Decided on Opteron 165, stepping question

[SunziBingfa]

Hello again!

I've settled on getting an Opteron 165 for my new rig (starting from scratch). My concern now is doing whatever is possible to make sure the specific unit that I purchase has the highest OC potential.

Do you have any information about how to do that?

I understand that steppings refer to the different batches of chips produced at various times and locations. It's my understanding that generally speaking the first batch of Opteron 165s will not OC as well as the latest batch produced due to slight improvements AMD has implemented along the way.

Is my understanding correct?

I'll do some more research on this question myself, though it's not been easy tracking down good information on this topic. Probably too obscure to most people...

 

[SunziBingfa]

Quick update: I'm looking at the CPUID info from AMD website. Trying to make sense of it all. This may help out a lot.

 

[starwars7]

I don't think that's exactly correct. However, I'd be interested to hear someone more qualified answer your question.

 

[atybimf]

It's actually the opposite. The Opteron's become worse overclockers as the latest batches come out. That's why the early Opteron 165's are the ones you hear of hitting 2.9-3.0

 

[SunziBingfa]

OK, best I can tell from reviewing forums here and other sites is that I should just find the lowest price for a Opty 165 and buy it. The sample sizes are way too small when looking at people's results to know if one batch or step is better or worse than another. Plus you have to add in the fact that people will be using different components. Then you have to add in their OCing capabilities. I think I could go on here... Best I can tell you OC the best you can with the part you get.

Any thoughts? Am I off-base here?

 

[peleejosh]

Originally posted by: atybimf
It's actually the opposite. The Opteron's become worse overclockers as the latest batches come out. That's why the early Opteron 165's are the ones you hear of hitting 2.9-3.0

Not true at all. The 0550 VPMWs are probably the best operton stepping, and i wouldnt call it an early stepping.

 

[TheRyuu]

Originally posted by: peleejosh

Originally posted by: atybimf
It's actually the opposite. The Opteron's become worse overclockers as the latest batches come out. That's why the early Opteron 165's are the ones you hear of hitting 2.9-3.0

Not true at all. The 0550 VPMWs are probably the best operton stepping, and i wouldnt call it an early stepping.

QFT

Were you get info that earlier batches OC better? The 0550's overclock better than my 0543. The 0546's also OC better than the 0543's.

So the later ones oc BETTER?

 

[Absolute0]

0550VPMW > 0550UPMW > 0548XPMW > 0551/0602/0546/0543/0534 etc

0550 and 0548 are both good... 0551 and 0602 are the current steppings, 0551 definitely sucks, 0602 seems mediocre at best, from the couple results i've seen.

 

[atybimf]

Originally posted by: wizboy11

Originally posted by: peleejosh

Originally posted by: atybimf
It's actually the opposite. The Opteron's become worse overclockers as the latest batches come out. That's why the early Opteron 165's are the ones you hear of hitting 2.9-3.0

Not true at all. The 0550 VPMWs are probably the best operton stepping, and i wouldnt call it an early stepping.

QFT

Were you get info that earlier batches OC better? The 0550's overclock better than my 0543. The 0546's also OC better than the 0543's.

So the later ones oc BETTER?

No, the earlier ones generally oc better. Of course there are some exceptions like the 0550s!

 

[TheRyuu]

Originally posted by: atybimf

Originally posted by: wizboy11

Originally posted by: peleejosh

Originally posted by: atybimf
It's actually the opposite. The Opteron's become worse overclockers as the latest batches come out. That's why the early Opteron 165's are the ones you hear of hitting 2.9-3.0

Not true at all. The 0550 VPMWs are probably the best operton stepping, and i wouldnt call it an early stepping.

QFT

Were you get info that earlier batches OC better? The 0550's overclock better than my 0543. The 0546's also OC better than the 0543's.

So the later ones oc BETTER?

No, the earlier ones generally oc better. Of course there are some exceptions like the 0550s!

But were ya gonna buy an earlier stepping? (for a good price)

 

[Absolute0]

You can't just say earlier are better, or later weeks are better. It's not that simple. Refer to my previous post.

 

[TrevorRC]

The X2s have been looking very nice of late.

I have my X2 running @ 2.5 @ 1.28v
Prime stable

Once I get it under water, we'll see how high this sucker will go

 

[Absolute0]

what stepping

 

[Bull Dog]

Originally posted by: Absolute0
0550VPMW > 0550UPMW > 0548XPMW > 0551/0602/0546/0543/0534 etc

0550 and 0548 are both good... 0551 and 0602 are the current steppings, 0551 definitely sucks, 0602 seems mediocre at best, from the couple results i've seen.

This makes me feel good about the 0550 VPMW that I just purchased. D)

 

[TrevorRC]

The new LDBHE 0602s/0604s have all been doing very nicely, XPMW is usually a good stepping in general.

I'll grab the batch # off of mine whenever I get the chance.
-T

 

[Glavinsolo]

Didn't want to start my own thread.
Do the 939 opterons require ECC memory? And for the money is it worth getting a 175 over a 165? Would you say overclocking the 165 to 2.2 is a trivial matter? If I could get a 165 to 2.2 with ease I think I would have made my choice.

 

[JBT]

Originally posted by: Absolute0
0550VPMW > 0550UPMW > 0548XPMW > 0551/0602/0546/0543/0534 etc

0550 and 0548 are both good... 0551 and 0602 are the current steppings, 0551 definitely sucks, 0602 seems mediocre at best, from the couple results i've seen.

0551's suck???
damn thats what I just got today.

Any possibilty of it getting to 2.7???

 

[chilled]

Originally posted by: JBT

Originally posted by: Absolute0
0550VPMW > 0550UPMW > 0548XPMW > 0551/0602/0546/0543/0534 etc

0550 and 0548 are both good... 0551 and 0602 are the current steppings, 0551 definitely sucks, 0602 seems mediocre at best, from the couple results i've seen.

0551's suck???
damn thats what I just got today.

Any possibilty of it getting to 2.7???

I wouldn't go so far as to dismiss them straightaway. The average OC may be less, but that doesn't mean all chips are the same. So having a 0550VPMW doesn't guarantee a high OC but on avg. you can expect a little better.

I bought a Opty 170 0546XPMW. It wasn't stable at stock and after a couple of days it died. I RMAed to AMD and they just sent me a 0546SPMW. Thought my luck sucked, but its sitting pretty at 2.6@1.38V. I'm sure it would go more with better cooling (Zalman 7700Cu) and more volts, but I'm happy for now.

I was told by a friend of a friend that used to work at AMD that the chips of lower steppings are generally a better sample, i.e. SPMW > UPMW > XPMW. I always thought he was telling me this just to shut me up, but maybe it was the truth.

 

[JBT]

Yeah your right obviously not all chips from a batch will be bad, I just hope I luck out on this one haha. Hopfully it will be okay its an 0551UPMW to be exact. my Ultra-D doesn't come till Monday boo.

 

[mattburk]

Originally posted by: Bull Dog

Originally posted by: Absolute0
0550VPMW > 0550UPMW > 0548XPMW > 0551/0602/0546/0543/0534 etc

0550 and 0548 are both good... 0551 and 0602 are the current steppings, 0551 definitely sucks, 0602 seems mediocre at best, from the couple results i've seen.

This makes me feel good about the 0550 VPMW that I just purchased. D)

Where did you get it?

 

[2gigs]

Too bad, i have a 3ghz x2 3800 ldbhe sitting here and kicking major ass, and its nice. My x2 is raping opterons at the moment. I think amd may be using the same x2 cores in the newer oterons becuse this thing is cooking