Replacing my Opteron

[fustercluck]

I think my Opteron 146 died out of nowhere, hopefully it's the only part that died and replacing it will get my system back up and running. So, I'm wondering which CPU to replace it with. First of all, does my motherboard (ASrock DualSATA2) support dual core? I can't figure it out for sure, but from what i've heard from a couple people it does. If it does support dual core, what CPU should I get? A dual core opty or one of those X2 chips?

I can get an AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Toledo 2.0GHz for $64 Damn that's cheap.

Or a retail AMD Opteron 165 Denmark 1.8GHz for $95.50.

Just a couple of options. I don't know much about those CPUs. I read the thread below by Burticus and learned a few things.

I'm hoping replacing my CPU will keep my system going another year, that'd be great. I'm either going to upgrade my system entirely or just try and replace the CPU and hope that will fix everything. Being as broke as I am I'll probably attempt to just replace the CPU first and if that doesn't work I can return it and do a complete upgrade. I'll be buying tomorrow sometime.

Would really appreciate any help/cpu recommendations, thanks

 

[firewolfsm]

Buy the 3800 and save the cash, put that towards your new system later.

 

[zach0624]

First of all your mobo should support both these as the spec sheat says it supports X2 processors. I think that the 3800+ is a great buy as it seems that it overclocks great. The opty 165 is also a good overclocker and has more L2 cache which should help performance. Overclocking wise the opty seems to get 300 to 500mhz more than the athlon. Really it is all about your budget.

(PS. I can't believe I actually read your blog. Well now you are ten cents closer to your goal.)

 

[fustercluck]

Originally posted by: firewolfsm
Buy the 3800 and save the cash, put that towards your new system later.

Well the Opty 165 is only 30 bucks more and it's retail (which doesn't matter since I'd overclock it anyways), so not a big difference there.

I just found this one too:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ Brisbane 2.5GHz - $109 plus a free crappy MP3 player, that seems like a great deal also...why so cheap though? It seems too good to be true.

Originally posted by: zach0624
(PS. I can't believe I actually read your blog. Well now you are ten cents closer to your goal.)

I can't believe anyone's reading it - I've clearly gone insane. I've made about $5 so far from it though, so not all bad. Another reason to get my computer up and running again.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Brisbanes are cheap because they're 65nm processors. AMD can crank out more per wafer than they can 90nm processors. Well . . . that's one reason anyway.

 

[fustercluck]

Originally posted by: DrMrLordX
Brisbanes are cheap because they're 65nm processors. AMD can crank out more per wafer than they can 90nm processors. Well . . . that's one reason anyway.

Ahh...the higher the nm the better? I can't seem to remember any of this stuff. What is 90nm mean anyways? *Will google it now*.

 

[Markfw]

The brisbaneis AM2 socket. I think you have a 939 socket ??

 

[fustercluck]

Originally posted by: Markfw900
The brisbaneis AM2 socket. I think you have a 939 socket ??

My mobo might also support AM2...I don't know, it's confusing. Mobo Specs

I'll probably just forget about the Brisbane unless anyone has an argument for it. So I guess It's still between an X2 and dual core Opteron

 

[Rhoxed]

you have a 939 mobo, the current 3800+ x2 toledos on newegg are a good stepping and most can reach 2.6-2.8 easily.

 

[fustercluck]

Originally posted by: Rhoxed
you have a 939 mobo, the current 3800+ x2 toledos on newegg are a good stepping and most can reach 2.6-2.8 easily.

Are you speaking of the retail 3800 Toledos or the OEM? I'd probably buy an OEM since I already have a heatsink for one.

 

[secretanchitman]

Originally posted by: Adaman

Originally posted by: DrMrLordX
Brisbanes are cheap because they're 65nm processors. AMD can crank out more per wafer than they can 90nm processors. Well . . . that's one reason anyway.

Ahh...the higher the nm the better? I can't seem to remember any of this stuff. What is 90nm mean anyways? *Will google it now*.

usually, the lower nm the better cause you can get more performance for less watts. unfortunately though, the original 65nm (i think - AT did a review on it) wasnt that great for AMD...

 

[heyheybooboo]

Here is the ASRock M2CPU riser card for AM2 / DDR2 upgrade.

Be hard to beat the AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Toledo 2.0GHz for $64. If you want to OC the Opty 165 should hit 2.6-2.7GHz on stock air and serve you well for years to come.

 

[fustercluck]

I bought the OEM X2 3800 for $64 shipped, that's just too crazy cheap, and I already have a heatsink/fan for it (from my dead Opty). These chips (X2 3800 Toledo and Opty 165) are so close to eachother performance wise I think the smart thing to do is get the best deal, and $64 is the best deal. Plus the word out there is that newegg's X2 3800 OEMs are really good overclockers. Burticus got his to 2.8 ghz, even a tad undervolted. I'm not going to keep my hopes that high but hopefully I'll get a good OCer. I imagine it's still pretty much luck of the draw. I am worried about it being a heat monster, I've always had high temps no matter what CPUs i've used in the past.

Anyhow, hope I can get my computer working again with this CPU, otherwise I'm going to have to do a full upgrade, and that would really suck, because I don't have the money to do a full upgrade.

Thanks for the help all. Burticus's thread was really helpful also, I probably didn't even have to make this thread