Opteron 144 or Athlon 64 3200 +

x850Pro

Junior Member
Jan 3, 2006
3
0
0
Hello,

I was going to either get one or the other but I dont know which one would better suit me. I saw a thread similar to this and they said to definately go with the Opteron but I am not going to OC. I use my processors at stock speeds. If anything I would OC the Opteron to 2.0. All I really do is play Americas Army and some random LAN parties. Which one would be a better purchase. I am starting to do some DVD rendering creating DVD off of my wife's camcorder and burn DVD's. That is pretty much it. Which of these is the better buy performance wise and which one will last longer to push off another upgrade for awhile. Thanks.
 

Greenman

Lifer
Oct 15, 1999
22,213
6,423
136
It's hard to miss with either. You prolly will OC it someday though, as there is no good reason not to. Rig starts to feel a little slow, you start thinking it might be upgrade time, so you spend an hour tweaking and get a 40% speed boost. It's like Christmas.
 

SMOKE20

Senior member
Apr 6, 2004
201
0
0
It really doesn't matter much. Go with what will make you happy! I'd go with the Opteron, but that's me and as for O/C'ing........I don't either anymore..........I've had a couple 3200's, then moved to Opterons, and now have 2 dual cores for my main rigs............I just don't see the point! They are plenty fast and run everything I need!:)
 

kiwifruit

Junior Member
Jan 4, 2006
3
0
66
If you overclock it to 2Ghz then Opteron because it is faster than venice at the same speed due to 1MB cache


EDIT: Please someone delete the post above
 

88NovaTwincam

Senior member
Dec 11, 2005
235
0
0
Keep your eye on the Hot Deals
Waiting can net U > Performance/Quality
Just think what you can accomplish Q3 06

It's a fine art to create the Bang/Buck rig for U
Don't spend too much on any one part - can you turn the rig over down the road?

Semptron + Asrock pci-e/agp + your vid? = Nice 4 Less

I made the plunge SEE SiG - I got more than I paid for in $ but not TiME! :)
 

imported_OrSin

Senior member
Jul 15, 2004
533
0
0
Is it just me or do i see this same thread every 2 days.
I just wish some people would a search. So far in the last week thier are over 20 thread about Opt VS A64
 

darksparkz

Junior Member
Jan 6, 2006
6
0
0
Yeah, Opteron 144 can be easily clocked to 2.0ghz and it also has more cache then the 3200+.
 

themusgrat

Golden Member
Nov 2, 2005
1,408
0
0
Why not overclock? I have yet to see one good reason not to, except for a bad motherboard and/or being a server. You can get good boosts on all AMD procs at stock voltage, and in no way damage them. I would get the Opteron, since it is almost the same at stock, and will overclock better.
 

Fallengod

Diamond Member
Jul 2, 2001
5,908
19
81
If all you want is 2.0ghz, might as well just buy a used 3200+ venice for $100 off theese forums. Thats the best bang for your buck. There would be no peformance difference from an opty 144 @ 2.0ghz and 3200 venice @ 2.0ghz. Get the cheaper one.
 

Captante

Lifer
Oct 20, 2003
30,353
10,876
136
Originally posted by: modempower
If all you want is 2.0ghz, might as well just buy a used 3200+ venice for $100 off theese forums. Thats the best bang for your buck. There would be no peformance difference from an opty 144 @ 2.0ghz and 3200 venice @ 2.0ghz. Get the cheaper one.

:thumbsup:

 

BOLt

Diamond Member
Dec 11, 2004
7,380
0
0
the larger cache on the opty 144 would make it faster in some cases and equal to the 3200+ in other cases. imo, pick the opty and OC to 2.ghz. it's very easy to do such a small overclock. just go to bios and up the cpu frequency to 220 and you're done. don't need to mess with voltages, ram settings, or anything like that.

good luck!
 

5t3v0

Senior member
Dec 22, 2005
508
0
0
Only thing to remember with Opterons is that mobo manufacturers wont officialy support them on the desktop boards so if you need tech support, forget it. Some boards don't recognise them or will set them up incorrectly - mine defaulted the vcore to 1.5v.

As everyone says, its trivial to get a 2GHz overclock with the 144 providing your mobo can support a 222MHz HTT (most do) but if your memory can't go that fast, then your board has to have memory dividers. At the highest 166 divider (unless you have a DFI board) that means underclocking your RAM to 181MHz so that's a performance loss. You will also have to lower your LDT/HT multiplier from 5x to 4x so your board has to offer that option and that means running a 1776MHz LDT/HT bus as opposed to 2000. Admitedly that's a negligible performance loss and shouldn't put you off. If you're a nervous overclocker, I would recommend going as high as you can on stock voltage. If you want to keep memory running at its default speed, use a 166 divider and clock the HTT up to 245MHz, that will mean the memory will run at 200.5MHz, the cpu will be running at 2.2GHz and the LDT/HT bus at 1960MHz. If you really dont want to overclock, go with the A64 for the support.