Opteron 146 or Athlon 3500/3700+

[area123]

I've seen some benchmarks comparing various opteron to Athlon, etc. But I can't find it anymore.

I bought an Opteron 146 just becasue it was cheap, but for about the same money an Athlon 3700 or 3500 might be a better choice if I remember the benchmark results.

I've never overclocked but there is a good thread about my mobo (MSI matx GeForce6150) that seems to have easy overclocking recipes for many processors. But I'll never find benchmarks to compare a 146 overclocked to 2300mhz w/ a 3700 oc to 2530mhz, etc. I'm just going to guess that the 3700 would be the better performer.

Just wondering if anyone had any thoughts. Mostly I will be doing video encoding and editing, and basic pc stuff, no gaming.

thanks.

 

[furballi]

The one with the higher core speed wins.

 

[Fallengod]

What he said. If you dont want to overclock(I dont know why you wouldnt but..) get the 3500. The 3700 is a waste for extra cache. Id pick the 146. You should be able to easily get 2.5ghz on it. If not more.

 

[area123]

Ok, thanks. I only listed the 3700 because it is only dollars (like $9 or $10) more than the 3500. I didn't realize the cache was the only difference.

In the MSI 6150 "official" thread the max stable speed for the 146 was listed as 2.3, and 2.5+ for the 3500/3700. Not that it is necessarily so, but w/o changing the core voltage that was what he listed.

 

[CP5670]

That must have been a real dud chip. Most 146s can do 2.6 or more on stock voltage.

 

[buzzsaw13]

I've got my 146 running 2.8ghz@1.45V, maybe a little more with some voltage bumps. You should definitely go for the 146 if the price is only slightly different

 

[area123]

Why is the 146 better than the Venice 3200+ on my motherboard??

Apparently on my mobo, (msi matx 6150 board), the max OC for an Opty 146 or Venice 3200 is 2500mhz. I don't completely understand why, something about the max fsb on the msi board is 250mhz and the mulitiplier for the 146 & 3200+ is the same.

Not saying this is necessarily true and I could have gotten something wrong as I have zero experience with this. But if it is true, what is the advantage of me even using a 146 over a Venice 3200+?

So far, I have a 3200+ and ordered a 165 & 146 and need to decide which is the best value for me. I'll either be returning or selling the other two.

 

[Effect]

165 has the 9x multi, with your board only going to 250mhz htt, you won't get much of an overclock. For your board, the higher the mulitplier, the better. Alternatively, if you could get a better mobo, that'd be ideal, otherwise, i'd suggest a 3500-3700+ (or a 3800+), you'll get a little higher with those if your htt (fsb) is the problem.

 

[furballi]

Definitely go with a CPU with at least 10x multiplier. It will put less stress on your board and RAM. If you have a decent MB and quality value RAM, then you may be able to run a 9x multiplier CPU up to about 280MHz with 166 RAM divider.