Opteron 165 or 170?

[dizman]

I recently ordered an Opteron 165 from newegg.com and it arrived smashed! So I have to wait 3-5 days while they file a claim then they will shit me another one! At least I got them to give me free overnight shipping.

While I wait I'm starting to have second thoughts and wondering if I should just have them refund the money and I'll pay the extra $80 for the 170 as I hear it has a higher multiplier than the 165 (thus I could get higher overclocks with the 170, right?) and I do plan to overclock like crazy, as much as I can on air, as that's why I went Opteron.

So I'm curious what you guys think

 

[endyen]

The 9X to 10X multiplier is fairly significant. I would go for it, if I had the $.
I bought a 10X venus core a while ago. I regretted not getting the 11X multi almost right away.

 

[SidVicious]

I'm running my X2 3800+ on a 9x multiplier anyway, would have purchased a 165 Opty if those were available locally at the time...

According to This Thread on XS, the 165 and 170 seem to yield more or less the same overclock.

It basically boils down to figuring out if 200 more stock MHz and 10x multiplier is worth 80$ to you.

 

[RichPLS]

2.7 is tops for my Opteron 175/...

 

[ShortyNumber45]

I voted 170.

 

[HideOut]

to get 2.7 ghz out of either of them you'll need slightly better ram in order to get your FSB higher cause of the 10x multi only needing 270mzh FSB where the 165 has a 9x and needs 300mhz. So long as you have the ram to do it (or just use memory deviders, which you will likely have to do anywayz...). Also, most motherboards that support 270 will also do 300, but there may be a few exceptions. Personally, Id get the 165 and a decent mobo and use the spare cash for more ram or something like that. Or $80 + $50ish ya woulda spent on the nice air cooler gets you a moderate water cooling "kit" set

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[RichPLS]

I have Corsair xpert DDR RAM 2-2-2-7-2 with my Opt 175

 

[dizman]

to get 2.7 ghz out of either of them you'll need slightly better ram in order to get your FSB higher cause of the 10x multi only needing 270mzh FSB where the 165 has a 9x and needs 300mhz. So long as you have the ram to do it (or just use memory deviders, which you will likely have to do anywayz...). Also, most motherboards that support 270 will also do 300, but there may be a few exceptions. Personally, Id get the 165 and a decent mobo and use the spare cash for more ram or something like that. Or $80 + $50ish ya woulda spent on the nice air cooler gets you a moderate water cooling "kit" set

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Well for those parts I ordered the following (on advise from wusy)

Mobo: DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 SLI-DR Expert
Ram: OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Dual Channel Platinum with timings 2-3-2-5
Cooling: ZALMAN CNPS9500 LED

Think this will do the trick?

 

[HideOut]

the expert is $$$ but the best there is.

That ram is fine (along with several others similar)

With right settings you should see some serious results. PLEASE post them! Im about to take the same plung...as soon as my 754 board comes back on RMA...slow azz gigabyte..

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[bourgeoisdude]

I say go for the gold! The worst thing I do when getting a computer is skimping on just one component--then looking back and wishing "Da_n if only I'd gotten that better model and paid the extra $$...". Then again...not a huge difference but hey *IMO* the 170 is probably the best Socket 939 CPU available, though the FX-60 comes close...

...Actually I'd like to have an Opteron 875 :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: ...geez a tiny little 'chip' worth over $2200, that's gotta makya feel pretty cool. Be quite scary putting it in a mobo though--break just one of those 940 pins and it'd be a $2250 mistake!

 

[avatar3k]

The 170 is a good processor, but I don't find the need for what may or may not be an extra 100MHz or two to be worth the additional $80, which could have went towards a better cooler.

 

[dizman]

The 170 is a good processor, but I don't find the need for what may or may not be an extra 100MHz or two to be worth the additional $80, which could have went towards a better cooler.

Better cooler? What's a better air cooler than the Zalman CNPS9500 LED I got for $60? I won't claim to know everything about this stuff, hence why I post so many questions, but from what Ive read it's the best out there aside from that 120mm Thermaltake one, which I didn't get cause I've had a long bad track record with Thermaltake stuff.

I'll have to call them today and see where they are with my replacement. I hadn't thought about "upgrading" when I called on friday, I was too ticked. So if they ship it while Iam at work today I'll just keep the 165 (assuming this one doesn't come broke) otherwise I'll see where they are at on getting me a new one and see about upgrading my order.

I'll probably go slow with the OC at first as I haven't had a computer that I can game on for several weeks now, I'll just want to jump right into some games as soon as I get it up and running, but yes I'll post what I do and probably ask a lot of OC questions though I've learned a lot in the past few weeks from these and other forums

 

[avatar3k]

Um...... a really good water solution? And when you asked "think this will do the trick?" I didn't realize you were asking after the fact [which makes little sense to begin with]... in any case, you're better off with the 165+cnps9500 than 170+stock hsf, not that the stock hsf is bad. Just make sure you have AS5 and know what you're doing.

 

[RichPLS]

I believe the Thermalright SI-120 is among the best air coolers

with the 9500 second...


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835109123

 

[RichPLS]

http://www.systemcooling.com/thermalright_si-120-01.html

 

[avatar3k]

They're all good hsfs. I won't get into which is better, the point is that the 165+$60hsf > 170+stock. Regardless of which is better, however, I must say that the Zalmans look a heck of a lot better, albeit perhaps heavier than most other hsfs.

 

[ak47is1337]

265 is the better option. You will top out at 2.7 anyway, so unless you have some pc4400 laying around use the extra 80 bucks to pick up some pc4800. On heatsinks: the best is hands down the XP-90C, with the XP-90 and the XP-120 not far behind. My guess would be that you will most likely need that considering the Opteron's run a lot hotter than the a64 san diego's/venices. I'd check out dfi-street.com and look at their unofficial opteron overclocking board for my guidance. Also, don't forget that having a higher HTT will mean slighly better performance!