1.6a or 1.8a, it's so hard!!

[BD231]

Hey all, I am yet another AMD man going the Intel route. VIA chipsets have been nickel and dime'ing me for quite some time now, so I'm jumping on a new boat. I used to be an upgrade "savy" person but I no longer like spending big bucks on the latest hardware. I'm not in need of ground breaking performance, and I hear the 1.6a and 1.8a are good bang for the buck processors. The key thing I would *LIKE* to do is hit 133mhz fsb, so with that in mind, what should I go with? 1.6a or 1.8a? If I had a 1.6a capable of doing 133mhz FSB, and a 1.8a only able to hit say, 128mhz fsb, which would be faster? This is a big dicision for me, as I want this set-up to last at least a year or so. Thanks for your help. I also need a motherboard, is the 4G4A+ really my best bet?

 

[Jgtdragon]

I think you can't be wrong with either the 1.6a or the 1.8a. I got a bad chip becasue it was one of the earlier one(pack date 12/27/01). I got an 1.8a. With the newer batch you will have great overclocking results.

Even with a bad overclock chip, I am curent at 2300 Hmz.

 

[oldfart]

I'll make it easy for you

1.6A will make 133 FSB
1.8A may make 133 FSB

Easy enough?

 

[BD231]

Originally posted by: Jgtdragon
I think you can't be wrong with either the 1.6a or the 1.8a. I got a bad chip becasue it was one of the earlier one(pack date 12/27/01). I got an 1.8a. With the newer batch you will have great overclocking results.

Even with a bad overclock chip, I am curent at 2300 Hmz.

So I'm guessing your vote is for the 1.8a since you bought one right? 2300mhz is more than enough for me . I'm thinking if I grab a 1.8a my chances of getting one of the newer batch chips is higher, anyone know if that is correct?

 

[oldfart]

Depends on your luck. There is a guy here that just got a 1.8A from Newegg. It had a pack date from Feb. 1.6A's have been comming through with pack dates from May - June. A LOT more 1.6A's are sold. The supply is "fresher".

 

[BD231]

Originally posted by: oldfart
I'll make it easy for you

1.6A will make 133 FSB
1.8A may make 133 FSB

Easy enough?

Ok well thanks for your detailed input. I said I would *LIKE* to hit 133, but I would like to know if a 1.6a at 133mhz fsb would be faster than a 1.8a at a lower FSB speed but with a higher clock.

 

[THUGSROOK]

Originally posted by: oldfart
I'll make it easy for you

1.6A will make 133 FSB
1.8A may make 133 FSB

if it were me that answered, it woulda looked like this...

1.6A will make 166 FSB
1.8A may make 150 FSB



(dont take me too seriously - im kinda lucky i guess)

 

[butch84]

I like your title . . mmmmm its so hard . . . mmmm hard . . . I mean . . . holy shnikies . . . i didnt . . . i mean . . arrrrrrgg!

Nevermind.

 

[oldfart]

I gave you a simple answer because the detailed answer is kind of long and has been gone through many times. I'll hit a couple of items.

In general, I have seen MANY more high overclocks on 1.6A Vs 1.8A

Same Speed CPU, higher bus speed will be faster, where is the x-over point from one to the other? You would have to draw a graph, but generally, higher MHz is always good.

Higher FSB = higher DDR speed which is good unless you are using some DDR that cant go very high. Then, maybe lower FSB is better.

CPU overclocking is luck of the draw

If you want a SURE high overclock, let Thugs buy the CPU for you!

 

[THUGSROOK]

yea he REALLY wants a new CPU

 

[BD231]

Originally posted by: oldfart
I gave you a simple answer because the detailed answer is kind of long and has been gone through many times. I'll hit a couple of items.

In general, I have seen MANY more high overclocks on 1.6A Vs 1.8A

Same Speed CPU, higher bus speed will be faster, where is the x-over point from one to the other? You would have to draw a graph, but generally, higher MHz is always good.

Higher FSB = higher DDR speed which is good unless you are using some DDR that cant go very high. Then, maybe lower FSB is better.

CPU overclocking is luck of the draw

If you want a SURE high overclock, let Thugs buy the CPU for you!

. Hey Thugs, got any good overclocking P4's you want to sell?

 

[THUGSROOK]

lol oldfart

speaking of which - looks like im gonna have a 1.6A "golden sample" for sale soon.
(golden sample = 166fsb on less than 1.75v)

 

[oldfart]

Nice. I have to resist....um...how much??....errr...um..I have to keep mine. 2.4 GHz @ 1.65 Vcore is not all that bad. I have to hold out until the 2.26's come down a few $$.

 

[Soulkeeper]

heck get them both

 

[apoppin]

Wait awhile and you will only have one choice - the 1.8a.

Intel Discontinues 1.6A - From O/C'ers.com

When the low-speed Northwoods came out, people initially bought 1.6As and 1.8As. The 1.8As originally didn't do any better than the 1.6As, so people stopped buying the 1.8As. Then the 1.6As got better, but since the 1.8As had been bypassed, very few people bought current ones and reported them in the database.

So when you look at the database for the 1.8As, with just a few exceptions, you are looking at the results of "old" 1.8As, not newer ones. (The same holds true for the 2.0A.)

My suspicion is that recently made 1.8As will do just as well as recently made 1.6As in raw MHzage.

 

[BD231]

Originally posted by: apoppin
Wait awhile and you will only have one choice - the 1.8a.

Intel Discontinues 1.6A - From O/C'ers.com

When the low-speed Northwoods came out, people initially bought 1.6As and 1.8As. The 1.8As originally didn't do any better than the 1.6As, so people stopped buying the 1.8As. Then the 1.6As got better, but since the 1.8As had been bypassed, very few people bought current ones and reported them in the database.

So when you look at the database for the 1.8As, with just a few exceptions, you are looking at the results of "old" 1.8As, not newer ones. (The same holds true for the 2.0A.)

My suspicion is that recently made 1.8As will do just as well as recently made 1.6As in raw MHzage.

Then 1.6a it is, unless someone knows where to get a recently made 1.8a.

 

[render]

Get 1.6A.

My 1.6A that I bought 2 weeks ago from newegg runs at 2.4@ 1.47V (pack date 5/16/02)

(golden sample = 150fsb on less than 1.55v)

 

[Deskstar]

Get the 1.6A; it is an easy overclock to 133 FSB. Search these threads for details and even a "how to" thread for a 1.6A overclock.

 

[jhites]

I have a 1.8A coming in on Tuesday to do my own comparison with the 1.6A that I just got last Tuesday from newegg.

What I have on the 1.6A so far:

SYSTEM
P4 1.6A SL688 Pack Date 04/30/02
Abit BD7II-Raid i845E
Alpha PAL8942 w/Sunon 50cfm fan
Arctic Silver III
Samsung PC2700 1X512Mb @ Cas2 2-5-2)
Antec SX1040 w/PP412X
Onboard 10/100 NIC
2XMaxtor D740X 6L040J2 40gb (Raid ATA133)
ATI AIW 32Mb DDR Radeon Retail
Soundblaster Live 5.1

SCISOFT SANDRA
Memory set to 3:4 Cas2-3-6-3 with PCI locked at 70/37
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Memory . . . . . . . CPU . . . . . . . . Media . . . . . . . vcore . . . . Mem Mhz
2136mhz 133fsb = . . 2670 / 2671 . . 4109 / 2595 . . . 8374 / 10507 . . . 1.46v . . . . 356mhz
2248mhz 140fsb = . . 2826 / 2826 . . 4338 / 2743 . . . 8839 / 11093 . . . 1.46v . . . . 376mhz
2328mhz 145fsb = . . 2923 / 2918 . . 4562 / 2837 . . . 9138 / 11472 . . . 1.54v . . . . 387mhz
2408mhz 150fsb = . . 3024 / 2928 . . 4494 / 2928 . . . . . skipped. . . . . . 1.60v . . . . 400mhz
Memory set to 1:1 Cas2-3-6-3
2488mhz 155fsb = . . 2323 / 2323 . . 4882 / 3026 . . . 9768 / 12261 . . . 1.60v . . . . 310mhz
2540mhz 160fsb = . . 2395 / 2392 . . 5024 / 3101 . . 10021 / 12576 . . . 1.68v . . . . 320mhz

All these are confirmed stable with a minimum of 3 hours Prime95. Will do 166fsb but I get prime95 error so needs 1.70-1.75v and the memory would still be slower than 150fsb with the 3:4 setting.

Getting the 1.8A to compare the ram @ 400Mhz, etc. - Just lose to much on changing to 1:1
I'll post how the comparison turns out.

 

[THUGSROOK]

render your chip has some serious potential!

jhites nice work!

the thing about the 1.8A is that it isnt going to run 166fsb/333ddr, you will be forced to buy a motherboard with ratios and 400ddr.

with a 1.6A you have a chance of getting 166fsb/333ddr cas222 on cheaper equipment and be as fast or faster.