you want to spend an arm and a leg for memeory, you will be stuck with high latency memory.

The only systems that have DDR2 that can beat my current DDR1 setup are the current super high end Intel systems. And I am using Corsair Value Select PC3200(DDR400) running at 283Mhz(DDR566) at CL3.

So... you gotta get a super high end Intel system running DDR800(400Mhz) to beat memory throughput of my S939 system running DDR1 at 283Mhz... nice.

And... the 65nm AMD parts are slower clock for clock than the 90nm parts.. partly because they didn't shrink everything.

And... the memory speed doesn't matter as much on an A64.... what matters most is the CPU speed... the RAM throughput scales very well with CPU speed increases.
 
cyclone3d said:
but unless you want to spend an arm and a leg for memeory, you will be stuck with high latency memory.
Click to expand...

That might have been true a year ago, but CAS3 DDR2-667 is cheap now. Maybe not as cheap as used DDR, but you can get 2x1GB of CAS4 DDR2-800 for around $200 now.
 
(cf)Eclipse said:
why is it a stop gap? i promise you K8L will work in AM2 boards.
Click to expand...

promises promises
AMD promised me flowers and I never got em:p

I don't trust cpu manufacturers with their socket support. When it happens you can tell me you told me so.
 
AM2 at the moment provides no real benefit and no reason to upgrade from 939. now if you are building a new machine and want to go AMD than there is no reason to not go AM2....

but like lots of people who had 3200+ 939s an upgrade to a X2 or an opteron is well worth the price and much better price/performance ratio than buying new mobo, ram, and CPU and staying with AMD....

jmo

oh and OP dont sell the X2 short until you find out what it can do.. my experience has been that my 3 3800 x2s didnt go farther than 2.7ghz and my 2 165s both went over 2.8ghz at the same or lower voltages...

I love opterons and have had a 144, 146, 2 165s
I have also had a 3000+, 3200+, 3 3800 X2s

I would go opteron 165 if you have a mobo that can handle the high FSB speeds
 
you probably could have saved some $$, but the x2 is a great processor. install it and be happy.

Some of the opterons don't OC well at all. it's hit or miss. i'd personally rather have the chip that's rated at 2.4ghz, than have to worry about OC'ing it to get to 2.4.

$0.02
 
have been given permission to pick up one of the two last computer upgrades I will be able to make for along time. The other will have to be saved up for until I can foot the bill. Here are my two options:

1) Westinghouse 37" 37w3 monitor - I am currently using a Samsung 19" LCD. I recently returned a Dell 24" because of issues I had with it and since then I discovered this thread. I am extremely excited of the possibility of picking up this monitor.

2) AMD X2 4800+ CPU - I am currently running AMD Athlon 64 3500+. This will be one of my last CPU upgrades in a while since I am still using a AGP motherboard. I have recently purchased the ATI X1950 Pro video card for my system so upgrading the motherboard is out of the question for now. I have 2gigs of Ram and my system is great overall. I just feel that the CPU is bottlenecking my systems when I play games like Oblivion and even WOW at the highest settings. This processor has been discontinued but is still a hot commodity. (no opteron for me. I'm not up with Over Clocking.)

So what would you all suggest? I think I will be able to get both at some point in the future but I have to make a decision as to which one I will purchase first. Since the 4800+ is discontinued, I figured I should get that one first since it will only become more difficult to find and also more expensive to buy. I am also concerned that when I am finally able to buy the Westy 37" it could be discontinued or difficult to find.

I understand this is a CPU thread, but if you were in my shoes which path would you choose first?

Daines1
 
Doesn't that Westinghouse only do 1280x768 with PC input? If you can live with that resolution and need a TV, you're set. OTOH Oblivion and WoW don't benefit all that much from dual core, but going to dual core now would set you up for future games and software that will support dual core. However by that time, those games will require more than a X1950Pro to run well, and you'd have to get a whole new CPU, mobo and video card and RAM to upgrade anyway...

Ah, decisions decisions.
 
Th Westinghouse 37w3 (I have one myself...LOVE IT) does 1920x1080 native. It has dual DVI, single VGA, single HDMI, dual Component, and a few composite and s-video inputs as well. No built in tuner, so technically it is a monitor, not a TV. Also, while it is true that Oblivion and other games are not fully dual core realized yet, any game that is coming out that has the "Games for Windows" logo on it, does use dual core. COH is a good example. and I notice marked framerate increases on my system. Specs are in sig. I went from an FX-55 @ 3080 to an opty 165 @ 2.6, and the peak framerates went down, but the average went up, resulting in smoother gameplay experience. I'd go with the screen, to be honest. Throwing more into the S939 setup will not extend you out for your computing experience as far as the screen will. a 37" 1080p screen should hold you for a few years, until the 60"+ screens are in your "affordable price range" :D I'd vote to OC your current chip as far as you can, and wait for dual core S939 chips to fall to the $50-100 range in 6 months (since they're headed towards EOL status), to tide you over. But, if it's a choice between dual core now, and 37" of 1080p loving...you'd be a fool to go dual core.
 
sabregen said:
Th Westinghouse 37w3 (I have one myself...LOVE IT) does 1920x1080 native. It has dual DVI, single VGA, single HDMI, dual Component, and a few composite and s-video inputs as well. No built in tuner, so technically it is a monitor, not a TV. Also, while it is true that Oblivion and other games are not fully dual core realized yet, any game that is coming out that has the "Games for Windows" logo on it, does use dual core. COH is a good example. and I notice marked framerate increases on my system. Specs are in sig. I went from an FX-55 @ 3080 to an opty 165 @ 2.6, and the peak framerates went down, but the average went up, resulting in smoother gameplay experience. I'd go with the screen, to be honest. Throwing more into the S939 setup will not extend you out for your computing experience as far as the screen will. a 37" 1080p screen should hold you for a few years, until the 60"+ screens are in your "affordable price range" :D I'd vote to OC your current chip as far as you can, and wait for dual core S939 chips to fall to the $50-100 range in 6 months (since they're headed towards EOL status), to tide you over. But, if it's a choice between dual core now, and 37" of 1080p loving...you'd be a fool to go dual core.
Click to expand...
I think the 939 prices are going to go up. You can probably get them cheaper from people here and there, but they're a lot more valuable than 754, and I wouldn't wait for the retail prices to go up.
 
You could always check the FS/FT thread here on the [H], I've bought and sold many pieces of hardware on there, and always been satisfied. My opty 148, for $80 is a good example. I do think you might be correct, S939 may go up in price, when they start to become scarce (as far as purchasing new), but many on the [H] forums will have moved on to newer/faster platforms by then, I don't think I'd be remiss in stating that the FS thread would have sub $100 dual core S939 chips on there, at that time. Consider used over new, if this trend starts to happen. buy from a reputable member, with good feedback, and you'll do just fine.
 
No mistake there friend. X2 4800+ is practically the same chip with same performance. Check out sig... had this setup for two years now.
 
I wouldn't buy any AMD right now, with K-late and Socket AM2+ around the corner. I say get the new LCD and don't waste any more money on dying technology (AGP, s939). :D You're going to love that TV, lucky dog... :)
 
I bought my 4400+ X2 for $460. Then a month later it dropped down to $230. That really sucked because i was trying to sell it when the prices dropped.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top