Help selecting new Athlon

D

dbates

New member
Okay, I'm thinking of upgrading from my trusty overclocked 2500+ XPM (2400mhz) because video editing, encoding and multi-tasking is chugging a bit.... well.... a lot...

I want to stick with AMD, so I'm looking at the Athlon 64's. I haven't stayed current with the whole hammer series because I stuck with Socket A, so I would really like some advice, and judging from the system specs here, it seems like almost everyone owns either an A64, an Opty or an X2 ;)

I'm certainly thinking that a dual core would be the way to go. I tend to have a lot of apps open at the same time, and waiting for things to happen gets me a little up tight !!

If you all agree, then is there a particular core I should be going for ? I plan to overclock a bit, as the CPU will be water cooled, so what is the price/performance sweetspot for X2s ? A 4400+ Toledo core is over £100 more than a 3800+ Manchester core - is that a step really worth taking ? Could I just get the 3800+ and run it a bit faster to get the best whack for my cash ? I'm presuming that I will see a serious improvement on my current setup regardless of which X2 I choose ?

All advice and buying assistance welcomed !!
 
I'm quite flexible really. Would like to spend as little as possible of course :rolleyes: But in reality, could probably stretch to £250ish, maybe £300 if I felt it would offer me enough of an increase in performance or futureproofing.

It's more a price/performance thing than anything else.
 
Well have a look the optron 170. Its dual core and should overclock well.

It starts at 2Ghz with 1mb L2 cashe per core, so i spect itll reach at least 2.4ghz on a decent mobo.

Or the 3800 if you want to spend as little as possible. I got llwyds up to 2.4Ghz perfectly stable, but its got half the cashe of the 170.
 
Are there any drawbacks to using what is supposed to be a server chip ? No problems putting one into a standard s939 board ?

The 170 is a Denmark core yes ? Standard speed 2 ghz ? Scan are showing them at £285 which is pretty rich.

I'm also hoping that there will be a little price drop with the 65nm parts are announced later this week ;)
 
Not that im aware of. Ive got no lifetime experiance with opty's, just goin on what ive read in numerous places (including here). But my singe core AMD 64 and Llwyds dual both own most programs. I should think as long as you stick to the 1way optys you will be fine.
 
I suppose the other question is whether anyone has determined what effect the additional cache has on these dual core processors ?
 
The extra cache for dual cores is a good thing. I can speak up for the 170 - great chip and its a Toledo core :)

The X2 3800+ is awesome tho - a great clocker if your that way inclined and muchas cheap :)
 
Obviously more = better but how much better i don't know im affraid.

The old XP chips did alot better with 512 than 256 but i read somwhere that it currently doesn't make that much difference between 512 and 1mb. But for futuerproofing id get the opty 170 if i were you.
 
If you're lucky with a 3800+, and you get an 06 stepping, you can expect possible 2.8-3.0 ghz on air! Check XS, they have a thread on 06 3800+'s (I'll get a link later, in class right now)

Edit: here's the link: 2006 3800+'s at XS
 
yea man, with a bit of know-how (plenty of that available on oc3d) and some semi-decent cooling and memory you can get X2 3800+ up to the ~2.8GHz mark, motherboard allowing, if you want that little bit more cache go for the 4400+ which i think has 1mb L2 per core, but your talking £££ then
 
well, DFI and EpoX are the tip-top ones really. will you be overclocking alot?

edit: didnt notice the above question was a link :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

P
Memory error
Replies
4
Views
5K
Warchild
W
Dawelio
Monitors these days?...
Replies
1
Views
4K
Warchild
W
CalVic
Silly me!
Replies
13
Views
6K
CalVic
CalVic
W
What motherboard to choose for a 12900KS
Replies
11
Views
5K
Warchild
W
R
Corsair iCue-Link 5000X upgrade
Replies
3
Views
7K
robert3892
R
Back
Top