MSI Neo2 plat.....want dual core!

[NINaudio]

OK, some background, I use my pc mostly for gaming, video ripping, encoding, and burning. Would DC be a worthwhile upgrade for me?

I was thinking about either the 4400, or the opt 170. I'm leaning towards the Opteron from all I've been reading about them.

What bios would you recommend for this upgrade? There is the official 1.B, but then there are many modded versions available. Seems as though 1.CB3 is ok from what I've read so far. Anyone use any of them and can make a suggestion?

 

[Markfw]

1.9 was the best for mine. As for the cip, my 170 is at 2550 and so is my 4400, the 170 runs a little cooler since I need less volts to get there.

 

[NINaudio]

Do you think going to dual core from single core is worth it? If I were only able to OC to around 2500, would that 200 mhz drop make much difference in single core apps?

 

[AthlonPowers]

Depends on how much encoding you do compared to gaming. If you're gaming 90% of the time, it wouldn't be worth the drop. If you encode > 50% of the time, then it might be.

 

[Markfw]

Most games are GPU bound anyway so you probably wouldn;t even notice. But encoding would be WAY better unless your app is single-threaded, or IO bound.

 

[FelixDeCat]

Originally posted by: AthlonPowers
Depends on how much encoding you do compared to gaming. If you're gaming 90% of the time, it wouldn't be worth the drop. If you encode > 50% of the time, then it might be.

If your doing nothing but encoding, the best bang / buck ratio lies with the Celeron D, which is sadly not considered here.

 

[eljaye925]

If you put a dual core opteron in the rig in your sig, chances are very good you'll get more than 2.5 out of it.

I'm using this guys 1.c beta bios for tccd

bios

L.J.

 

[aka1nas]

With newer optimized drivers, you will likely get small boosts in gaming, though it's not cost-effective to upgrade to the chip just for that. It will be smoother in normal desktop usage and apps like encoding or other cpu-bound tasks will benefit from it.

 

[nealh]

OK..I just moved to DC and I realize there are alot of fans of it..but I am sorry for my everyday, not multitasking needs it was a waste...In fact I feel my system in my sig feels faster than my Opteron165@2610

Now I realize as DC becomes more mainstream there will be benefits...but unless you do tasks that really will benefit I am sorry you will not see a difference

my boot times are not faster, opening apps is no faster(ok maybe a hair)....I wanted this new toy and I am sorry to say for me it was not worth the expense...esp since I bought just before monarch relowered prices ...when I bought all they had was a retail 165, no one had OEM chips...so I spent $50-70 more ....truly a waste

I know this desire to get in on the fad..well...this is what it isdoing to me ...I have Opteron 165@2610, having trouble getting my ram to get close to my venice speeds of 250mhz with a 9x best I can do is 237 but for some unknown reason the Opteron is not happy with the 5/6 divider and ram at 237 with same timings 3-3-3-7-1t that was great @250mhz with my Venice

Right now for some reason the Operton165@260 on 2/3 divider will dual Prime for over 12hrs when i stopped...move to higher divider and it dies..so now I am thinking just buy Opteron 170 for 10x..waste more money....oh my god, I need serious help

save your money and sit this out..unless you do enough encoding that you need a speed bump..which I would doubt since your at 2.75GHZ already

ok..let the bashing begin(I should point out I do not decrease agree that these are sweet chips and for many it is worth it...put your money maybe better spent elsewhere)

 

[11427]

Originally posted by: nealh
OK..I just moved to DC and I realize there are alot of fans of it..but I am sorry for my everyday, not multitasking needs it was a waste...In fact I feel my system in my sig feels faster than my Opteron165@2610

ok..let the bashing begin(I should point out I do not decrease agree that these are sweet chips and for many it is worth it...but your money maybe better spent elsewhere)

That is just how I felt after building an A64, sure it gets a lot faster benchmarks, but real world not much difference than an XP.

 

[FelixDeCat]

Originally posted by: 11427

Originally posted by: nealh
OK..I just moved to DC and I realize there are alot of fans of it..but I am sorry for my everyday, not multitasking needs it was a waste...In fact I feel my system in my sig feels faster than my Opteron165@2610

ok..let the bashing begin(I should point out I do not decrease agree that these are sweet chips and for many it is worth it...but your money maybe better spent elsewhere)

That is just how I felt after building an A64, sure it gets a lot faster benchmarks, but real world not much difference than an XP.

And this is the point Im making about AMD as a whole....too much hype. Dont believe the hype!

My Pentium 3.2 is just fine.

 

[nealh]

And this is the point Im making about AMD as a whole....too much hype. Dont believe the hype!

My Pentium 3.2 is just fine.

There is no doubt an advantage to dual core for certain people and there needs ...but for me it was stupidty to spend the money..I have a sweet venice chip that I have moved to my son's computer but had to downclock it 150mhz....my wife gets his winny...her old intel P42.4b@2.9 will be sold off for parts

I had hope for slight better overclock which was unfair....1.8@2.7..not alot of people get this..just wanted to stay as close as I could to my single core

I think a better way to go is single core opteron but again no need when moving from A64@2750

 

[NINaudio]

Oh man.....I'm really feeling the urge to upgrade too.....lol. I can't upgrade my graphics cause I have an agp mobo and wasn't looking to swap that out yet....

Thanks guys.....

 

[Tweakin]

You might want to try Sideeffect's bios mods from Rebel Haven. I've been running his mods for some time and my system is much more stable. I'm currently runnin his latest, ver 1.CB3 with a TCCD mod. He also has one without any specific RAM mods or another one for Crucial Ballestic.

 

[biostud]

Originally posted by: FelixDeKat

Originally posted by: 11427

Originally posted by: nealh
OK..I just moved to DC and I realize there are alot of fans of it..but I am sorry for my everyday, not multitasking needs it was a waste...In fact I feel my system in my sig feels faster than my Opteron165@2610

ok..let the bashing begin(I should point out I do not decrease agree that these are sweet chips and for many it is worth it...but your money maybe better spent elsewhere)

That is just how I felt after building an A64, sure it gets a lot faster benchmarks, but real world not much difference than an XP.

And this is the point Im making about AMD as a whole....too much hype. Dont believe the hype!

My Pentium 3.2 is just fine.

To me it seems that many expect going from a ~3Ghz P4 to an A64 will improve alot, or moving from a fast singlecore A64 to a dualcore will make everything run much faster, which is ofcourse "the hype". But people doing a lot of encoding, who would like to do other stuff at the same time will benefit from a DC setup. But all the regular stuff will run pretty much the same. I often wonder how much people actually think their new setup will improve over their old, or if they just have the "upgrade itch" for no apperent reason. But one thing I can tell is that moving from a AXP ~2100Mhz to my current 2.6Ghz X2 does feel alot smoother, and slowly I'm getting used to beeing able to run more CPU intensive programs at the same time.

 

[Necrolezbeast]

I also have a problem with wanting to upgrade for no real reason...i have a venice 3200+ at 2.5ghz, but everyday i fight with myself and hold back on buying an opteron 165...I have no idea why I would want to spend the money for basically no performance gain, I guess I just want a new toy to play with.

 

[NINaudio]

Originally posted by: biostud

I often wonder how much people actually think their new setup will improve over their old, or if they just have the "upgrade itch" for no apperent reason. But one thing I can tell is that moving from a AXP ~2100Mhz to my current 2.6Ghz X2 does feel alot smoother, and slowly I'm getting used to beeing able to run more CPU intensive programs at the same time.

that is exactly it, I'm trying to scratch that itch. It's an unfortunate side effect of what happens to me when I get into a hobby. I'm always looking for that next step up.....that said....I will in all likelihood stick with socket 939 until there are large advances in the new M2 socket that they plan to go too, so I was thinking a good dual core would last me until then.....or is that just wishful thinking on my part?

I also wouldn't mind a little extra smoothness in my computing......

 

[11427]

Originally posted by: biostud

To me it seems that many expect going from a ~3Ghz P4 to an A64 will improve alot, or moving from a fast singlecore A64 to a dualcore will make everything run much faster, which is ofcourse "the hype". But people doing a lot of encoding, who would like to do other stuff at the same time will benefit from a DC setup. But all the regular stuff will run pretty much the time.

Yup,... I think I bought into the hype about how much faster the A64's are supposed to be compared to XP's. I went from an XP 2500+ @ 2.2 to an A64 3200+ @ 2.5 and saw zero difference in everyday tasks. I have been so un-impressed with the A64's that I have yet to bother switching over to it as my main rig,.....

 

[NINaudio]

Hey Tweakin,

What's the difference in dram drive strangth do? I've always wondered what that affected, but never noticed a difference.

I ended up buying an opteron 170. It's my xmas present to me. Should last me for a while.

 

[Duvie]

I have always seen drive strength be set as weak with TCCD chip setups....really has to do with specific memory....

 

[aka1nas]

I am up and running with my 165 Opty with the 1.c3 easyBIOS. It has been quite stable so far and I have reached 2.6Ghz with this chip. I think it could go further but my mobo or my PC2700(4x512MB) is probalby holding me back.

 

[d1c1ple]

I am running a Neo2 with the 1.B bios; i went from 3800+ SC to 3800+ DC and only tinkered w overclock a bit and currently am running 10x230HT so i'm down a 100Mhz but have a 2nd core. For any encoding your going to benefit. I know with better ram and xp90c or another cooler and some more volts i can do better on the OC. As far as "Hype" ; there is none. DC is better for threaded applications period; whether you go now or later does not matter; a DC is in your future.

 

[NINaudio]

Originally posted by: Duvie
I have always seen drive strength be set as weak with TCCD chip setups....really has to do with specific memory....

oh, that's definitely interesting.....I've had mine set on normal all along. You think I should change it?

What bios are you running now Duvie?

I installed the 1.B bios using winflash, but I think something messed up when I rebooted, it wouldn't recognize my HD's. I tried configuring them manually in the bios and it would see them, but everytime I saved and exited the Bios it would not see them again. I think I will stick with installing off a floppy from now on. I switched back to 1.8 for now though. I noticed a lot of options in the 1.B that are new to me as well. I need some education on them if possible....lol

 

[Duvie]

I am using 1.B...I have not tried the 1.c one yet....been out of the computer loop for a bit...work!!!!

 

[NINaudio]

I know what you mean. Life got me all tangled up for a bit. Hell, I'm still on bios 1.8!!!!