[SOLVED] Is an AMD Opteron 4284 useable in a daily driver?

Rumperuu

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Nov 7, 2016
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TL;DR

I'm looking at getting a new workstation with an AMD Opteron 4284, but I'm wondering if that's too outdated a CPU for daily use.

Longer

I built my current PC (full specs at the bottom) almost a decade ago and, whilst it's done an admirable job keeping up over the years I'm really starting to notice its underperformance.

I'm looking to replace it; I'm specifically looking at the D8 from Vikings. However, this comes with an AMD Opteron 4284 @ 3.0 GHz (8 cores), which I see came out back in 2011 (presumably pre-dating the AMD equivalent of the Intel ME), however it's still significantly more powerful than my current PC's.

The CPU being so old means I can't find any online reviews or benchmarks; all I've found on TH is this poster saying the whole Opteron series are ‘old, based on a bad architecture, and just bad all around’, and some suggestion elsewhere in that thread that Opteron's are not great in terms of power consumption and heat generation.

I'm happy to sacrifice having the latest most whizz-bangiest tech. in favour of openness and freedom™, but I don't have enough experience with different hardware to have much real sense of what the 4284 will actually be like to use day-to-day. Given the price, this would have to be my daily driver rather than an occasional hobby project.

For reference, my usual computer usage is programming, Web browsing, some gaming, etc.—i.e., I'm not expecting to do any super-intensive data science, photo editing, etc., but I usually do have a lot going on simultaneously and expect a machine that remains responsive throughout.

Could anyone who has any experience with this CPU/the Vikings D8, or who has a better idea of how to translate the technical details of the spec sheet to a sense of 'actual usefeel', help me decide if this workstation will be right for me, or if it would be too much of a impractical sacrifice to make for the sake of freedom-respecting hardware?

Appendix: Current PC Specs
  • Intel Core i7-920 D0 @ 2.7 GHz (4 cores)
  • 6 GB memory
  • 1 TB HDD
  • Nvidia GTX 460 GPU
 
Solution
To be honest if you expect your PC to multitask well, I'd have a lot more than just 6GBs of ram in it. 8GBs is minimum these days, 16GBs is really standard.

That CPU from 2011 is already dead. Old. Ancient. You didn't list what you are spending on it but if it's anything more then $100 for the whole system its too much. You really should be looking at something newer.
To be honest if you expect your PC to multitask well, I'd have a lot more than just 6GBs of ram in it. 8GBs is minimum these days, 16GBs is really standard.

That CPU from 2011 is already dead. Old. Ancient. You didn't list what you are spending on it but if it's anything more then $100 for the whole system its too much. You really should be looking at something newer.
 
Solution

gtarayan

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Mar 2, 2011
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why don't you update your existent x58 system with a W3680 Xeon (6 core cpu) and add another 6GB RAM? You could do this for under $100 and not have to worry about installing a new OS.

P.S. W3680 is an overclockable CPU supported by most of X58 mobos.
 
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TL;DR

I'm looking at getting a new workstation with an AMD Opteron 4284, but I'm wondering if that's too outdated a CPU for daily use.

Longer

I built my current PC (full specs at the bottom) almost a decade ago and, whilst it's done an admirable job keeping up over the years I'm really starting to notice its underperformance.

I'm looking to replace it; I'm specifically looking at the D8 from Vikings. However, this comes with an AMD Opteron 4284 @ 3.0 GHz (8 cores), which I see came out back in 2011 (presumably pre-dating the AMD equivalent of the Intel ME), however it's still significantly more powerful than my current PC's.

The CPU being so old means I can't find any online reviews or benchmarks; all I've found on TH is this poster saying the whole Opteron series are ‘old, based on a bad architecture, and just bad all around’, and some suggestion elsewhere in that thread that Opteron's are not great in terms of power consumption and heat generation.

I'm happy to sacrifice having the latest most whizz-bangiest tech. in favour of openness and freedom™, but I don't have enough experience with different hardware to have much real sense of what the 4284 will actually be like to use day-to-day. Given the price, this would have to be my daily driver rather than an occasional hobby project.

For reference, my usual computer usage is programming, Web browsing, some gaming, etc.—i.e., I'm not expecting to do any super-intensive data science, photo editing, etc., but I usually do have a lot going on simultaneously and expect a machine that remains responsive throughout.

Could anyone who has any experience with this CPU/the Vikings D8, or who has a better idea of how to translate the technical details of the spec sheet to a sense of 'actual usefeel', help me decide if this workstation will be right for me, or if it would be too much of a impractical sacrifice to make for the sake of freedom-respecting hardware?

Appendix: Current PC Specs
  • Intel Core i7-920 D0 @ 2.7 GHz (4 cores)
  • 6 GB memory
  • 1 TB HDD
  • Nvidia GTX 460 GPU
No.. your current i7 will perform much Better than that optron...

Go with i3 10100 atleast.. for comparative price to performance