AMD Opteron Dual Cores

The chips are basically the same. They have the same hypertransport speed (1000mhz SDR means 2000mhz DDR). from what I have read, the opteron has 3 hypertransport channels with all this bandwidth for dual CPU systems. But I dont think it benefits normal systems. If you get a 2MB cache X2 it will dissipate 110W. All dual core opterons dissipate the the same amount. Depending on what you are going to do with it, the opterons are simply a better chip. But if you are going to buy, you need to do it soon. Low end Opterons are going up in price everywhere. I think newegg has the best prices at this point.

heck ya! makes total sense. thanx for that awesome explaination!
i'm trying to get my hands on the opteron 165 atm, i found one for 409 cad that someone had pointed out before.

The Oppys are the same actual die as the A64s, they will basically choose the best of them for the Oppys (as they are an enterprise product with a higher margin.) there are also low power Oppys ment for 1U racks etc if i remember right.

An identical die would likely be sold colcked slightly lower as an oppy, simply to give it a higher safety margin and increase stability, therefore the Opterons tend to overclock well.

Unfortunately you are somewhat limited on m/b choice if its 940 Opteron

Really Opterons take less voltage becuase they are a server chip. Most industries don't like spending any more money than they have to on resources and electrcity counts as one of those. They are also unlocked like most of the FX series, so they are easier to overclock, and are also dual cores, at least the 939 pins are. to me its a much better proccessor than the athlon 64 x2's or the fx series. just an opion though

As the name suggests, these were intended as workstation chips. They do use the opteron standards, except for ecc memory.

I thought the opty's would consume more energy if the x2 and opty were at the same frequency due to it having to overclock more (from 1.8, to say...2.4) while the x2 wuld go from 2.2-2.4. Wouldn't this require more wattage? I'm a noob to OCing so it is highly possible I'm just making an ass out of myself

Oh, well duh, right. An Opty overclocked more than the equivlant X2, in this case the Opty would draw more power and generate more heat. Damn, AMD and those crappy Opties!
At core speeds, the Opty and equivlant burn about the same power...