amd64 vs opty which to buy and why (newbie needs tutorial)?

[you2]

I'm building a game system and while I'm still trying to decide on mb (thinking of epox 9npa+ or 9npa3 ultra or asrock dual sata - video is x1800xt)
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Anyways I'm in the process of picking a cpu and i'm a bit confused by a few things:

do retail opty come with heat sink? retail opty are stated as having 1000mhz ht whlie amd64 are described as having 2000mhz ht (whati s the impact of this on the system?)

I think the two processors I am leaning towards are 3700 san diego $235 shpped and opty 146 which is $210 shipped). If the opty 146 does not include hs then I guess san diego is less expensive?

Are these two processors the 'sweet' spot and if so is there a big difference between them (I realize the opty will likely over clock higher but i'll probably only go 15% which both should reach without issues).

Last but least what are the multiplier of these processor and how does the multiplier affect the system? I presume I can change it as the clock speed increase to keep memory speed stable - if so why does multipler make a big difference ?

Thanks!

 

[imported_shaw]

Well, all processors that aren't OEM come with a heatsink. The new A64 heatsinks are awesome! I just purchased an Opteron 170 recently myself.

The difference between the Opteron core and other S939 stuff is the Opteron cores run at a lower voltage and higher L2 cache. Since they run at lower voltage then you tend to get higher OCs since they run cooler. It's up to you really. 3500+ @ 2.2GHz > Opteron 146 @ 2GHz in performance.

As far as I can say about the multiplier, it's pretty simple really.. if your FSB is 200MHz (default) and your processors multiplier is x10 then you got a 2000MHz processor. Doesn't mean much to you unless once again you're an OCer.

 

[you2]

confused -- you said hte new A64 heat sinks are awesome but then you mentioned that you purchased an opty. Does this mean both opty and a64 have good heat sinks? Also (confused again) I thought both the san diego and the opty had 1meg l2 cache.

 

[Bobthelost]

Shaw is part right, the opterons are the same chips as the higher end A64, but with a lower clock and chosen to run in hotter, harsher conditions. As such the 3700 and 146 are the same design, at the same clock speed they will perform identically. The opteron may well OC to a higher speed, but either will OC well. I'd get the opteron if i were you, it'll be a bit more effort to overclock, but it'll do it better (it will also ship with a very nice stock cooler, better than the 3700 i belive)

The mulitplier on the 3700 is 11 i think (2.2Ghz) but while the higher mulit does make life easier it's not the end of the world if you have a low mulitplier like the opteron, with the Epox board you can upp the FSB very, very high. And using RAM dividers you can push the FSB as high as you like without pushing the RAM over 200mhz.

 

[you2]

What's the difference between the san diego 2000 HT and the opty 1000 HT (why do the description label them differently if they are the same?)

 

[Pens1566]

3700 and 148 are the same, not 146. And the stock cooler is the same as regular A64's, no heat pipes.

 

[robertk2012]

Originally posted by: you2
What's the difference between the san diego 2000 HT and the opty 1000 HT (why do the description label them differently if they are the same?)

the 2000 and 1000 HT are actually the same. similar to ddr ram.

 

[SDPlissken]

@you2 also some have said that the opterons core/silicon is a little better made since it was built for servers/long runtimes.thus some feel it does stand up better to overclocks then the standard a64cores.

 

[Bobthelost]

Originally posted by: Pens1566
3700 and 148 are the same, not 146. And the stock cooler is the same as regular A64's, no heat pipes.

Thanks for the heatsink info, but to clarify the rest:

The single core opterons use the same design as the 3700, so a 144/146/148 is the same design as the 3700, but the 146 runs 200mhz slower at stock speeds. While the 148 is identical to the 3700. The opterons just tend to overclock better.

 

[you2]

with regards to san diego (cheaper than the 148) is there a big difference between e6 and e4. e6 is suppose to be the toledo core with 1 proc disabled. I really couldn't find much of a consenus with regards to one being better than the others (some claim the e6 run a little cooler (less voltage) while the e4 over clock a little higher (kind of backwards)) but these snips were not very consistent...