Difficulty chosing proc

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Baredor

Gawd
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Jun 30, 2004
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I'm a nooblet about to attempt my first high-end build in the next few months. I plan to use it exclusively for gaming. I play mostly WoW, with teamspeak, but plan to run Oblivion and UT2007 when they come out.

Help me choose what's best for me between the following:

-A64 4000+ San Diego
-Opteron (165?)
-x2 4200+

I've seen the buzz around the Opterons, and while it's intriguing, I'm not experienced enough to start OCing yet. I might start a few months down the road, but even then I don't have the wallet to be pushing stuff to its limits. 10% is probably the most I would ever do, and, again, I don't expect to be doing this anytime soon. Should I not even consider the Opteron since I'm not going to OC the hell out of it?

Then there's the neato X2s. I like the concept, but I wonder if I'd be better off just getting a plain ol' single core at a good speed. I hear UT2007 will be using dual cores, but I don't think WoW can. Haven't heard about Oblivion. I don't do media encoding or video editing or anything like that. I just game. Is there any real downside to multicore other than price? Advice appreciated.
 
Alright, well in my opinion you should go for the dualcore 4200x2.

Here's the pro's and con's of this decision:

Pros:
--Overall far quicker performance in all programs because of the multitasking performance
--Future multicore support in gaming
--Current multicore driver support

Cons:
--Because many games don't take advantage of both cores yet, your dual core would only be as good as its clock speed and would no longer function with the benefit of both of it's cores (effectively becoming a single-core processor). i.e. the San Diego, because it's clocked slightly faster than the x2 would be quicker (2.2ghz vs. 2.4 ghz)

All in all, because of the minimal difference the 200mhz will make in terms of FPS in single-core games, and because of the speed increase in dual-core supported drivers as well as support for dual cores in future games, the x2 is the best decision. Also, you should be able to eek out a fair OC from that proc...they seem to oc decently.
 
I'd say get an Opteron 165 and overclock it. It's not really unsafe as long as you've got it cooled properly and the retail heatsink that comes with the dual core Opterons is pretty decent. Get a 165 and overclock it to 2.4-2.5.
 
Assume that I would be running the Opteron at stock speed. How much of a hit am I taking compared to running the x2 at stock?
 
Baredor said:
Assume that I would be running the Opteron at stock speed. How much of a hit am I taking compared to running the x2 at stock?
Click to expand...

it'd be a 400 megahertz deficit. certainly nothing to sneeze at, considering that if only intend to overclock a little bit the X2 will still be able to get another 200-400 (sometimes more) megahertz on top of the stock 2.2 ghz. Overall, if you're purchasing a proc for gaming, and only intend to overclock a little, the x2 is a far better choice.
 
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