What's the fastest CPU I can put on my MSI K8N neo4 (nforce4)?

[jinduy]

i'm a cheapy and want to consider getting the beefiest cpu available for my 939 motherboard...

http://www.msicomputer.com/pro...odel=k8n_neo4_platinum

will my motherboard support the amd x2 939 cpus? if so, what's the fastest possible one i can get? thanks.

main reason i want this is because my tversity transcoding is lagging on 720p videos.

 

[Schmide]

You're not really going to find any CPUs on the market. Ebay I guess. Your best bet, since you have a pci-e slot is to get a video card that can offload the transcoding. I personally don't have experience in this but hear it can do the job. Do you have to do tversity?

But if you're set on getting a CPU it would probably be a 4800 x2 if you could find i or an opteron 175 939. Maybe with some overclocking. I seriously doubt you could find one at a reasonable price.

 

[ihyagp]

opteron 185 or fx-60. not worth the cost though.

 

[ShawnD1]

Originally posted by: Schmide
You're not really going to find any CPUs on the market. Ebay I guess. Your best bet, since you have a pci-e slot is to get a video card that can offload the transcoding. I personally don't have experience in this but hear it can do the job. Do you have to do tversity?

I don't think you can do this just yet. I can't find anything on google that links GPU to tversity, and a ps3 forum post from nov 2008 flat out states "GPU wont help"

In the mean time, what you can try doing is lower the compression rate in tversity. It has no effect on visual quality, but it means you'll need maybe 5mb/s of bandwidth instead of 1mb/s. If your PS3 is on a wired connection, you can turn the compression down to the minimum value and this will greatly reduce the amount of CPU power required.

 

[poohbear]

good stepping opteron 165 and overclock to 2.8/3.0 ghz w/ a decent aftermarket cooler. there are a few on ebay as we speak. the other opterons are too pricey and not worth it IMHO. Good luck!

 

[SlowSpyder]

Unless you can find an Opteron 165 or a 3800+ x2 for dirt cheap it's probably not worth putting money in to s939 any longer. The Opteron 165's are going for around $100, for only a little more than that you can get a new AM2+ motherboard, a very healthy increase in processing power (dual core, more MHz) (the cheapest dual core is 2.1GHz and 45 watts, and is $20 less yet) and some cheap DDR2. Often you'll see 4GB going for around the price of that 2GB kit I linked, it's very often on sale as well.

 

[jinduy]

Originally posted by: SlowSpyder
Unless you can find an Opteron 165 or a 3800+ x2 for dirt cheap it's probably not worth putting money in to s939 any longer. The Opteron 165's are going for around $100, for only a little more than that you can get a new AM2+ motherboard, a very healthy increase in processing power (dual core, more MHz) (the cheapest dual core is 2.1GHz and 45 watts, and is $20 less yet) and some cheap DDR2. Often you'll see 4GB going for around the price of that 2GB kit I linked, it's very often on sale as well.

wow i guess it's not worth it then. ... good info. thanks.

 

[jinduy]

hmm i see some cheap lower end x2 cpus for about $50 on ebay. i might get one if i can get it at that price.

i do plan to get a spanking new machine when starcraft 2 and/or windows 7 comes out. the only part i'll reuse is probably my dvd burner and monitor.

 

[Marty502]

If you can get a great deal on a X2, then it's totally worth it. I'm not urged at all to toss my rig away yet, but then I'm far from a hardcore gamer.

Get something like my own 3800 X2. Don't pay any extra for a 4600 or something like that. Then overclock it. Mine goes to 2.6 Ghz without a problem.
That's easy to get, you should have no problems with that and with that mobo you might even go higher than that. Mine is not a very good overclocker.

 

[jinduy]

meh i just bought an x2 4200 with hsf for $75 shipped on ebay... can't wait any longer lol. i hope i get this by friday.

i just want this machine to hold me off for at least another 8+ months and see what kinda improvements I get (always fun).

 

[alkemyst]

I am comfortable with my Opteron 165 running at 2.7GHz.

I'd love to see some real life benches of one of these versus newer tech.

 

[A5]

Originally posted by: alkemyst
I am comfortable with my Opteron 165 running at 2.7GHz.

I'd love to see some real life benches of one of these versus newer tech.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/default.aspx?b=2

Compare Athlon X2 5200+ or 5400+ to whatever you want. Gives up about 30fps to an i7 920 in Crysis, FC2, and L4D. Highly threaded loads are simply a massacre

 

[RaptureMe]

opteron 185 is the fastest I have seen on ebay.
I think the lower cost I have seen for these are $2-300 if your lucky.

 

[alkemyst]

I was looking for a 185 when I picked up my 165...since I overclock it didn't make much of a difference. One thing I am pissed about is one of our members went and offered more than asking price on me on a chip on our FS/T and then just ebayed the fucker. I even offered to buy it from him to close the auction...no go.

I was running a 4000+ on my K8N Neo4...I just popped in the 165 went to 2.7GHz and went on my merry way. BIG DIFFERENCE. My 4000+ San Diego (2.83GHz) was a big difference over the 3200+ Winchester (2.52GHz) I was running as well.