Opterton 165 or 170?

[Shadmere]

I'm building a new computer soon, and I'm starting to think it might be a good idea to go ahead and buy my processor. I've heard that Opterons might be going away? In any event, they recently went up in price... wondering if that might happen again.

Anyway.

I'm trying mainly to decide between the 165 and the 170. With all the good overclocking results from these, I've decided it's not worth the extra $100 for the 175. But is it worth the extra $70 for the 170?

I've never built a system before, nor have I ever overclocked. Looking over these forums for the past few days, though, and reading FAQs and whatnot... it doesn't seem too hard. (Main thing I've learned: Don't be dumb; go slow.)

I'd really like to be able to hit 2.6 ghz, if possible. I plan on buying an EPoX EP-9NPA+ SLi as a motherboard. (Thinking of the non-SLI, but I've read the SLI actually does better for overclocking? Is this big enough of a difference to warrant it? It's doubtful I'll ever buy two videocards.)

My planned setup is:

Opteron 165 or 170
EPoX EP-9NPA+ SLi
Cooler Master Cavalier
Antec Truepower 550
2x1gb OCZ DDR400
A hard drive
A DVD burner
A video card
A sound card

Can you tell what I haven't decided on yet?

You guys seem to be pretty damn knowledgable about these things. What is your opinion?

 

[Tanclearas]

There are no guarantees for overclocking. That said, it's unlikely that you would achieve a significantly higher overclock with a 170 than you would with a 165. I don't think 2.6GHz is an unrealistic goal, but you might not get that high. I think 165 results show most people getting between 2.5 and 2.7, and the 170 results really aren't much higher on average.

I'd save the $70. Then again, my 165 easily hit 2655MHz with just 1.4v, so it's easy for me to say that.

 

[MBentz]

I have a 165. If I could do it all over again I'd probably go the 170, simply because the 10x multiplier makes life (OC'ing) so much easier. Then again, if your board can go up to an insane HTT level I suggest you just go for the 165.

 

[aka1nas]

I also have a 165 and would maybe recommend the 170 if you intend to try for a high OC. My board can only apparently do 290HTT stably in it's current config and the 10x multi would have maybe gained me a few hundred more mhz. The price-to-performance of the 165 makes it a much better deal still, however.

 

[Shadmere]

Well, I started off planning on getting a X2 3800+. So if I can get 2200MHz, I'll still be getting more for my money.

Heh. Now I'm going to get a 165 that can't break 1890 or something. =Þ

 

[themusgrat]

165 is a good idea. The X2s don't OC well, that's why I got the 165. Most 165s now adays get almost a guaranteed 280 or 290 FSB OC, so aka1nas has a good point, your mobo had better be good. A lot get to 310.

EDIT: Welcome to the forums.

 

[Shadmere]

Thanks, glad to be here. Much better than the IGN PC boards, as far as hardware goes. Of course, it's just a different crowd here.

I just ordered a 165 from Monarch. It'll be a month or so before I can get all my parts, but then I'll definitely update on what's going on.

I plan on getting an EPOX EP-9NPA+ SLI for my motherboard. It's over fifty dollars cheaper than the DFI Lanparty that seems to be the absolute best. And from what I can tell, the Epox seems to be the second best board at overclocking. Second best for fifty bucks cheaper is a great deal for me. And from what I've read, it seems like it's MUCH easier to use than the DFI as well. (Apparently some DFI's ship with BIOS settings that result in new chips running at like 800MHz? I dunno.)