what do you think of this upgrade?

[mdchesne]

ok, so what about the Opteron 148? at 2.2ghz, it should OC further than the 144, but people are recommending the 144 more and more. Is this because it's only for $150 or does it actually OC better than the 148?

As for the RAM, I'm going to lay off a ram upgrade now. Apprently, there's alot more to OCing ram than I thought and alot that I didn't know (thanks Odin for your help). So I'll do that next year at the same time i upgrade to dual raptors.

So right now I'm judging between an Opteron 144, 146 and 148. Monarch has them the cheapest that I found at only $230 for the retail 148. but $148 for the 144.

-------------------------OP--------------------------------
From:
A64 3200+ Venice
MSI Neo4 Platinum
Corsair VS 1gb dual channel kit (2x 512)
Powercolor x800xl
NEC 8x DVD burner
Lian Li PC-60
OCZ Modstream 520 PSU
160gb Samsung (linux)
80gb Seagate(windows)

Upgrade:
Asetek WaterChill CPU/VGA/Chipset Cooling Kit link (anyone know if the Neo4 chipset is too close to the video card for a waterblock?)
AMD Opteron 148 Venus 1GHz FSB 1MB L2 Cache Socket 939 Processor link
NEC 8x DVD burner (so I can do direct dvd/cd burnage) link

Which leaves me with a A64 3200+ to sell to help pay for this upgrade. In addition to selling my 9600pro, barton 2500+, geil 1gb ram and the Chaintech mobo from my other system... leaves me with very little to physically pay for this upgrade. so, what do y'all think?


Future upgrade ideas:
1) next gen video card + RAM upgrade(mid 2006)
2) dual 74gig raptors in raid(december 2006)
3) dual 500gb HDDs for storage(early 2007)
4) another ram upgrade

 

[OdiN]

Why the Opteron over the A64?

I wouldn't waste money on a water-cooling setup personally...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820227219

That's the RAM I've used and it's excellent. Patriot is cheaper though but this stuff is 500MHz.

 

[theMan]

my suggestion would be to get an opteron 146, or 144. they will get you your 2.9ghz and will be a lot cheaper.

 

[Corporate Thug]

not that great of an upgrade

OC the venice to 2.5 or so and you arent CPU limited
also, the only game that i know of that take advantage of 2gb is BF

 

[stevty2889]

Water cooling is probably an overkill, it's not like they run hot to begin with, so it's probably not going to increase your OC potential by too much. Have you tried overclocking your 3200+?

 

[mdchesne]

Originally posted by: OdiN
Why the Opteron over the A64?

I wouldn't waste money on a water-cooling setup personally...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820227219

That's the RAM I've used and it's excellent. Patriot is cheaper though but this stuff is 500MHz.

the opteron OCs much better than the 3200+ i hear.
I heard you can get it up to 2.8 with very little voltage modification. see here

As for ram, the AMD motherboards only support up to DDR400, so getting something above that would be a waste if money for me. (unless I'm misreading what my mobo can handle...kinda new to memory. used to just buy the VS stuff... no more!)
Anyways, I heard the patriot is gauranteed at those timings and speed at stock. So that's good news, i mean, being able to return memory with no hassle because it won't run at such nice timings

 

[mdchesne]

As for why the watercooling:
1) quiet. I can eliminate the CPU and GPU and chipset HSF, and two case fans (adda though they may be, a 120 with proper rubber insulation will quiet my system soooo much)
2) cooling (of course). I want to properly cool my graphics card for OCing and when I get a next-gen card, I can also keep that thing nice and cool without worrying about stock cooling issues. Also, being able to OC my CPU will be easier with a quiet, yet efficient, waterblock (antarctica block, check it out on google.... highly regarded)

 

[OdiN]

Ahh..haven't heard much about the OC'ing ability of that chip so that makes sense.

And as for RAM speed...actually if you are going to OC you will be able to run that RAM higher than 400MHz (you can limit it if you need to). OC'ing the CPU and running the RAM at 1:1 will OC the RAM.

And...the water cooling...I'm still hessitant (water + electricity != good) but to each his own Not saying it's a bad product but...I'd rather listen to two quiet 120mm's and not worry heh.

 

[Some1ne]

so, what do y'all think?

Like most people, I'm not really a fan of the whole watercooling thing, it just seems like too much time, effort, and expense for too little of a gain over quality air cooling (in terms of performance). My philosophy is either go air or splurge on phase-change if air isn't good enough for what you want to do. The point about noise is valid though, the watercooling setup should be quite a bit quieter than a standard HSF.

On the RAM, right now it's kind of a toss-up about whether it's worth going for 2 GB...not many things will benefit from it at the moment, but with minimum requirements for most games at 512 MB, and recommended being 1 GB, soon there will probably be things that take advantage of that much RAM, but in the here and now 1 GB is still sufficient. What I would recommend, whether you go for 2 GB or 1 GB, is to get something rated for higher than DDR400 since you plan on doing a massive overclock anyways. You might as well get some fast RAM to complement your fast CPU.

 

[mdchesne]

bump

 

[eXx08]

I think you will be fine with yhe 148. It may cost more but It's worth it.