Todays software synthesizers are eating my current Athlon 2500+ (Barton) to death, so I need something faster. The Opteron 144 seems to be a stellar overclocker, so the plan for now is to pair it off with a DFI Lanparty (non-SLI) NF4 mobo to get at least 2.6 GHz - No need to push for the 3 GHz barrier, I'll rather have some temp and stability headroom. But seeing as some people get 3,1 on stock air (!!!) I think I'll try at least once...
Today I have 2x512MB of some cheapo Twinmos PC2700 RAM that I can stretch to 179MHz (which means 358 since it's DDR and all) with no errors in memtest86 and no crashes in anything I've tormented the machine with - at 180 I get errors though. How much of a performance boost would I notice if I got something that could do 400 MHz? What about 500 MHz?
I think I will be ok with 1GB for now, and dual 1024MB modules are out of my budget anyway. Any specific recommendations for brands & models for 2x512 suitable for this rig would be nice.
My budget is tight, so OCZ Platinum and other high-end stuff is likely to be way out of my league. If that sort of stuff gives the best price/performance ratio I'll have to go with my current slow RAM for a month or two and save for the mem upgrade.
Now on to graphics: I DON'T play games. 3D performance might be nice those 3 times per year that I fire up quake 3 or some even older game, but it's pretty much unimportant. I do run dual monitors at 1600x1200 though, so it MUST be able to handle that. Passive cooling is desirable for noise concerns, but not a necessity. For about $100-120, whats the best I can get?
Since I live in Sweden, recommendations about US shops are not of any use.
Today I have 2x512MB of some cheapo Twinmos PC2700 RAM that I can stretch to 179MHz (which means 358 since it's DDR and all) with no errors in memtest86 and no crashes in anything I've tormented the machine with - at 180 I get errors though. How much of a performance boost would I notice if I got something that could do 400 MHz? What about 500 MHz?
I think I will be ok with 1GB for now, and dual 1024MB modules are out of my budget anyway. Any specific recommendations for brands & models for 2x512 suitable for this rig would be nice.
My budget is tight, so OCZ Platinum and other high-end stuff is likely to be way out of my league. If that sort of stuff gives the best price/performance ratio I'll have to go with my current slow RAM for a month or two and save for the mem upgrade.
Now on to graphics: I DON'T play games. 3D performance might be nice those 3 times per year that I fire up quake 3 or some even older game, but it's pretty much unimportant. I do run dual monitors at 1600x1200 though, so it MUST be able to handle that. Passive cooling is desirable for noise concerns, but not a necessity. For about $100-120, whats the best I can get?
Since I live in Sweden, recommendations about US shops are not of any use.
Facebook
Twitter