Opteron 185 - How long will it last?

[MarcVenice]

I went x2 3800+ and have it running at 2.6ghz right now. I very much doubt that there are much games where you will see a better performance with a c2d chip clocked at 3ghz or so. Perhaps stalker, but I wouldn't know anotherone. I also doubt a 3ghz clocked c2d will feel signigicantly snappier then my x2 3800+ at 2.6ghz. It was a cheap 80 euro upgrade, so nothing lost there, and might be 60 euro's if I get to sell my 3000+ venice. Only stupid thing is that 2x512mb ddr 400 extra costs me 56 euro's, I could almost buy 2gb of ddr 667 for that

Pairing it with a 8800gts btw, I'll let you know how it for example handles Collin McRae: Dirt, Two Worlds, Overlord, Shadowrun and GRAW 2. But I bet it will all run just fine. After this upgrade I don't plan on upgrading for another 12-18 months. Oh, and mind you, I've got the performance right now, versus getting it months later down the road.

 

[SlowSpyder]

I was in the same position a little while back. I went with a Opteron 165 (170 is a better choice for overclocking for most people) and am perfectly happy with it. It won't beat a C2D in any benchmarks, but it does everything I ask of it. I'm still mostly limited by my 7900GS anyway. It's still plenty fast to play games.

 

[Sumotku]

I have an opty 175 in the Asus A8N-E doing a mild oc at 2.5 by just tapping on the fsb, no voltage change. Been stable for 1.5 years like that.

 

[child of wonder]

Considering DDR1 is more expensive than DDR2 right now, I would sell your CPU, RAM, and mobo and upgrade to either AM2 or LGA775.

After Paypal fees and shipping you could end up with:

$20 - CPU
$120 - RAM
$40 - Mobo

Then you could get 2GB of DDR2-800 for around $70, a Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 mobo for $137, and a E6320 for $165.

You're out $192 once it's all said and done but you have a much faster system with a lot of headroom and OCing potential.

Considering you were going to spend $240 on the Opt 185, this is a faster alternative.

 

[heyheybooboo]

Originally posted by: 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..

This is a no-brainer.

With your rig the Opty 165 for $100 will OC on stock air up to 50% - or 2.7GHz. (Even with rotten kharma, green teef and a bad attitude!) The Opty 170 for $115 might get you in the 3GHz range. It's like stealing, or in honor of current events, a GWB pardon for committing a felony or 2 . . .

You can probably get there on stock voltage. It's an Opteron. It's tough.

Besides, the stock HSF assembly is really cool . . . .

 

[bryanW1995]

"I went x2 3800+ and have it running at 2.6ghz right now. I very much doubt that there are much games where you will see a better performance with a c2d chip clocked at 3ghz or so. Perhaps stalker, but I wouldn't know anotherone. I also doubt a 3ghz clocked c2d will feel signigicantly snappier then my x2 3800+ at 2.6ghz. It was a cheap 80 euro upgrade, so nothing lost there, and might be 60 euro's if I get to sell my 3000+ venice. Only stupid thing is that 2x512mb ddr 400 extra costs me 56 euro's, I could almost buy 2gb of ddr 667 for that

Pairing it with a 8800gts btw, I'll let you know how it for example handles Collin McRae: Dirt, Two Worlds, Overlord, Shadowrun and GRAW 2. But I bet it will all run just fine. After this upgrade I don't plan on upgrading for another 12-18 months. Oh, and mind you, I've got the performance right now, versus getting it months later down the road."


Marc, Check out tom's hardware guide. They did a budget, medium, and high-end system build last month. At the end, they put an 8800 gtx in the budget system. Interesting results...

 

[SparkyJJO]

Just for comparison's sake, I have my Opteron 165 @ 2.7GHz with stock volts. I have watercooling so I can push harder (had it at 3GHz on air but I needed my room at 50 degrees F to do it lol) but I just haven't felt like spending the time to do that.

 

[duragezic]

Word. Just got my Opteron 165 in from Newegg this evening. Instantly set it to 2.7 GHz @ 1.35 V (stock is 1.3-1.35 V, I believe mine is the former but can't confirm). Have not tested fully but no errors doing basic tasks and no errors from various stress tools running for 30-45 minutes.

Unfortunately, my HTT max seems to be about 300 MHz, so even though this chip could do more probably, I'm stuck at 2.7 GHz. The 170 for $20 more would've had a possible max of 3 GHz, but the chip itself might not even have made it much more than this. I swear I tested my max HTT to be about 320 before... that's why I felt safe getting a 165 with the 9x multiplier since it's unlikely any chip on normal air cooling to go higher than 2.9 or 3.0 GHz.

Using the stock AMD 2-heatpipe HSF btw. But I took off the thermal pad and used the AS Ceramique I have lying around. Runs at about the same temp as my single core 146!! I also have the 4-heatpipe HSF... not sure which is better?

 

[VirtualLarry]

Didn't your Opty 165 come with the stock 4-pipe AMD heatsink? That sink works well, IMHO. Not sure why you are using the 2-pipe version.

I have an Opty 165 myself, finally picked up a DFI infinity board that I tested out to 325FSB, have yet to put the Opty in it though. I've tested the chip seperately in a different board out to 300FSB (2.7Ghz), bios booting only. So hopefully I can get better than 2.7 out of the chip.

 

[lopri]

My Opteron 165 in 2005 came with 4-pipe HSF but in 2006 it came with 2-pipe HSF. They both are excellent HSFs. (especially the 4-pipe one) I had an Opteron 146 which I loved for a year before this 165. I wanted to keep the 146 for longer but didn't want to be stuck with it when AMD's EOL'ing Socket 939. My Opteron - DFI NF4 combo has been by far the longest lasting setup personally. It's slower than my Intel setup for certain but it still handles everything extremely well. I will probably keep this for another year or two. I guess it'll probably be considered somewhat slow when Dell/HP offers a quad-core system under $1,000. For OP - there is really no reason to spend more on 185. Get a 165 or 170 and overclock it if need be. Remember that they are all from the same wafer, just binned differently. No reason to pay double the money when most of them will top around 2.7~3.0GHz regardless of the model #'s.

 

[MarcVenice]

Heh I think my mobo's fsb topped out at 275ish, so with the x2 3800+ toledo I figured 2.7ghz. But it won't do 270fsb with my x2 3800+, 260 is the top I think. I have no clue as to why though, it completely baffles me, as to why the mobo simply would stop doing 270fsb from 1 day to another. It can't be the ram, coz it used to run at 270fsb with a divider just fine. A very wild guess could be that the PSU can't supply it with enough juice, or that the mobo just isn't stable supplying enough juice. Thing is, it posts, but won't go past the 'memory' counting screen, if you know what I mean. No matter how much juice I give it, or how slow I make the ram run. 2.6ghz is what I would be content with though, so no hard feelings lol

@ Bryan, yeah I think I read that, the budget system with the gtx performed nearly as well as the mid-end system when it came to games. Also, my x2 3800+ is clocked at 2.6ghz, and won't really be bottlenecking my 8800gts. If I had more money to spend though, I would

 

[duragezic]

Do you guys think the stock AMD 4-heatpipe heatsink is better than the 2-heatpipe one that currently ships with retail CPUs?

I have both (4-heatpipe from 2006, 2-heatpipe from my retail 165 yesterday). I am using the 2 heatpipe one ATM, and it's cooling well, but wouldn't 4 heatpipes be better than 2?

The older, 4-heatpipe one has three wires; the newer 2-heatpipe one has four wires (a yellow wire is present). The 2-heatpipe one runs at 3200rpm, and can spin up to like 5k+ rpm if overheating is detected. I thought I remember the 4-heatpipe fan running at 2800 rpm?

Both are quite good and likely similar, I want to keep the better of the two heatpipe HSFs for my 165, and sell the lesser of the two with my 146. I could also swap fans if one heatsink was better but one fan was better.


MarcVenice: I've had that mobo FSB problem too. Back in 2006 with my 146, I wrote down my max HTT to be 330 MHz. After ordering my 165, I tested my mobo's max HTT with my 146 again, yet it seemed to max out at 300 HTT (chipset voltage didn't do anything). So when my 165 came in, I figured I'd be limited to 2.7 GHz no matter how good the chip was. Oddly enough, last night I set the multiplier to 8x and upped the HTT, I was able to hit 315 HTT, and that was stable through the 45 minutes of Orthos I ran! So for whatever reason, my max HTT seems to vary too, and it'll be close whether I'm limited by the chip, by the stock HSF/thermal issues, or by my mobo's max HTT.


Either way, the new LCBQE (or maybe it's LCB9E) stepping is very common for all recent 165 chips from Newegg... and in my experience, on here, and Newegg reviews, this is a quite good stepping for hitting 2.7ghz and higher.