Should I replace my X2 4200 with an Opty?

[jrnyfan]

Hello all

After the roaring success of my last post to the great THG Forum, I thought I would draw on your wealth of intelligence and ask this question:

I don't have the money to spend on a new C2D proc and mobo (I just got married and the wifey would be pissed if I dropped that kind of money) and I don't know that I like Intel anyway but that's for another fanboy only post.

I have a year old X2 4200+ that I can't overclock past 2.3 to save my life on my ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe board. I want something with some legroom in it and was thinking of a Opty 170 or 175 and overclocking the hell out of it (I miss my old XP 2200+...sucker overclocked like mad) to give me some room to run for a while with my 8800gts.

Question to those smarter than me: Should I spend the money on a 170 or just try to figure out why I can't OC my current X2?

I have 2GB (2x1GB) of G.Skill DDR400 2.5-4-4-8 2T running now.

Thank you all for you help and much-needed advice!

 

[toasty2]

I'm sure your X2 4200+ can go farther, if all you could achieve was a 100Mhz overclock, you must be doing something wrong. Maybe if you would tell us the settings you used. I don't think an Opteron is necessary in your case.

 

[jrnyfan]

I am not that proficient at overclocking, I won't lie to you. My overclocking has been increasing the FSB and that is the limit of my knowledge. I have been able to increase the FSB from 200 to 210 with a multiplier of 11. I can't change the multiplier, I can muck with the RAM settings, the FSB and the core voltage (i think, im not sure on that one...its been a while since I have been in my BIOS) Anything over 210 FSB makes for lockups under a stress test...

I will provide what information I can...forums can be hard sometimes

 

[toasty2]

It might be your RAM. Lower your RAM or give your RAM more volts. Don't raise it a lot though.

 

[sirheck]

no probably not, just keep your x2.

i can help you oc.

what are your exact sys specs,

mobo can make a big difference in oc,ing too.
as can other things.

i have the 3700 s939 and x24400.
my brother has the x24600.

i have oc,ed all of them pretty good.

cant help tonight as its late but ill check back tommorow if you want advise.

 

[coverfire]

well I recently traded out my 3700+ for an Opty 170 and damn that was a good idea.

Have the opty running at 2.5ghz prime stable on air(ran at 2.6 but started having issues. I could have upped the voltage but 2.5ghz is more than good for me) Benched with sisoft and run the same as a FX60 so yeh it was worth it.

Alot of people have been getting 2.8-3ghz with the opty 170 but I didn't want to mess with voltages too much since I'm just doing this until the next AMD processors are released.

 

[nh484000]

i have the same board and cpu as you and im running at 2.62 at 237*11 @ 1.4 volts if you tell me some info ill try to help

 

[jrnyfan]

thank you all very much for you help and ideas!

i will pm some of you and see if you can offer more help, i dont want to bog the forum down with mindless posts.

if anyone wants to offer more advice, you are welcome to post here or you can instant message me:

msn - jrnyfan_e@hotmail.com
yahoo - jrnyofshroom
aim - ryanwtab

i will just keep the current proc and hope for the best!

 

[jrnyfan]

i am running 10 min stable on 2 simultaneous prime95 torture tests with the following settings

fsb = 240
multiplier = 10
ram = 333mhz
vcore = 1.4125
HT = 3

2.4mhz seems the limit. i have tried multipliers of 10.5 and 11 and i have tried dropping the ram down to 266, no go. i tried increasing the fsb to 250 but it wont last a minute in prime before locking up...any more ideas?

ram is still 2.5-3-3-6 auto voltage
g.skill 2x1gb

cpu-z says ram is CPU/12 which gives me 200mhz (400 ddr), i honestly think my ram is holding me back, it doesnt like going over its rated capacity of 200mhz

 

[doglips]

Keep the 4200...Try harder! It takes time and patiants.Took me a couple months to learn and find the sweet spot.
237@11
HTTx4
Ram 1:1
Volts 1.465

 

[tekzor]

i am running 10 min stable on 2 simultaneous prime95 torture tests with the following settings

fsb = 240
multiplier = 10
ram = 333mhz
vcore = 1.4125
HT = 3

2.4mhz seems the limit. i have tried multipliers of 10.5 and 11 and i have tried dropping the ram down to 266, no go. i tried increasing the fsb to 250 but it wont last a minute in prime before locking up...any more ideas?

ram is still 2.5-3-3-6 auto voltage
g.skill 2x1gb

cpu-z says ram is CPU/12 which gives me 200mhz (400 ddr), i honestly think my ram is holding me back, it doesnt like going over its rated capacity of 200mhz

your ram is holding you back

faster ram and make sure your HTT does not go over 1100Mhz
good AMD OC mobos can't handle past 1200Mhz
I have an old 3000+ @ 1.8ghz
My 1st OC of 220mhz raise my HTT to 1200Mhz as the multiplier was at 5
I lowered it to 4 and was able to push my ram past 243(DDR400 here). My next challenge is keeping it cool.

 

[AdamBomb42]

My Opty 170 runs at 2.8 on 1.375vcore and has gone beyond 3. The Opty 170 is a great overclocking chip that will reward you over and over. I really believe that it is the shining star of 939. The decision is your's and your's alone to make, but if you do buy a new processor I highly recommend the 170.

 

[brad4ed]

i have the same MB ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe and AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice 2* OCZ OCZ5001024ELGEGXT I leave the system is stable 2500MHz and the reason i did it is because FSB😀RAM is 1:1 i have reached over 2720MHz but then it is not 1:1.
treare is no reason you can't get over 2.3GHz. it is easy to understand which one is holding you back lower your multiplier to 5 if you can't get DRAM over about 210MHz then it's not the CPU. You have left the voltage of the RAM to AUTO. The MB is capable of 2.6v to 3.0v. Auto means 2.6v
i'm sure that if you raise the voltage you will get about 220-230MHz DRAM.this makes 11*220=2420MHz. If you have time and patience you can play with the timings of the RAM. CAS latency of 2.5 is not very suitable for more than 220MHz
HTT 4* you can'get over 1100MHz
CPUv auto

 

[bluntside]

Opteron all the way, cuz of its OC potential, you will push it farther than your x2 can reach.


Your most effective option is the 165 or 170 opterons. They are dirt cheap. $155 for the 165 and $200+ for the 170. At 2.47ghz my 165 meets the FX-60 at 2.6 ghz which is equal to the 185. Now unless you intend to rip MP3's while you play battelfield 2 there is no particular point to the dual cores. In the newest genration of supercomputers we are buying single cores with accelerator chips. For example the Opteorn 144 with the IBM Cell chip is 1.25 times faster than the fastest Kentsfield quadcore before the Kentsfield hits the market. In 64 bit that difference will be more like 1.8 times as fast. When Cell+ gets here the differences will double to 2.5 and 3.6 times faster. ATI has done a project with Stanford Medical School to split a pair of graphics cards in Croosfire and use one as a floating point accelerator. It is 5 times faster than Kentsfield. NVidia is working on the same thing for AMD chipsets. Due to the design and absence of Integrated Memory Control it won't happen on Intel any time soon.

 

[Lionhardt]

Nah, theres no point in replacing it. Just wait till the next gen of procs.

 

[doglips]

Keep goin...more CPU Volts! It will help get you over the hump!