Opteron for gaming?

On Mon, 17 Jul 2006 14:10:59 +0000, R. Scott wrote:

I agree, there will be a big price drop for both AMD & Intel CPUs, on July
24th.

I'm hoping that Newegg drops prices that day, I've a Dual Core 4200 sitting
in Wish lists waiting to drop the order.

If it doesn't get down to $200 I wouldn't buy it.

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"Wes Newell" wrote in message
news:aPPug.6672$k31.1390@trnddc06...
On Mon, 17 Jul 2006 14:10:59 +0000, R. Scott wrote:

I agree, there will be a big price drop for both AMD & Intel CPUs, on
July
24th.

I'm hoping that Newegg drops prices that day, I've a Dual Core 4200
sitting
in Wish lists waiting to drop the order.

If it doesn't get down to $200 I wouldn't buy it.

Why?

Considering I'm building a whole new system. I'm currently using a Intel P4
1.GHz with a ati 9600.

Going to the Dual Core with GF7900GT

On Mon, 17 Jul 2006 06:06:17 -0400, MCheu wrote:

On Sun, 16 Jul 2006 20:22:38 GMT, "job" wrote:

Hey all,
Just bought a 939 pin SLI mobo.I'm wondering whether an Opteron might be a
good choice for gaming.I see some deals but I'm getting the cdoes like
165,240 etc.
Anyone have any suggestions?Or should I just get the fastest A64 I can
afford?


The Opteron is the Server version of the Athlon64. While it will
perform just as well as an Athlon64 of the same clock speed (perhaps
better in some situations), I don't really think it's worth the price
premium. At the local computer shops, the Opteron is about 2.5x the
price of the equivalent Athlon64.

According to the AMD specs, the biggest differences are the memory
controller and a greater number of hyperlinks for multiprocessor
systems. If you're only going to use one processor (dual core or
single core), that just leaves the memory controller.

The Athlon64 handles up to 4 DIMMs, the Opteron handles up to 8 DIMMs.
They seem to assume the largest DIMM available to be 1Gig, so the
Athlon64 has a limit of 4Gigs of system RAM and the Opteron 8Gigs.
Considering that most gamer rigs have 1Gig with a few 2Gig rigs, being
able to go beyond 4Gigs of RAM really isn't much of an advantage here.


Check the specs on the MoBo, though. On my ASUS K8N-E Deluxe (uses the
754pin Athlon-64), the DIMM speed drops if you go past 2 DIMMs. This is
an artifact of the CPU's DRAM clock implementation.

As for more than 4GB, don't forget that requires the 64-bit version of
the OS (Linux or Windows), appropriate drivers, and applications (some
applications are 32/64bit OS sensitive).

Question (as I am too lazy to look it up), doesn't the Opteron require
registered DIMMs to handle 8 DIMMs?

"Wes Newell" wrote in message
news:ZHPug.2283$us.1750@trnddc04...
On Mon, 17 Jul 2006 06:29:59 -0500, Dylan C wrote:

Frodo wrote:
I agree, there will be a big price drop for both AMD & Intel CPUs, on
July
24th.

Is this because of the AM2 platform introduction or is there another
cause?

It's because of the Intel Cor 2 Duo chips and Intels new pricing for them
and because Intel is cutting Pentium pricing across the board by about
50%. This pricing structure will include the new CPU's too. Intels new
Core 2 Duo E6600 at $316 is faster than anything AMD produces at any
price. And that's before you overclock it. Overclocked, It's around 50%
faster. A bad time is comng for AMD. Just one link of many like it;

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets...oc.aspx?i=2795

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Want the ultimate in free OTA SD/HDTV Recorder? http://mythtv.org
http://mysettopbox.tv/knoppmyth.html Usenet alt.video.ptv.mythtv
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CoreDuo huh?What about price?I'll stick with AMD mainly for cost resons
for now.

"MCheu" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 16 Jul 2006 20:22:38 GMT, "job" wrote:

Hey all,
Just bought a 939 pin SLI mobo.I'm wondering whether an Opteron might be
a
good choice for gaming.I see some deals but I'm getting the cdoes like
165,240 etc.
Anyone have any suggestions?Or should I just get the fastest A64 I can
afford?


The Opteron is the Server version of the Athlon64. While it will
perform just as well as an Athlon64 of the same clock speed (perhaps
better in some situations), I don't really think it's worth the price
premium. At the local computer shops, the Opteron is about 2.5x the
price of the equivalent Athlon64.

According to the AMD specs, the biggest differences are the memory
controller and a greater number of hyperlinks for multiprocessor
systems. If you're only going to use one processor (dual core or
single core), that just leaves the memory controller.

The Athlon64 handles up to 4 DIMMs, the Opteron handles up to 8 DIMMs.
They seem to assume the largest DIMM available to be 1Gig, so the
Athlon64 has a limit of 4Gigs of system RAM and the Opteron 8Gigs.
Considering that most gamer rigs have 1Gig with a few 2Gig rigs, being
able to go beyond 4Gigs of RAM really isn't much of an advantage here.

Given that an Opteron costs so darned much more than an Athlon64, you
should be able to get a much faster Athlon64 for the same price or
shave a fair bit off the price of the system by going with an
Athlon64.

Note: I'm not saying those are the ONLY differences, just the ones I
considered significant after skimming the specs (pretty dry read but
you might want to dig them up at AMD's website and read them yourself
before buying).
---------------------------------------------
Thanks.


MCheu

I've seen an O[pteron 146 for $160.Supposedly can do 3ghz on good hardware.

I believe socket 940 requires registered DIMMs, socket 939 does not.

"Robert Klute" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 17 Jul 2006 06:06:17 -0400, MCheu wrote:

On Sun, 16 Jul 2006 20:22:38 GMT, "job" wrote:

Hey all,
Just bought a 939 pin SLI mobo.I'm wondering whether an Opteron might be
a
good choice for gaming.I see some deals but I'm getting the cdoes like
165,240 etc.
Anyone have any suggestions?Or should I just get the fastest A64 I can
afford?


The Opteron is the Server version of the Athlon64. While it will
perform just as well as an Athlon64 of the same clock speed (perhaps
better in some situations), I don't really think it's worth the price
premium. At the local computer shops, the Opteron is about 2.5x the
price of the equivalent Athlon64.

According to the AMD specs, the biggest differences are the memory
controller and a greater number of hyperlinks for multiprocessor
systems. If you're only going to use one processor (dual core or
single core), that just leaves the memory controller.

The Athlon64 handles up to 4 DIMMs, the Opteron handles up to 8 DIMMs.
They seem to assume the largest DIMM available to be 1Gig, so the
Athlon64 has a limit of 4Gigs of system RAM and the Opteron 8Gigs.
Considering that most gamer rigs have 1Gig with a few 2Gig rigs, being
able to go beyond 4Gigs of RAM really isn't much of an advantage here.


Check the specs on the MoBo, though. On my ASUS K8N-E Deluxe (uses the
754pin Athlon-64), the DIMM speed drops if you go past 2 DIMMs. This is
an artifact of the CPU's DRAM clock implementation.

As for more than 4GB, don't forget that requires the 64-bit version of
the OS (Linux or Windows), appropriate drivers, and applications (some
applications are 32/64bit OS sensitive).

Question (as I am too lazy to look it up), doesn't the Opteron require
registered DIMMs to handle 8 DIMMs?

On Mon, 17 Jul 2006 19:28:45 +0000, R. Scott wrote:


"Wes Newell" wrote in message
news:aPPug.6672$k31.1390@trnddc06...
On Mon, 17 Jul 2006 14:10:59 +0000, R. Scott wrote:

I'm hoping that Newegg drops prices that day, I've a Dual Core 4200
sitting
in Wish lists waiting to drop the order.

If it doesn't get down to $200 I wouldn't buy it.

Why?

Because you can get an E6300 for $183 that can be clocked to outperform
an FX/62. Or buy an E6600 for $316 that will outperform the the FX/62
without even overclocking it. In reality, I wouldn't even pay $200 for an
X2 4200. Actually, I wouldn't pay more than $200 for any of them,
including an FX/62. I would pay $120-$140 for an X2 3800+ though.


--
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HD Tivo S3 compared http://wesnewell.no-ip.com/mythtivo.htm

Because you can get an E6300 for $183 that can be clocked to outperform
an FX/62. Or buy an E6600 for $316 that will outperform the the FX/62
without even overclocking it. In reality, I wouldn't even pay $200 for an
X2 4200. Actually, I wouldn't pay more than $200 for any of them,
including an FX/62. I would pay $120-$140 for an X2 3800+ though.



Oh those are Intel

No thanks

On Tue, 18 Jul 2006 13:17:58 +0000, R. Scott wrote:


Because you can get an E6300 for $183 that can be clocked to outperform
an FX/62. Or buy an E6600 for $316 that will outperform the the FX/62

Oh those are Intel, No thanks

Why do you care who makes it? I have all AMD right now and haven't owned
an Intel since my old 486SX20. I wouldn't care if it was made by Tinker
Toy as long as it performed good for the price. I look for bang for the
buck. Name doesn't matter to me.

--
Want the ultimate in free OTA SD/HDTV Recorder? http://mythtv.org
http://mysettopbox.tv/knoppmyth.html Usenet alt.video.ptv.mythtv
My server http://wesnewell.no-ip.com/cpu.php
HD Tivo S3 compared http://wesnewell.no-ip.com/mythtivo.htm

"Wes Newell" wrote in message
news:I07vg.3274$us.988@trnddc04...
On Tue, 18 Jul 2006 13:17:58 +0000, R. Scott wrote:


Because you can get an E6300 for $183 that can be clocked to outperform
an FX/62. Or buy an E6600 for $316 that will outperform the the FX/62

Oh those are Intel, No thanks

Why do you care who makes it? I have all AMD right now and haven't owned
an Intel since my old 486SX20. I wouldn't care if it was made by Tinker
Toy as long as it performed good for the price. I look for bang for the
buck. Name doesn't matter to me.

--
Want the ultimate in free OTA SD/HDTV Recorder? http://mythtv.org
http://mysettopbox.tv/knoppmyth.html Usenet alt.video.ptv.mythtv
My server http://wesnewell.no-ip.com/cpu.php
HD Tivo S3 compared http://wesnewell.no-ip.com/mythtivo.htm

I'd build a system with a Intel CPU but there's no way that it would be
based on a Intel motherboard or even a motherboard with Intel chipset
onboard. The last time Intel hit a homerun with a chipset was the BX series.
Until a selection of motherboards tested and proven come out base on
chipsets from nVidia and Ati, Intel will just have to wait for my dollars.