Skt 939 upgrade?

[Extelleron]

My current specs are:

AMD Opt. 144 OC @ 2.4 GHz
2GB Patriot RAM DDR400
ATI X1900XT
DFI Ultra-D

I've always wanted a new dual-core CPU to replace my 144, and now that AMD has slashed prices on the X2's so much, it seems to be a good time to upgrade. I'd love to go Conroe, but replacing my mobo, RAM, and CPU is just going to cost way too much. I've been looking at the X2 4200+ for $185, or the X2 3800+ for $154. I was leaning toward the X2 3800+ because of the lower price, and the only real reason to go higher would be for the extra cache of the 4400+, which is more than I want to spend on a 939 setup. I'm thinking I could sell my 144 for $90-100, and then buy the 3800+ for a $50-60 upgrade which should last me a year or so more. I'm hoping to be able to OC the X2 to 2.6 GHz+, which should be possible because of the higher multiplier- I'm pretty sure my RAM or mobo is holding me back. What do you guys think?

 

[Ayah]

X2 3800+, The board is a GREAT S939 overclocker. You can run the memory at a lower divider.

 

[Captante]

3800+ is the way to go considering the price ... 2.4ghz is pretty much a gimme & 2.6ghz isn't an unreasonable goal at all.

 

[5t3v0]

I too am getting rid of my Opteron 144 which, like yours, was only a moderate overclocker. I also decided to stay with 939 and swayed between the 3800+ and the 4200+ but settled on the 4200+ for the higher multiplier. I always felt the x9 multiplier on the 144 was a limiting factor so went for the highest multiplier in the X2 that I could afford. As I have DDR500 RAM, I'm hoping I can get the proc up to 250MHz x 11 (2.75GHz) with a 1:1 memory ratio, but even 240MHz (2.64GHz) would be an improvement over my current OC. On the 3800+, its back to a higher HTT and memory dividers, which isnt the end of the world but the results can be more unpredictable, although that DFI board of yours should pose no problem (unlike my Epox perhaps).

How high can that Patriot RAM overclock? If you go for the 3800+ and get it up to 2.6GHz (260 x 10), you can use a 166 memory divider which will give you a RAM frequency of 217MHz. If it isn't stable that high, you have to drop to the 150 divider which only gives you a RAM frequency of 186MHz. Its not a serious performance loss but if you're an overclocker, it sucks when you have to run hardware below its rated speed. On the 4200+, to get 2.6GHz on the x11 multiplier means a HTT in the region of 240MHz. Using a 166 memory divider here gives a memory frequency of 204MHz which shouldnt be a problem for any DDR400 RAM.

Which ever cpu you go for, it will be a good upgrade on the Opty I'm sure.

 

[cmdrdredd]

my x2 3800+ is running 2.6Ghz with 1.47 vcore on my DFI SLI-D (260x10)

Idle 37c load up to 54c

Gonna get a better hSF and bigger case for better airflow in the future and see if I can get more speed out of it. I can boot at 2.7 but even at 1.5vcore it doesn't do anything stable. It crashes while running prime for about an hour.

CPUz reports 1.48 because I have the motherboard to do 104%

http://img54.imageshack.us/img54/9545/screen01gb7.jpg

edit: My memory is at 236Mhz