Opteron 185 - How long will it last?

[jenny9580]

My relevant hardware is this:

A64 3000+ @2.25GHz
2x1GB OCZ Platinum DDR400
EVGA GeForce 7800GT

Newegg currently has the 185 at $240 new, which I think is an amazing deal. If I got a decent stepping, I could try to OC it in the future.. but for now I'd just run it stock.

I am not in the position to completely overhaul my system, so I'm curious how smart it would be to pick up a 185 at this point. I'd plan on buying the CPU now, and a new video card maybe 2-3 months down the road (possibly longer). I'm hoping that I won't need to get completely new MB/CPU/RAM for about 12-18 months.

I currently play WoW, but am keeping my eyes open for newer stuff on the horizon (namely Unreal Tournament 3). I'm not sure how the 185 stacks up to the newer stuff out there (C2D, AM2, etc.) and I can't seem to find any benchmarks for it.

Ideas, thoughts, opinions?

 

[f4phantom2500]

You know the Opteron 165 (retail) is $100 shipped at newegg right? the 170 is $115, 175 $150. If I were you I'd snag the 165 or 170.

 

[Cybercraig]

If you want to Overclock get a 170. It will easily see 185 speeds or better. The higher multiple CPU's aren't necessarily the best overclockers. Most of the Opty's will hit 2.7 to 3.0 ghz with decent cooling. CD2 will beat it, an AM2 upgrade makes little if any difference compared to 939.

 

[johnnq1]

haha i'm in your exact same position. had a 3200, 2x1 gb, and a 7800gt. i picked up an opteron 170. i've yet to oc, and there is absolutely NO performance improvement in the games i play...but i'm really really looking forward to the next installment of my favorite game - ut

 

[zylander]

I did the exact same thing youa re thinking of. I had an A64 3000+ running at 2.4ghz and replaced it with an opty 165 and have it running at 2.8ghz. Id say go for it, you get a nice performance bump for a decent price. I dont know if I would get the 185 tho. The 165 is so cheap and overclocks so well, and then the 170 and 175 are not that much more and they have the higher multiplier too.

 

[jenny9580]

If I do OC it, I doubt I'd go much farther than 240-250 FSB to keep my ram close to stock (so 2.4-2.5GHz tops if I got the 170).. which leaves me with about 100-200MHz less speed, and 2 SATA ports that I still can't use. I'm not planning on buying extra cooling.. how far can these go on the stock HSF? Are there any known bad steppings that I might wind up with?

 

[jenny9580]

Originally posted by: johnnq1
haha i'm in your exact same position. had a 3200, 2x1 gb, and a 7800gt. i picked up an opteron 170. i've yet to oc, and there is absolutely NO performance improvement in the games i play...but i'm really really looking forward to the next installment of my favorite game - ut

*high five*

I played the original UT.. favorite FPS of all time!

 

[f4phantom2500]

why dont you just lower the ram divider?

 

[jenny9580]

Those numbers are assuming 333/400 divider.. if I do 266/400 divider, I'd need to run ~300fsb to get my ram back up to stock speed. If I wound up with a bad stepping or if my motherboard doesn't like 300, I'm kind of screwed.

(edit: I think I was just aiming to get something that I would be totally happy with at stock speed, and any extra OC power would be a bonus).

 

[f4phantom2500]

you know memory bandwidth doesn't matter too much for athlon 64's right? i think you should just get the 170, you shouldn't have to worry about the memory speed, it'll work out fine.

 

[jenny9580]

Hm.. that would also let me buy a new video card sooner..

 

[zylander]

I have the same ram as you too and it OCes pretty ncely too. If you can OC your ram enough you can do a mild OC on the core to like 2.4 and run your ram 1:1.

 

[jenny9580]

Really? Mine craps out around 225ish at stock timings..

 

[f4phantom2500]

Originally posted by: jenny9580
Really? Mine craps out around 225ish at stock timings..

even if you raise the voltage? still man 200~225 is a pretty good range to be able to hit with the dividers, and even if its like 20mhz slower it won't matter, especially if it means a cpu that's a few hundred mhz faster.

 

[bryanW1995]

I just upgraded to an opteron 180. I say ditch the cpu/ram/mobo and reload with a cheap c2d now. Alternatively, you could go uber-budget and spend significantly less than the 240 you budgeted for a great am2 system (like 3600+ brisbane,t550,2gb ddr2) that would easily oc to a similar speed as the 185. I fried my mobo (which was rated to work with the 180) AND psu while trying to upgrade, so I ended up spending quite a bit more than anticipated. I tried to rma the 180 to newegg but it was on the 8th day so "replacement only".

 

[zylander]

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: jenny9580
Really? Mine craps out around 225ish at stock timings.. </end quote></div>

When I first started OCing my OCZ ram about a year and a half ago I was able to get it up to 265 at 2.9v, cant remember the timings I was using then. Now I have it at 234mhz at 2.8v at 2.5-3-2-5.

Are you using stock volts too?


edit: even that 225mhz OC is good enough. If you get a 170 or 175, I think they have the 10 multiplier (165 only has a multi of 9), you can keep your FBS low and run your ram around 225 with the right divider.

 

[jenny9580]

Bryan - my budget is pretty much nonexistent, so an overhaul just can't happen right now. If I could, I'd probably do the E6600 thing.. but I'm basically limiting myself to CPU now, with a video card upgrade in the next few months.

Hm.. I may have been using stock voltage at the time with the ram (this was almost 2 years ago so I'm not 100% sure).

I've heard that the 175/180 pretty much won't OC at all. The Newegg reviews seemed to have some folks getting the 185 to 3GHz and beyond, though. The allure of the 185 is quite simply not having to OC at all (only having 2 SATA ports really sucks and is limiting my drive choices), and I like knowing that I'm guaranteed 2.6GHz no matter what.

Still curious, as I don't think anybody answered.. what are the chances of getting a bad stepping with a 165 or 170? Are there any known cases (especially recent ones)?

 

[Cybercraig]

I haven't heard of many new bad steppings. I have one no one raved about LCTBE and it clocks just fine. You are running at 2.25 now and going to 2.6 will give you a bump. If you are cranked out of shape just get the 185 and run at stock 2.6. Your resale will be good down the road. BUT, heed the warnings:

1 - May not improve game play much at all

2 - Not all motherboards like the 185's and run poorly or not at all to prove it

3 - Your return on investment will be rather poor

JMHO :roll:

 

[bryanW1995]

Originally posted by: jenny9580
Bryan - my budget is pretty much nonexistent, so an overhaul just can't happen right now. If I could, I'd probably do the E6600 thing.. but I'm basically limiting myself to CPU now, with a video card upgrade in the next few months.

Hm.. I may have been using stock voltage at the time with the ram (this was almost 2 years ago so I'm not 100% sure).

I've heard that the 175/180 pretty much won't OC at all. The Newegg reviews seemed to have some folks getting the 185 to 3GHz and beyond, though. The allure of the 185 is quite simply not having to OC at all (only having 2 SATA ports really sucks and is limiting my drive choices), and I like knowing that I'm guaranteed 2.6GHz no matter what.

Still curious, as I don't think anybody answered.. what are the chances of getting a bad stepping with a 165 or 170? Are there any known cases (especially recent ones)?

I understand what you are saying. you said you are willing to spend 240 for a 185, right? Well, you could spend 60 on a biostar t550, 58 on brisbane 3.6 +, and 65 on 2gb ddr2 6400. that is significantly less than 240, plus you can sell your old mobo/ram/cpu. You'll end up with a 2.5-3.0 ghz dual core ddr2 system for next to nothing. Sure it's a risk, but cybercraig is right about a lot of boards not being too fond of the upper-end opterons. If you have a decent board and have had some luck overclocking in the past then the 170 or 175 should work fine for you.

 

[jenny9580]

Yikes.. #2 worries me. Anyone have experience trying a 185 in an Asus A8N-E?

I plan on obsessing over this for a few more days before making the purchase..

 

[jenny9580]

bryan: Those prices are pretty crazy.. now I have even more to obsess over before deciding

 

[Dkcode]

Christ. I have been in the same dilemma for a week now. Here are my 3 options:
Upgrade my 939 system to a Opteron 185 for £150 (Try and milk my 939 rig for another 6 months untill the new chips from AMD and Intel are out at decent prices)
Upgrade to Athlon X2 4200+ for £60
Upgrade my Motherboard, CPU & RAM to C2D E6420 or E6600 for just over £300 with the right motherboard.

My current spec is:
Athlon 3700+
Asus A8N SLI Premium
2GB Corsair XMS3200C2
Antec Neo 480W
Radeon X1800XT

Any suggestions on what i should do? My motherboard is a bit pants for overclocking so i do not want to depend on this too much.

 

[jenny9580]

Hm.. so if I were able to make the leap to C2D, which motherboard is the OC champion? I've never had an Intel rig. Is the E6600 still the best CPU to get, and how long would that last me?

 

[Dkcode]

I have been looking into the C2D motherboards and can not make my mind up. The 965P chipset seems to be a great choice but its finicky with memory - you need ram rated low at 1.8V for the board to boot. The Nvidia chipsets are expensive and i don't need 3 PCI x16 slots. They are a couple of lower end 650 Chipsets, one motherboard caught my eye (Abit IN9) but i heard it conks out around after 325FSB which makes it a bit rubbish for overclocking.

 

[jenny9580]

I decided to push my existing CPU as far as it will go for now.. 2.525 isn't prime stable, but 2.475 is.. I may try an even 2.5 today just to verify. I guess this is the cheapest option at the moment.