would I see a difference going from a A64 3000+ to a Opteron 165? (The Dual Core 1.8ghz)

[RollWave]

I'm just wondering if it would be worth the upgrade. I DO multitask quite a bit and I DO have BTV running on my comp. It would be nice if I could let it showsqueeze (conversion from mpeg to wmv to save space) while I do other tasks without slowdown but would the computer be able to do this without upgrading the operating system at all?

EDIT: If I change to a PCIE board, do I need to keep my 3000+ to update the bios for the board to run a Opteron Dual Core or will it work out of the box?

 

[biostud]

the dualcore would let you do that, you might need a repair install or a complete re-install of windows. Dualcores work fine with home edition.

 

[RollWave]

Any info on whether stock bioses are ok to handle the opterons?

Is the repair/reinstall of windows bc of the chip or bc of the possible motherboard change?

 

[biostud]

go to your mboard manufacture homepage and check if you need a BIOS update. You might neeed the repair install for it to recocknize the 2nd core correctly.

 

[cryogenic666]

Technically speaking, you'll need the repair install to install the correct HAL (going from Uniprocessor to Multiprocessor). You could swap out the CPU then update the HAL in device manager but that's not recommended normally. I've seen several people do it without incident however.

 

[nealh]

Originally posted by: cryogenic666
Technically speaking, you'll need the repair install to install the correct HAL (going from Uniprocessor to Multiprocessor). You could swap out the CPU then update the HAL in device manager but that's not recommended normally. I've seen several people do it without incident however.

hmm..I just installed my opteron 165 and booted winxp and sp2 recognized it as updated by finding new hardware wizard...I think everything is ok

xp sees it as dual core cpu

 

[MBrown]

I think its worth it. and plus you can overclock it.