Socket 939 - Best-Bang-for-the-Buck options for upgrading from a 3200+ Venice

[timxpx]

Trying to help a friend figure this out. He's trying to *not* pull the trigger on getting a C2D system and needs to make his existing rig last a little longer. I think he has an Asus A8N SLI with a 7800gtx and 2 gigs of pretty good ram (ocz i think?)

Currently the bottleneck in his system is processor (Athlon 3200+ Venice). Would going over to the Opteron be worth it? Or is it time to go for a c2d rig?

Opteron 146 goes for about ~$90 on zipzoomfly.

Edit:

In a nutshell, we need the most powerful yet cost effective upgrade that involves keeping the S939 mobo and not going for broke on a brand new Core 2 Duo rig.

Originally, we were wondering about the benefits of an Opteron 146 (Venus) vs keeping the 3000+ (Venice). Evaluating people's contributions, I've drawn the following options:

- Opteron 146 - Venus (~$90)
- Opteron 165/170 - Denmark (~$154/~$189)
- Athlon X2 4200+/4400+/4600+ (Toledo?) ($ ???)
- Wicked-sick overclocking... ($ whats a good cooling solution cost in that case?)

 

[Zap]

All depends on if he's overclocking. I have that board and it seems to do okay at overclocking. The 3000+ Venice is actually 1.8GHz default so the Opteron has 200MHz on it, plus double the cache. Perhaps he should go for an Opteron 165/170 (starting around $155 or so) and overclock it. A dual core, each with 1MB cache and clocked at 2.5-2.8GHz wouldn't be too shabby.

 

[Thor86]

You need to tell us, his cpu is a bottleneck for what? Gaming? Graphics work?

 

[timxpx]

thanks zap

and thor - light gaming, video converting/encoding, 3d modeling/rendering

 

[steveox]

my PC is the one in question, and to confirm/correct it's actually a 3200+ venice (the error was in originally telling tim it was a 3000+ assuming that was the 2.0 ghz version)

I do a good amount of downloading / video encoding, average amount of gaming. Currently the problem is that I have a 3.2 prescott (1gb bh-5, 6800 ultra oem) doing most of the work and the athlon machine only for gaming. I want to part ways with a machine and use one machine for all tasks as opposed to separate machines for separate tasks. I'm staying away from the p4 because of it's high temps (been hitting 81 degrees lately with all the multitasking)

Also part of the question is should I look into an X2, opteron, c2d, or keep the venice... (which doesn't seem like a great option since I have to OC it just to install certain games)

 

[Brunnis]

Originally posted by: steveox
Also part of the question is should I look into an X2, opteron, c2d, or keep the venice... (which doesn't seem like a great option since I have to OC it just to install certain games)

With the kind of work your doing on the machine, dualcore seems to be the the best option. Being that you already have a S939 system, an X2 or Opteron would be a good and pretty cheap choice. I'd suggest an X2 4600+ or a similarly clocked Opteron. You could buy a lower end chip and overclock, but then you might get a crappy one.

 

[timxpx]

hmm the retail availability of s939 x2's in the 4200+ to 4600+ range is sparse. opteron 165/170 denmark cores are going for $154 / $189 respectively on newegg. decent price for an upgrade, unless someone is getting rid of an x2 in fs/ft.

 

[Vario]

I overclocked my venice 3000+ after using it at stock 1.8ghz for a whole year.
Got the FSB to 245 from 200, and thats a solid 2.2 ghz. Stress tested it with prime 95 for 12 hours with no errors.

Im happy with it. Good price too.

 

[timxpx]

Newegg - AMD Opteron 165

Reviewers are saying they're hitting 2.4ghz and 2.7ghz OC out of the box. Anyone have personal experience with this?

 

[nyker96]

dont get that 90 opty 146, get the opteron 165 from newegg for 155 bucks or on ebay for less than that if you take time to bid. that single core opty ain't worth this price no more.

 

[Sunrise089]

No question: Get an Opty 165 and an aftermarket HSF. I'm happy with the Scythe Ninja from my sig.

 

[Regalk]

Reviewers are correct about the Opty 165 - mine hits 2950 quite fine. I also have the optys 150 and 144 and both hit well over 2700 (Opty 144 is at 2800) but the 165 is much better in my opinion

 

[aka1nas]

I managed to get 2.8 out of My 165, though I did need a DFI board to get the last bit from it. On a MSI Neo 2 platinum I was able to do 2.6Ghz. With this chip, the limitation will probably be how high of an HTT speed your board can do as the CPU only has a 9x multiplier. The 170 with a 10x multi is probably a safer bet if you want to squeeze everything out of the chip.

 

[lopri]

I also got an Opteron 165. I previously had an A8N32-SLI board with Opteron 146 @3.0GHz, but the board (which wasn't even a year old) started showing degrading symptoms. While searching for an alternative, I found out that a brand new DFI NF4 SLI-DR board goes for $70~80, so picked one up for $74. (Talk about a bargain!) Then I reached a thought that Socket 939 is disappearing from the market and it'd be the last chance to pick up a decent dual-core for cheap, so in the end it became a whole system overhaul. So I switched from Opteron 146 + A8N32-SLI to Opteron 165 + LanParty SLI-DR.

The Opteron 165 I got from the Egg did 2.80GHz right off the bat, with stock vCore (1.36V) and stock HSF. Very satisfied with the purchase and I'm intending to keep this rig for some time to come as my work machine. Yeah it's slower than my Intel rig and the difference is perceivable, but gaming performance is the same (GPU bound in 98% of the time) and the stability is top notch. It was so refreshing to fiddle with A64 with its solid IMC after much headache from 680i's flaky memory/disk controller.

Opteron 146 is also a fantastic choice if your work doesn't involve multi-threaded applications. Almost guaranteed 3.0GHz. As I stated above, I had one before this Opteron 165 in my main rig, and actually I still do. It's absolutely fast for office applications and games. I think I will keep mine (the 146) even though I don't use it for now. (Like a collectible, lol) Chances are this chip will remain as the fastest single-core CPU in history so I don't want to lose it, lol.

So my recommendation for Socket 939 upgrade would be:

Opteron 146 ($90, easy overclock to 3.0GHz) + DFI NF4 SLI-DR ($70~80 on eBay)

or

Opteron 165 ($155, easy overclock to 2.7~2.8GHz, 3.0GHz if you get lucky) + DFI NF4 SLI-DR ($70~80 on eBay)

I would recommend against X2 CPUs at this point. They're more expensive then their Opteron counterparts and don't perform as well in many cases.

 

[txtmstrjoe]

Originally posted by: timxpx
Newegg - AMD Opteron 165

Reviewers are saying they're hitting 2.4ghz and 2.7ghz OC out of the box. Anyone have personal experience with this?

(Raises hand!)

Got me an Opteron 165 (not from the Egg, but from the Tiger) a couple of weeks ago, and it's been rock-stable at 2.700GHz (300*9 multi) right out of the box, using a very small voltage bump (1.37V per CPU-Z; stock voltage is 1.35V) and the stock 4-heatpipe HSF at the moment.

 

[Tom]

What are the most cost effective AMD dual core options if overclocking isn't considered ?

 

[timxpx]

i'm guessing the 165's are most feasible at this point. might even have to swap out the 148 in the comp in my sig, though i don't know how safe that is with the sun mobo. thanks everyone for your detailed posts!