Venice vs Opteron

[Mattd46612]

Is there really enough of an advantage goin to the opteron over another venice? It will be moderately overclocked and the computer will be for my stepfather. Heard good things about the opteron but overall just want to avoid problems. Trying to put a reasonably priced rig together, must be AMD. Told him I should be able to get something nice together for under $1000 including monitor. Was thinking a nice epox board, opteron, 1gb value ram, cheap case, mid range fotron or something. Havent built one for almost a year so I just want to avoid issues, havent worked with ULI yet either so im not sure what cheap vid card i will throw in due to that.

 

[Mattd46612]

Well after looking into it a lil further in the $200 range that I want to stay in for cpu I think the 3700 San Diego would be the direct competition. How much of a difference between the 2 and also compatibility issues? Just I am real familiar with the single core A64 and am scared to try out an opteron and the X2 just arent in the price range for this project.

 

[Nocturnal]

If you're going to spend money on a SD then just opt for the Opteron. If you say that you're going to moderately overclock, you'll have a better overclocking, most times, with the Opteron.

 

[Captante]

The Opteron 148 is a better overclocker then the 3700+ San Diego core & should work just fine in any mb that supports it, so if your going to overclock its the best choice.. really you should figure out a way to work either the Opteron 165 or the X2 3800+ into the budget though & save afew bucks somplace else.

 

[Nocturnal]

Yes. The 165 is an awesome deal. Right now I believe ZZF has it for around $310 with free 2nd day air.

 

[alimoalem]

Originally posted by: Nocturnal
Yes. The 165 is an awesome deal. Right now I believe ZZF has it for around $310 with free 2nd day air.

that could be a little too high for $1000 budget. the 3700 is a good cpu. if you're moderately OCing (probably to 2.5-2.6?) then both of them should be fine

 

[Mattd46612]

Ill have to double check on his spending. Do most boards support the Opterons right now? I had a rough tally of about 900 with the 148 in there so I could squeeze the 165 in especially if I rework a few things. Was thinkin of going with the Epox 9NDA3J cuz I love mine and am very familiar with it, does this support the Opteron? My biggest issue is I dont want to run into problems so im tryin to stick with what is familiar to me, but the opterons just seem too good a deal to pass up.

 

[DetroitSportsFan]

What's Grampa gonna be doing with his computer? If its going to be an internet browser and email machine, why buy an Opteron 165? If he's going to be encoding movies and playing games AT THE SAME TIME, then the Opteron 165 would be a good choice. Anyway, you get the point ... build it to fit his needs with a reasonable upgrade path. The Opteron 165 is a winner .... but may be more than Grampa needs.

Oh, almost forgot .... on the s939 platform, the only difference between an Opty and its Athlon brother is the quality of the components and the 1mb L2 cache. The higher quality components typically allow the proc to run at lower voltages, run cooler, and overclock higher than the Athlon line. Other than that, they are essentially the same proc.

P.S. Some of the Opterons (144's and 146's) are hard to find right now. For best prices check out either TankGuys or Flickerdown.com.

Flickerdown.com
144's on order for $112 OEM + $9.50 sh
146's on order for $126 OEM + $9.50 sh
165's in stock for $285 OEM + $9.50 sh

TankGuys
144's on order for $149.99 BOX (3yr warranty)
146's on order for $169.99 BOX (3yr warranty)
165's in stock for $309.14 BOX (3yr warranty)

 

[5t3v0]

Only thing to remember with Opterons is that mobo manufacturers wont officialy support them on the desktop boards so if you need tech support, forget it. That includes Epox. Despite this, my Epox 9NPAJ SLi recognized my 144 no problem but did not default to the correct vcore (it chose 1.5v) and it didnt even have the option for 1.4v in the BIOS it shipped with. I had to flash with the latest BIOS giving negative vcore options to get below 1.5v. You'll see from my sig though that to get a half decent overclock, I've had to give it more juice rather than less. I've had awful bother with this board and fluctuating vcore and wouldn't recommend Epox to anyone. Reading a few topics in this forum, I dont seem to be alone on that score. You've had a better experience by the look of it. Not all Opterons are outstanding overclockers either - mine being a perfect example.

 

[Mattd46612]

Well being that Im still at home and may be for a while I want to give the best all-around machine I can for the money. He does quicken and some home business stuff, but I also may use it for DVD copying and gaming. So to me a moderately overclocked opteron seems like the easy decision here. I will go with my mobo in this build because I still refuse to go PCI-X and because Im really familiar with this board. Thanks for the help.

 

[magomago]

Originally posted by: Mattd46612
Well being that Im still at home and may be for a while I want to give the best all-around machine I can for the money. He does quicken and some home business stuff, but I also may use it for DVD copying and gaming. So to me a moderately overclocked opteron seems like the easy decision here. I will go with my mobo in this build because I still refuse to go PCI-X and because Im really familiar with this board. Thanks for the help.

While I understand he wants the best all around machine, if he is doing home business stuff, and "may" use it for DVD copying and gaming I don't think you should be sweating as much. Just pair the best A64 deal + 6600GT and be done with it. Should handle most games without a problem on high details...even then it could be argued that is overskill