Worth it to get another A64?

[fustercluck]

This A64 i have (3000 newcastle) sucks the bucket, it won't OC past 2.3 ghz (trust me, i've tried everything). It also requires 1.7 vcore to stay here. Would it be worth it to get another a64 that could do at least 2.6 ghz? This OC is depressing - My Mobo is supposed to be great for overclocking, but it feels like it's going to waste because this chip has pretty much no overclocking ability.

 

[Budman]

Maybe your power supply is not up to the task?

What's the make & model?

 

[beatle]

How deep are your pockets? Many people on the forum have bought multiple cpus (a dozen or more, I think for some people) to get an overclocking monster.

 

[Mik3y]

overclocking is a gamble. if you buy a cpu for overclocking, then you risk getting a cpu that sux at stabilizing at higher speeds. that's why its NEVER GUARANTEED.

 

[fustercluck]

Pockets aren't deep at all, but i could still sell this one.

 

[gobucks]

well, a lot of us are overclocking to get a good processor without paying too much for it. As such, we want value. Throwing away a perfectly good CPU (and mobo, since a socket 754 CPU won't take you to 2.6GHz without some pretty extreme cooling) is pretty foolish, especially when the CPU/mobo is less than a year old. I find it hard to believe that an A64 at 2.3GHz "sucks the bucket." No, it's not an FX, but it has like 85% of the speed of the FX-55, so i don't see how it's gonna make your software crawl or anything. The only thing an extra 300MHz would buy you is maybe some braggind rights, nothing more. Save your money. Towards the end of next year, you can get a PCIe SLI dual core system, and that will actaully be worth the upgrade.

Honestly, i don't understand some people around here. I hear people talking about upgrading like every few months; what the hell is the point? So you get an extra 10FPS in HL2? Is that worth hundreds of dollars? It would be like buying a new car every year, and throwing away the old one because it's not the newest model anymore. I personally refuse to upgrade until i can at least double my speed. After all, i can still run games on my 700MHz athlon system that is five years old (btw, it ran jedi academy, max payne 2, warcraft 3, neverwinter nights, c&c: generals, and others at decent resolutions), so i don't believe that people really NEED to upgrade any more often than every 18 months/2 years. Granted, i don't recommend waiting 5 years between systems, but i also think your system is good enough that you have no need to upgrade for a while yet, until new technologies emerge that really make for a compelling upgrade.

 

[Regs]

Funny, Im about to make the same decision myself. Either get a newcastle socket 754 2.4 Ghz CPU for 200 dollars or just get a NF3 with a 939 3500 CPU.

But then I realized....I'm playing D3 @ 1600x1200 and HL2 at 1280x1024 with 4x AA and 4x AF. So I think I'll wait.

 

[DrCool]

Originally posted by: gobucks
well, a lot of us are overclocking to get a good processor without paying too much for it. As such, we want value. Throwing away a perfectly good CPU (and mobo, since a socket 754 CPU won't take you to 2.6GHz without some pretty extreme cooling) is pretty foolish, especially when the CPU/mobo is less than a year old. I find it hard to believe that an A64 at 2.3GHz "sucks the bucket." No, it's not an FX, but it has like 85% of the speed of the FX-55, so i don't see how it's gonna make your software crawl or anything. The only thing an extra 300MHz would buy you is maybe some braggind rights, nothing more. Save your money. Towards the end of next year, you can get a PCIe SLI dual core system, and that will actaully be worth the upgrade.

Honestly, i don't understand some people around here. I hear people talking about upgrading like every few months; what the hell is the point? So you get an extra 10FPS in HL2? Is that worth hundreds of dollars? It would be like buying a new car every year, and throwing away the old one because it's not the newest model anymore. I personally refuse to upgrade until i can at least double my speed. After all, i can still run games on my 700MHz athlon system that is five years old (btw, it ran jedi academy, max payne 2, warcraft 3, neverwinter nights, c&c: generals, and others at decent resolutions), so i don't believe that people really NEED to upgrade any more often than every 18 months/2 years. Granted, i don't recommend waiting 5 years between systems, but i also think your system is good enough that you have no need to upgrade for a while yet, until new technologies emerge that really make for a compelling upgrade.

AMEN BROTHER!

I've went from AMD K62-350MHz to AMD Athlon 1GHz to Intel P4 1.8GHz to AMD Athlon 64 2800+, so your right on, it's been about 1.5 - 2 years per upgrade, and i've doubled speed everytime. cost per upgrade is about $300 depending on what other components I feel like bringing along.

 

[JBDan]

Originally posted by: jacktackle
This A64 i have (3000 newcastle) sucks the bucket, it won't OC past 2.3 ghz (trust me, i've tried everything). It also requires 1.7 vcore to stay here. Would it be worth it to get another a64 that could do at least 2.6 ghz? This OC is depressing - My Mobo is supposed to be great for overclocking, but it feels like it's going to waste because this chip has pretty much no overclocking ability.

the Winchester 3000+ is fairly cheap and has been oc'd to 2.6 on AIR in several Winchester reviews. Was $157 @ Newegg yesterday.

 

[fustercluck]

Originally posted by: JBDan

Originally posted by: jacktackle
This A64 i have (3000 newcastle) sucks the bucket, it won't OC past 2.3 ghz (trust me, i've tried everything). It also requires 1.7 vcore to stay here. Would it be worth it to get another a64 that could do at least 2.6 ghz? This OC is depressing - My Mobo is supposed to be great for overclocking, but it feels like it's going to waste because this chip has pretty much no overclocking ability.

the Winchester 3000+ is fairly cheap and has been oc'd to 2.6 on AIR in several Winchester reviews. Was $157 @ Newegg yesterday.

Isn't that socket 939 though? Then i'd have to get another mobo...i think...

Then again this Mobo has given me lots of trouble as well

 

[JBDan]

Thats what i was thinkin when you said the mobo you had was going to waste but it is YOUR choice

 

[JBDan]

Srry yes it is 939

 

[Googer]

Originally posted by: beatle
How deep are your pockets? Many people on the forum have bought multiple cpus (a dozen or more, I think for some people) to get an overclocking monster.

Buying several dozen CPU's defeats the original purpose of Overclocking. People who do that, probably dont know too well what they are doing.

Your machine is still faster than 90% of most other peoples PC's. Lets Keep OC in perspective here,

1]Originaly this whole overclocking craze got started because a small group of people were buying the cheapest
equipment possible and running it at the speeds of the expensive stuff, so they could save money. Doesn't buying dozens of cpus and new motherboards every 2 months defeat that purpose? If you want a new CPU wait untill Quarter 1 of 2005 for the AMD San Diego chips with SSE3 to be released


2] I can remember overclocking a 486 so we could actuly play the original DOOM with a decent frame rate. I could consider that as the origin of modern overclocking. Taking old equpment that had been running on its last leg at stock speed and giving it a second chance by overclocking it.
yes, pc's older than that (386/486) had Turbo switches that when activated doubbled the clock speed to 8 or 16 mhz. But in my mind that does not really count.

#2 has always been my reason for overclocking

 

[Googer]

2.3 is a pretty good overclock for a newcastle. considering that the fx51 runs at 2.4

 

[KamiXkaze]

Originally posted by: gobucks
well, a lot of us are overclocking to get a good processor without paying too much for it. As such, we want value. Throwing away a perfectly good CPU (and mobo, since a socket 754 CPU won't take you to 2.6GHz without some pretty extreme cooling) is pretty foolish, especially when the CPU/mobo is less than a year old. I find it hard to believe that an A64 at 2.3GHz "sucks the bucket." No, it's not an FX, but it has like 85% of the speed of the FX-55, so i don't see how it's gonna make your software crawl or anything. The only thing an extra 300MHz would buy you is maybe some braggind rights, nothing more. Save your money. Towards the end of next year, you can get a PCIe SLI dual core system, and that will actaully be worth the upgrade.

Honestly, i don't understand some people around here. I hear people talking about upgrading like every few months; what the hell is the point? So you get an extra 10FPS in HL2? Is that worth hundreds of dollars? It would be like buying a new car every year, and throwing away the old one because it's not the newest model anymore. I personally refuse to upgrade until i can at least double my speed. After all, i can still run games on my 700MHz athlon system that is five years old (btw, it ran jedi academy, max payne 2, warcraft 3, neverwinter nights, c&c: generals, and others at decent resolutions), so i don't believe that people really NEED to upgrade any more often than every 18 months/2 years. Granted, i don't recommend waiting 5 years between systems, but i also think your system is good enough that you have no need to upgrade for a while yet, until new technologies emerge that really make for a compelling upgrade.

agreed it is just way to expensive to keep updating that soon, also keep in mind that most software programs still suport older processors. I mean think about it does ms office and other programs(there are exception the newest version of photoshop does) really need the latest and greatest in processing power the answer is no.

 

[RussianSensation]

Originally posted by: DrCool

Originally posted by: gobucks
well, a lot of us are overclocking to get a good processor without paying too much for it. As such, we want value. Throwing away a perfectly good CPU (and mobo, since a socket 754 CPU won't take you to 2.6GHz without some pretty extreme cooling) is pretty foolish, especially when the CPU/mobo is less than a year old. I find it hard to believe that an A64 at 2.3GHz "sucks the bucket." No, it's not an FX, but it has like 85% of the speed of the FX-55, so i don't see how it's gonna make your software crawl or anything. The only thing an extra 300MHz would buy you is maybe some braggind rights, nothing more. Save your money. Towards the end of next year, you can get a PCIe SLI dual core system, and that will actaully be worth the upgrade.

Honestly, i don't understand some people around here. I hear people talking about upgrading like every few months; what the hell is the point? So you get an extra 10FPS in HL2? Is that worth hundreds of dollars? It would be like buying a new car every year, and throwing away the old one because it's not the newest model anymore. I personally refuse to upgrade until i can at least double my speed. After all, i can still run games on my 700MHz athlon system that is five years old (btw, it ran jedi academy, max payne 2, warcraft 3, neverwinter nights, c&c: generals, and others at decent resolutions), so i don't believe that people really NEED to upgrade any more often than every 18 months/2 years. Granted, i don't recommend waiting 5 years between systems, but i also think your system is good enough that you have no need to upgrade for a while yet, until new technologies emerge that really make for a compelling upgrade.

AMEN BROTHER!

I've went from AMD K62-350MHz to AMD Athlon 1GHz to Intel P4 1.8GHz to AMD Athlon 64 2800+, so your right on, it's been about 1.5 - 2 years per upgrade, and i've doubled speed everytime. cost per upgrade is about $300 depending on what other components I feel like bringing along.

Same here:

P2 233 -> AXP1600+ --> P4 2.6@3.06

I wont upgrade my cpu unless it roughly doubles in speed.

 

[Googer]

Originally posted by: gobucks
well, a lot of us are overclocking to get a good processor without paying too much for it. As such, we want value. Throwing away a perfectly good CPU (and mobo, since a socket 754 CPU won't take you to 2.6GHz without some pretty extreme cooling) is pretty foolish, especially when the CPU/mobo is less than a year old. I find it hard to believe that an A64 at 2.3GHz "sucks the bucket." No, it's not an FX, but it has like 85% of the speed of the FX-55, so i don't see how it's gonna make your software crawl or anything. The only thing an extra 300MHz would buy you is maybe some braggind rights, nothing more. Save your money. Towards the end of next year, you can get a PCIe SLI dual core system, and that will actaully be worth the upgrade.

Honestly, i don't understand some people around here. I hear people talking about upgrading like every few months; what the hell is the point? So you get an extra 10FPS in HL2? Is that worth hundreds of dollars? It would be like buying a new car every year, and throwing away the old one because it's not the newest model anymore. I personally refuse to upgrade until i can at least double my speed. After all, i can still run games on my 700MHz athlon system that is five years old (btw, it ran jedi academy, max payne 2, warcraft 3, neverwinter nights, c&c: generals, and others at decent resolutions), so i don't believe that people really NEED to upgrade any more often than every 18 months/2 years. Granted, i don't recommend waiting 5 years between systems, but i also think your system is good enough that you have no need to upgrade for a while yet, until new technologies emerge that really make for a compelling upgrade.

THANK YOU FOR HAVING SUCH A RATIONAL MIND. TOO BAD YOU CANT SAY THAT FOR ALL THE NEEEWBIS AROUND HERE WHO THINK YOU MUST GET A NEW CPU EVERY 60 DAYS OR YOUR MACHINE WILL QUIT WORKING.

Current System is a M.U.T.T.
Pentium3s Tualatin 1.4ghz
intel 815e
1 stick CAS2 pc133 512MB
200gb 7k250 8mb
ATI 9700pro.

But I will be replacing the Motherboard CPU and Ram in January when the San Diago Core (A64 rev.D) is released with SSE3



I am looking into a cheap SKT939 AGP motherboard untill I get my first PCI-E Grapics card. That is when I will buy a NICE MOBO with PCI-e or SLI.

 

[Burtie21]

Originally posted by: Googer
2.3 is a pretty good overclock for a newcastle. considering that the fx51 runs at 2.4

the fx-51 runs at 2.2, fx-53 runs at 2.4 and the fx-55 runs at 2.6.

but because his clock freq is higher than the fx-51, does not mean it's better, because of the different architecture and cache size.

 

[Dethfrumbelo]

jacktackle - the 90nm A64s tend to have problems with excessive voltage, leakage primarily. You must have done some damage to those lil' MOSFETs in your initial overclock by jacking the voltage.

Ideally, one shouldn't need to upgrade the CPU more frequently that every 2-3 years, whereas the video card gets upgraded every 12 to 18 months.

My CPU is 4.5 years old, with 3 video card upgrades in that time.

 

[fustercluck]

I don't think my is a64 is 90nm...maybe it is, i dunno, so many numbers and codes and crap to remember

I'm pretty sure this is the max overclock for this thing though, i've ran into a few others with the same 5 letter code (CBAEC) and they could only get 2.3 ghz as well.

 

[RealityTime]

Originally posted by: Burtie21

Originally posted by: Googer
2.3 is a pretty good overclock for a newcastle. considering that the fx51 runs at 2.4

the fx-51 runs at 2.2, fx-53 runs at 2.4 and the fx-55 runs at 2.6.

but because his clock freq is higher than the fx-51, does not mean it's better, because of the different architecture and cache size.

actually the difference between any a plain a64 at 2.6ghz and an fx-55 at 2.6ghz is just the 512kb difference of cache.. it is like .5% difference. They are basicly the same thing. Although what is different, is that the multiplier is unlocked on the fx-55 and the stock speed is 2.6, so more than likely you can hit 3.0 with good cooling as some people are and almost certainly tap into 2.8+, which is better than any plain a64 overclock, but really not worth another $600 :roll:

 

[Googer]

Originally posted by: Burtie21

Originally posted by: Googer
2.3 is a pretty good overclock for a newcastle. considering that the fx51 runs at 2.4

the fx-51 runs at 2.2, fx-53 runs at 2.4 and the fx-55 runs at 2.6.

but because his clock freq is higher than the fx-51, does not mean it's better, because of the different architecture and cache size.

I knew about the cache differances; But I was compairing clock speeds(cheap vs. expensive).
Thanks for the correction though, I was having a Senior Moment.

 

[milesl]

I saw a great article on whats comming next year from AMD A64 cpus.
They supposedly reffined and changed the 90nm process and the new ones comming early next year are supposed to be able to handle 3ghz clock speeds.
I am waiting for these to hit the market before jumping on the A64 bandwagon.Should be great overclocking cpu's

http://www.overclockers.com/articles1156/
or the short version...
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=20049

 

[Elcs]

I went from a

Cyrix PR200 -> K6-2 300 -> Athlon 700 -> Palo XP1800+ -> T'Bred B 1700+ -> Mobile Barton 2500+

I went from my Palomino to the T'Bred B as an upgrade. I overclocked the T'Bred B and my dad got my palomino.

I upgraded to the Barton because my dad fried the Palomino and his mobo.

I want an Athlon 64 because Id guess Im CPU limited at times with my Barton @ 2.3ghz and 9800P but Im a student, I cant afford it. I have another 18 months or so of University to go so Im going to upgrade once Ive graduated.

That is if I graduate and if I have money.

 

[tweeve2002]

so far I have only upgraded my CPU when i can get one that is 700mhz to 1Ghz faster at a decnt price.

My biggest money eater in my system is storage...Im going to have 1TB of space come x-mas

other than replacing the CPU every few years, and adding more hard drives when i run out of space. If a part go bad is the only other time I upgrade, or I am going to see big preformance gains...for example, im replaceing my Geforce 4 Ti4200 with a Geforce 6800. Big preformace boost.
My next system most likely wont get built till late 2005 or 2006 so i can have duel cores and there isnt much more that my 478 pin MB can upgrade to. If I can find a 3.8 at sometime down the road cheap I might upgrade to hold me over but that it.

as you getting a new system save your money and buy a duel core system with SLI when they come out.