X2 3800 or Opteron 170?

TheBlueChanell

TheBlueChanell

Supreme [H]ardness
2FA
Joined
Apr 15, 2005
Messages
4,658
Which, out of those two procs, should I get. I would like to have the 170 because, correct me if I'm wrong, it has 1mb of cache per core, and is only 80 bucks more than the x2 3800. Which of those two procs, is the better oc'er.
 
TheBlueChanell said:
Which, out of those two procs, should I get. I would like to have the 170 because, correct me if I'm wrong, it has 1mb of cache per core, and is only 80 bucks more than the x2 3800. Which of those two procs, is the better oc'er.
Click to expand...

The 170 will probably get you 2.6Ghz and the 3800+ maybe 2.5-2.6. I'd get the 165 myself since it's cheaper and OC's just as well. Mine is at 2.6 now :).
 
kirbyrj said:
The 170 will probably get you 2.6Ghz and the 3800+ maybe 2.5-2.6. I'd get the 165 myself since it's cheaper and OC's just as well. Mine is at 2.6 now :).
Click to expand...

The, Opteron 170 only has a year warranty according to newegg but, I don't think that's right. Not like warranty matters. :p
 
I'd rather have the 170, I am a first time oc'er and if I chicken out the extra 200mhz would be nice.
 
I would go for the opti 165. It's $100 less than the 170 and ~$23 cheaper than the x2 3800, plus it has the 1mb cache/core. And there's absolutely no reason why you can't oc it at least 200mhz to be the same speed as the 170. For $299, it's a steal.
 
SpoogeMonkey said:
I would go for the opti 165. It's $100 less than the 170 and ~$23 cheaper than the x2 3800, plus it has the 1mb cache/core. And there's absolutely no reason why you can't oc it at least 200mhz to be the same speed as the 170. For $299, it's a steal.
Click to expand...

I am not ordering til the end of the month. The next stepping of cores, could not oc as well. Correct? Which is what I am afraid of.
 
Even considering that the next stepping might not oc as well, 200mhz is a very tiny overclock. Even my other 3000+ "dud" ovc'd 750mhz to 2.55ghz. Personally I would use the extra $100 saved on the 165, to invest in a 2nd gig of ram or put it towards a 7800gtx.


Edit...you already have 2gb of ram....invest in a better power supply :)
 
if it turns out my x2 3800+ is broken and not my motherboard, i'm going to be replacing it with an opty 170... and not removing the IHS :mad:
 
Who has the Opteron 165 in stock? Monarch says they expect to recieve some Dec. 5. Newegg is out of the $289 dollar OEMs. I don't see any Opteron 165s at Mwave....
 
Ah, but running naked is just so sexy!!

Am I just cheap, or am I missing something as to why everyone is wanting to spend an extra $100 for 200mhz, that can easily be obtained in a simple OC?
 
SpoogeMonkey said:
Ah, but running naked is just so sexy!!

Am I just cheap, or am I missing something as to why everyone is wanting to spend an extra $100 for 200mhz, that can easily be obtained in a simple OC?
Click to expand...


funny enough, when i was deciding to remove the IHS, i posted i was afraid i'd chip the core like so many Athlons i've had before it, and turns out, i did, in 2 corners... i doubt it will run again, but i'm going to try running it with artic ceramique instead of artic silver... we'll see i guess
 
SpoogeMonkey said:
Ah, but running naked is just so sexy!!

Am I just cheap, or am I missing something as to why everyone is wanting to spend an extra $100 for 200mhz, that can easily be obtained in a simple OC?
Click to expand...
they're doing it for the 10x multiplier.
 
{NcsO}ReichstaG said:
Who has the Opteron 165 in stock? Monarch says they expect to recieve some Dec. 5. Newegg is out of the $289 dollar OEMs. I don't see any Opteron 165s at Mwave....
Click to expand...
Mwave had them. When they sold out they didn't put up an out of stock notice they just pulled the product listing which is strange.

I however recieved my 165 from Mwave today.
 
I just got my 170 yesterday, but I can't test it until everything else gets here. It looks like the 165's are week 34 and the 170's are 30 from what I've seen so far. I'm getting Ballistix PC4000, so with the Opteron 170 and it's 10x mulitplier I can get 2.5 ghz @ a 1:1 and thats just at the memory's stock setting of 250 mhz. I'm sure it could overclock to at least 270 or so, at which point I'm getting close to the limit of what you can typically do with good AMD dual cores on air. My heatsink is a Thermalright SI-120 with a delta fan. Motherboard is a DFI Lanparty Expert.

I realize that a 1 to 1 ratio isn't a big deal with AMD 64 procs, but it can't hurt right? Also, it seems like the 170's are getting better OC's than the 165's from the few reports I've seen in forums all over the web.

Heres my 170 which I got at Monarch BTW which they shipped VERY fast:
 
So what is the difference between an Opteron and an X2? I am pretty sure when I looked at my new X2 4400+ Toledo last night it had the same CCBWE stepping as that Opteron in the screenshot. Is that good stepping for overclocking? (Waiting on more parts before I can build)

Total noob to overclocking so if I ask seemingly stupid questions forgive me. Stepping is not something I am familiar with. Apart from CABNE good! CABGE bad! :D
 
BallerX said:
I have one question though. Do these optys need registered dimms(ecc)?
Click to expand...

No, all the socket 939 1XX opty's do NOT need registered ram, it is only the skt940 opty's.
 
SKy042 said:
they're doing it for the 10x multiplier.
Click to expand...

I guess the decision comes down to whether or not you have a mobo thats capable of 335HTT or higher, which takes the 10x out of the equation as well.

I guess I'm just a cheap bastard :p :D I'd still get the 165 opti.
 
TheBlueChanell said:
I am not ordering til the end of the month. The next stepping of cores, could not oc as well. Correct? Which is what I am afraid of.
Click to expand...

I would say they should be similar since really they are the same cores as the 4400+ and 4800+ and they run at 2.2 and 2.4Ghz respectively. I would say that any Opty dual core should do 2.4Ghz without much effort.
 
what is the real advantage of buying an opteron over an x2?? im confused im in the market for a new cpu. i was originally going to buy an x2 3800+ however after reading about opterons left and right i have become extremely confused! please help. currently i have a single core 3800+ im looking to spend no more than 400 dollars. i believe its the 170 that everyone is talking about. i just dunno what the real difference is between the two
 
standard141 said:
what is the real advantage of buying an opteron over an x2?? im confused im in the market for a new cpu. i was originally going to buy an x2 3800+ however after reading about opterons left and right i have become extremely confused! please help. currently i have a single core 3800+ im looking to spend no more than 400 dollars. i believe its the 170 that everyone is talking about. i just dunno what the real difference is between the two
Click to expand...

The latest socket 939 Opteron craze is because of their excellent overclockability. There is no difference between X2's and Opteron S939 processors. Other perhaps the Opterons being better binned chips. Meaning that higher quality chips are binned as Opterons in the QC process. That is very hard to substantiate at this time though.
 
Sir-Fragalot said:
The latest socket 939 Opteron craze is because of their excellent overclockability. There is no difference between X2's and Opteron S939 processors. Other perhaps the Opterons being better binned chips. Meaning that higher quality chips are binned as Opterons in the QC process. That is very hard to substantiate at this time though.
Click to expand...

Opterons are also all 2x1mb cache vs. either 2x512k (3800+, 4200+, 4600+) or 2x1mb (4400+, 4800+). Other than that, the main draw besides OCing is the price. a 2x1mb X2 is $500 for 4400+ while a Opty 165 is $300. They are essentially the same chips with different multipliers.
 
i've got 165s and 170s coming in over the next couple of weeks. Matter of fact, I've got a 170 OEM (sitting at fedex waiting to be delivered) that is not spoken for. (i think i've got a spare 165 OEM too).

dave
 
I'd definitely say that there are far too few people reporting OC's on 165's and 170's to say whether they truelly do overclock any better than say a 3800 X2 or 4400 X2. I'm hoping there will be a thread started that allows people with X2's and Dual Opterons to post their OC's so we can all get a better understanding of everything.

Also while the cache on the Opty's is 1 mb per core instead of 512k, there has been benchmarks that there really isn't much difference between the two performance-wise.

However just because applications (and Windows?) do not take advantage of the extra cache now, this will most likely change in the future as 1MB of cache becomes more standard.

Also the 165's are cheaper than the 3800 X2, so thats also another important reason people are buying it.
 
dave_graham said:
i've got 165s and 170s coming in over the next couple of weeks. Matter of fact, I've got a 170 OEM (sitting at fedex waiting to be delivered) that is not spoken for. (i think i've got a spare 165 OEM too).

dave
Click to expand...
you got a pm
 
Wolfmyst said:
I'd definitely say that there are far too few people reporting OC's on 165's and 170's to say whether they truelly do overclock any better than say a 3800 X2 or 4400 X2. I'm hoping there will be a thread started that allows people with X2's and Dual Opterons to post their OC's so we can all get a better understanding of everything.

Also while the cache on the Opty's is 1 mb per core instead of 512k, there has been benchmarks that there really isn't much difference between the two performance-wise.

However just because applications (and Windows?) do not take advantage of the extra cache now, this will most likely change in the future as 1MB of cache becomes more standard.

Also the 165's are cheaper than the 3800 X2, so thats also another important reason people are buying it.
Click to expand...

I've had both the X2 3800+ and the Opty 165 and my X2 would top out at 2.6Ghz or so (and that with 1.55V...air cooled). The 165 does 2.6Ghz with no problems and with only a .05V increase over stock (actually, I'm running 1.39V according to CPU-Z). I can hit 2.7Ghz with 1.5V. Of course, the person I sold my X2 to says he's doing 2.8Ghz, so who knows what could happen with WC or something.
 
kirbyrj said:
The 165 does 2.6Ghz with no problems and with only a .05V increase over stock (actually, I'm running 1.39V according to CPU-Z)
Click to expand...
is that 1.4v set in the bios?
 
standard141 said:
honestly im at the stop sign one says opteron and one says x2 crossroads :confused:
Click to expand...

The 165 is a better buy than the X2 3800+ IMHO because of the extra cache. Plus it should go to 2.4Ghz without much difficulty, yielding a 4800+ for $300.
 
kirbyrj said:
yes, 1.4V set in bios
Click to expand...
your board reports surprisingly close to set voltage, almost all dfi nf4's i've seen report ~.03-.05v under bios settings
 
(cf)Eclipse said:
your board reports surprisingly close to set voltage, almost all dfi nf4's i've seen report ~.03-.05v under bios settings
Click to expand...

No, you're right, I wasn't paying attention to the REAL question :). I set it at 1.425V and it ends up being 1.39V or so. 1.45V will be 1.41V.
 
ok, thats more normal. one of these days i need to make a thread asking people three things:

vcore as set by the bios
vcore reported by smart guardian under load
vcore reported by a good multimeter under load
 
i cant find any reviews on the opteron 170 i dunno if there are even any reviews? is it late to purchase an opteron or what and is there any specific stepping i should be looking for??? thanks
 
there are no reviews on the 170 that i know of. robberbaron should be getting a 165 soon, and we'll probably have a review up at eoc, though primarily an oc'ing based one, as the performance can be predicted from how the 4400+ and 4800+ do ;)
 
standard141 said:
i cant find any reviews on the opteron 170 i dunno if there are even any reviews? is it late to purchase an opteron or what and is there any specific stepping i should be looking for??? thanks
Click to expand...

CCBWE 0530 :D
 
Well I just primed my 165 @ stock voltage last night all night (9 hours) clocked at 2475mhz! :eek: stock voltage (1.3-1.35v) max temp was 44C w/thermalright 948slk+55cfm

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top