X2 3800+ VS. D 820

[VIAN]

I don't give a crap about overclocking. Now that we got that out of the way, these are too very good Dual Core chips and from what I've seen, the 820 is just as fast in most applications and just a little slower in games, within 10%, but at 100 dollars less, does seem like a decent deal. Discuss.

 

[Ronnie]

If your not into gaming, The D 820 should be a nice value.

As for overclocking both chips are pretty amazing.

 

[Wentelteefje]

If you're into gaming, and you want a chip that overclocks like mad, the Pentium D 920 is your man... People around the web seem to hit high speeds with it... They are also much better for gaming compared to the 8xx series... Do find yourself a "cheap" mobo that supports it, and can overclock...

EDIT: If you're an AMD fanatic, better is to take an Opteron 165 instead of that X2... If you're not going to overclock, the X2 seems like a better choice... However, it's more expensive...

 

[undeclared]

VIAN...

Price comparison - 820 is cheaper
Performance comparison - X2 3800 is better

It's really that simple..

 

[bob4432]

do you need to buy a new m/b? if you do figure that into the price too. since you are not into gaming you don't need pci-e(hell, even if you are into gaming you can still get by with agp...) and this gigabyte m/b for ~$65 works very nicely, it is what i am running and it fully supports the 3800 and a fsb of 1000 with the newest bios.

just didn't want you to forget about the m/b.. i know that some of the p"d"s seemed like a better deal, but then you needed to figure in a new m/b

 

[Markfw]

Your motherboard is fine for the 3800. But what is it you do that a 3700 won;t work good for ? The 820d is a POS. The 920D looks promising, but a $200 motherboard and a $250 cooling solution to get that performance ? forget it. I may have a chance to play with a 920d on a cheap mobo.

You said no OC though, so either a 820 or 920 can;t touch a 3800 X2 at stock.

 

[Wentelteefje]

I'd advise getting an ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 then... AGP and PCIe...

 

[Wentelteefje]

Originally posted by: Markfw900
Your motherboard is fine for the 3800. But what is it you do that a 3700 won;t work good for ? The 820d is a POS. The 920D looks promising, but a $200 motherboard and a $250 cooling solution to get that performance ? forget it. I may have a chance to play with a 920d on a cheap mobo.

You said no OC though, so either a 820 or 920 can;t touch a 3800 X2 at stock.

Ah, the MSI K8N Neo4... Yeah, that one will run great with the X2... The downside of the Pentium D is indeed that you have to buy a new mobo... And those cost a lot...

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: Wentelteefje

Originally posted by: Markfw900
Your motherboard is fine for the 3800. But what is it you do that a 3700 won;t work good for ? The 820d is a POS. The 920D looks promising, but a $200 motherboard and a $250 cooling solution to get that performance ? forget it. I may have a chance to play with a 920d on a cheap mobo.

You said no OC though, so either a 820 or 920 can;t touch a 3800 X2 at stock.

Ah, the MSI K8N Neo4... Yeah, that one will run great with the X2... The downside of the Pentium D is indeed that you have to buy a new mobo... And those cost a lot...

If his PC is on much/all of the time, the power savings from the 3800+ should add up too.
judging by this, you'd get that $100 back and then some before you were likely looking to upgrade again, if, once again, the PC is on a lot. Have better performance in almost every area all that time too

 

[stevty2889]

I got rid of my POS 830D, I wouldn't even remotely recomend the 820D. The 3800 is better at it at basicly everything. The amount of heat generated by the 8xx series is rediculous. At stock speeds my 4200+ blew away my 830 at everything. When overclocking came in to play, the 830 wasn't even stable with a 100mhz overclock and ran as hot on water as my overclocked X2 on the stock heatsink. My 4200+ is running at 2.618ghz on the stock cooler. The 9xx series seems a little better, I can't get any accurate temp reading right now though, cause I know it's not idling at 12c and loading at 20c, when the motherboard temp is 28c. It will have to get somehwere around 4.4-4.5ghz to catch up to my X2 @2.618ghz. But the motherboard you already have will work with a the 3800+ which is the better chip anyway, so I wouldn't bother considering a Pentium-D.

 

[bob4432]

i would probably do the opteron 165 over a 3800. there is the additional cache, and you also get a better hsf combo with the 165. the 200MHz difference won't acct for anything in the scheme of things, and if you ever o/c you will get more out of the 165 than the 3800(usually) as the opterons are the best cpus amd offers. or if you bumped it up to 2Ghz you would be at the same clock speed as the 3800. a 200MHz o/c on a 165 i 95%+ guaranteed...

 

[Hard Ball]

Pentium D 8xx series are as power hungry and hot as any chip on the market. I know two friends who own, or have owned PD 8xx, and both have their load temperature above 80 degrees C. One of them literally started having problems with other components on the board, such as RAM and video ard due to the ridiculous thermal output of the PD (he has a relatively small mid-tower, and no robust case cooling).

Avoid Pentium D's at all cost, unless you are ready to make a splat with a water cooled rig.

 

[Markfw]

Originally posted by: Hard Ball
Pentium D 8xx series are as power hungry and hot as any chip on the market. I know two friends who own, or have owned PD 8xx, and both have their load temperature above 80 degrees C. One of them literally started having problems with other components on the board, such as RAM and video ard due to the ridiculous thermal output of the PD (he has a relatively small mid-tower, and no robust case cooling).

Avoid Pentium D's at all cost, unless you are ready to make a splat with a water cooled rig.

I agree. Except, why would you buy a budget chip (820D), just to then spend $250 on a watercooling setup ? Insane.

Just get a X2 or Opteron dual-core. There may be some promise in the 9xx series, but right now, no verification of anything except with a $200 motherboard and watercooling, they OC better than the 8xx series. Thats still no reason to buy. I may be testing a 920 soon on a $80 mobo and air, and I will reply back once I get a chance.

 

[Wentelteefje]

Originally posted by: bob4432
i would probably do the opteron 165 over a 3800. there is the additional cache, and you also get a better hsf combo with the 165. the 200MHz difference won't acct for anything in the scheme of things, and if you ever o/c you will get more out of the 165 than the 3800(usually) as the opterons are the best cpus amd offers. or if you bumped it up to 2Ghz you would be at the same clock speed as the 3800. a 200MHz o/c on a 165 i 195%+ guaranteed...

Fixed... That's what I advised earlier... The Opteron costs a tad more, but is overall a better chip... The MSI K8N Neo4 supports it with BIOS 1.B and up (there isn't a newer one, but just in case )...

 

[Cooler]

if you want intel dual core then the 920 is much better value.

 

[VIAN]

Here is the only thing I care about:

price/performance at stock with the 820 coupled with DDR1.

 

[Duvie]

Originally posted by: VIAN
Here is the only thing I care about:

price/performance at stock with the 820 coupled with DDR1.

That said get the 3800+ X2.....Heck it even beats the 830D in majority of things...I think it even manages to beat the 840D and 840XE in several things.....The greater cache of the opteron is nice but mainly helps in gaming and less so in other non gaming things...

 

[python023]

x2 3800 ftw

 

[VIAN]

what does ftw mean?

Can you provide links to benches that show this?

 

[Duvie]

I want to know what you are smoking...the 3800+ beats the 830D in these gaming marks by 10-20%....

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2484&p=10

10%+ in CAD rendering...

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2484&p=11

5-9% in audio/video encoding...

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2484&p=9


BASICALLY THIS...

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2484&p=5

SO if the 3800+ X2 does that to a 830 and the 820 is 6.7% slower I dont see it being close to your claims...."the 820 is just as fast in most applications and just a little slower in games, within 10%, but at 100 dollars less, does seem like a decent deal. Discuss"

This wouldn't even be right with the 830D....

so lets compare an 830D versus a 3800+ X2 and we dont have the 100 dollar price to cry about anymore....

PLus the fact no one wants these shite chips so you probably can get one on ebay for a lot less...the 820D that is....

Look here....

http://www.techreport.com/reviews/2005q3/athlon64-x2-3800/index.x?pg=4

25-30% slower in games...not just a little as you conclude....

http://www.techreport.com/reviews/2005q3/athlon64-x2-3800/index.x?pg=6

38% ass-whoppin in POV-Ray and beats the XE 840 chip as well....

http://www.techreport.com/reviews/2005q3/athlon64-x2-3800/index.x?pg=9

tight in xmpeg Divx (which no one uses) but near 20% beating in WME...

http://www.techreport.com/reviews/2005q3/athlon64-x2-3800/index.x?pg=13

Here is the power consumption chart for you in case you forgot about it....

 

[Markfw]

As Duvie pointed out, there is no contest at stock. And I OC'ed both, and its still no contest, except you get to spent $100 more/per in electric bills for the 820D.

Now the 920 is under review by me, but at this point, at stock, the X2 3800 wins, OC'ed the 920d required H2O to get over 4 ghz, and a $200 motherboard. I am trying to disprove this with stevety this weekend, but we will see.....

 

[lopri]

VIAN, you should get a dual-core Opteron. No other choice would be better.

 

[lopri]

Pentium D 820 indeed OC nicely, but Intel OC is so booooooooooooooooring thanks to its FSB.