AMD vs Intel... help please

[Tboy012]

either way im not planning to purchasing everything right now... its just since the 1st build ive done was on an AMD platform, i just want to try an Intel...

With the intel price cuts, i dont think it would be a bad idea to get the cpu, and slowly buy the other parts... im satisfied with my computer right now but im always looking forward a new project... its fun learning about this OC stuff but its a pain when i cant get it to boot...

luckly i have a 4400+ and 185 so if ones down i can use another... but ill be giving the 4400 to my g/f so she can game with me

so i just want to slowly start on a intel... but i dont want anything slower then mine right now

 

[MarcVenice]

Why would you start with buying the CPU ? They come down in prices all the time you know. I dunno, buying something right now, that you can't use, and will come down in price every month we get closer to Penryn and Phenom, really beats the purpose of buying it right now.

Either you buy a new mobo and throw a e6420 in there and OC it to 3.2ghz, and swap it out with your x2 4400 or your opteron 185, or don't do anything at all You're not gonna be happy when you don't notice much of a difference though Btw, if you into gaming, look into buying a new videocard. Your 8600gt and your 2 x1650 in crossfire aren't quite what you would call good videocard solutions.

I'd swap one of those rigs videocards out for a x1950xt or 8800gts 320mb. Wanna bet it fly's in about every game you throw at it ?

 

[Tboy012]

i dont play any of the new release games that require some crazy high-end cards...

only thing i play is SC/BW & CS:S ... oh and BW2 when that comes out... ive had the 4400 rig for awhile.... and im done with upgrading that one... i might slap on a 8800 on my current rig...

 

[MarcVenice]

BW 2 ? Black & White 2 ?

like I said, it depends on how much you wanna spend and in how much need of extra performance you are I can think of better 'new' projects to spend my money on, instead of a PC when I allready have a fast one You definately don't need more CPU power for what you are playing

 

[Tboy012]

Originally posted by: MarcVenice
BW 2 ? Black & White 2 ?

like I said, it depends on how much you wanna spend and in how much need of extra performance you are I can think of better 'new' projects to spend my money on, instead of a PC when I allready have a fast one You definately don't need more CPU power for what you are playing

well technically i shouldve called it SC2... StarCraft 2

 

[MarcVenice]

I think a PC running Supreme Commander at 1280*1024 with high settings, will also run SC2, without much if any problems at all. I read something about it not requiring the latest and the greatest PC. With a unit cap of 200 I think it was, that shouldn't be to hard.

 

[Smartazz]

Nice overclocking info. I'm going to try overclocking again. I had trouble breaking 2.75GHZ with an X2, you just inspired me to try again.
edit: Hmm, I hit 2.7GHZ rather easily after following your guide MarcVenice.
Funny how with overclocking, the further you push it, the more you want to push it. It gets hard to stop.

 

[MarcVenice]

Heh with overclocking you have to set yourself a goal, once you've reached that, you should say, okay I'm going to run it 24/7 at this speed, anything higher is nice, but it wont be for everyday use.

 

[Smartazz]

Originally posted by: MarcVenice
Heh with overclocking you have to set yourself a goal, once you've reached that, you should say, okay I'm going to run it 24/7 at this speed, anything higher is nice, but it wont be for everyday use.

Heh, my goal was originally 2.4GHz, but 2.7GHz was stable through a nightlong of torture testing. Thx for the advice, I'll stop at 2.7GHz I guess.

 

[Tboy012]

hey marc... heres another update

currently got the cpu stable on 3.05Ghz (13*235)
could make it go higher by upping the vcore as you mentioned
but it seems to get too hot...

When running duel orthos it runs to bout 57celcius and actually idles normally around 50 when im not doing much..

im gonna try to lower the voltage a little bit more.... just seems like its too hot

i been trying to mess with the memory but i cant seem to figure out which one is the
"TLC" you want me to change

for the 4-4-4-12 timing, can you tell me which ones im suppose to change..
btw which i mean the tras, trc ... stuff like that

hope you can help

ty again marc

 

[MarcVenice]

a picture of the screen where you are trying to change the timings would help greatly. All the connotations for the different timings are confusing, at least to me, so if you show me a picture, I can say what to do.

 

[Tboy012]

actually i figured it out by finding some SS of others with the same board as mine...
although for some reason my board would not let the TLC change to 4 (its maxed at 3)

so i have my timings 3-4-4-12 and have it oc'ed to 250 although CPU-Z shows it @ 277.8MHz... when i boot the computer it shows it as ddr500 speed

i guess with my opty @ 3055GHz and memory @ ddr500 speed...thats bout the most i can get out of this unless i resort to some extreme measures of cooling huh?
like watercooling or.. tec?

Btw, thank you for your help Marc, if it wasnt for you, i wouldnt have been able to oc it this much

 

[MarcVenice]

ok 3-4-4-12 works. My mobo won't do 4-4-4-12 either, 3 is max for the cas latency, and it works. And at ddr 500 speed, heh thats pretty nice ^^ So now you've got your opty running at a nice 3ghz+, that's pretty sweet ya know ^^

 

[Tboy012]

hmm... after running SP2004 for 5+ hrs... i received an error on one of my cores... roughly @ the 5hrs 36min mark...

so that means my oc is no good huh?

btw how am i suppose to compare the performace of my opty to the other AMD products

Generally speaking, Opty = 2.6GHz @ Stock is the same core as the FX-60 right? & X2 5000 = 2.6GHz so opty 185 is bout as equal to a AM2 X2 5000 with just a faster memory?

main reason to get it, i heard is just better and faster then my 4400+ and i noticed a alot of the x2 4400+ users upgraded to it saying it was the final upgrade of the 939

please ltet me know if i am wrong

 

[Caios]

Hello, thanks for the info in this thread, very useful.

Ive got a Opteron 185 which Im trying to overclock. Not having the success of Tboy though. Ive been following MarcVenice's good advice but getting no where. I think its a problem with my RAM settings and volts.

I started with 3-4-4-12 (wouldnt do 4-4-4-12) and 13x 210 1.35v, No problems

2-4-4-12, 13x, 220 and kept getting Prime95 fatal error got 5 expected 4

I slowly increased the voltage up to 1.4375 in bios = 1.472 and still Prime95 error got 5 expected 4

Now have it working with2-4-4-12, 13x, 215 and 1.4375v but the temps hitting 67!

Also I have HTT set to 4x and ram to 266.

What am I doing wrong?

My corsair is 2.2.2.5, are my ram setting wrong or something?

CPUZ images

http://www.shacktools.com/ebay/cpuz.jpg

http://www.shacktools.com/ebay/cpuzram.jpg

 

[Caios]

Ive had a play about and I think my Opteron tops out at 2.836ghz :-(

Setting are 218x13 @ 1.4v

RAM 2.5, 3, 3, 7 218mhz * 2.85v

Bit disappointed as I wanted to get to 3ghz!

Anyway its not all bad, I had a 64 3500+ that got 3457 in PCMark05, upgraded to the Opteron 185 and the score went too 5223 PCMark05. With the current speed Ive seen some gain too 5506 PCMark05. Probably irrelevant but it makes me feel a bit better about the time Ive spent trying to work this overclocking out! ;-)