My Experiences .......

[BlackNinja]

I have just built a new PC. After umming & awwing for a while a few beers one evening and dabs (early hours of the morning - I must stop doing that) ended my procrastination! Here are the important specs:

Athlon X2 4400 @ 2651 MHz (241 x 11) 1.55v, temp max = 53C on stock cooler which is as far as I would like to take it for now as it will boot into winxp @ 2.8GHz @ 1.62v where I can browse and use office apps and run a few seconds of the first 3DMark 2005 game benchmark before crashing.Required 1.7 to make it stable but a bit warm for my liking
DFI Lanparty NF4 Ultra-D (Non SLi)
X1900XT @ 690 core x 800 mem (through ATI Overdrive utility)
2GB Corsair TWINX2048-PC3500LLPRO @ 2.5-3-2-6, 2.8V
Tagan 480W-U01 PSU
All other settings default ...

Initial Benchmarking:

3DMark 2005 = 12042
Doom 3, Ultra, All Settings high, 1280x1024 = 117 fps (for some reason my AA16 setting never stuck ...)
BTW HL2 crashes as soon as it tries to start the game screen where the menus are no matter what the clocks!

How much more is there to get with this system? BTW, the water cooling kit from my XP-M (@2.7Ghz) system is undergoing a 'refit' which I will add to my new rig sometime this coming week.

Also, the 165 Opteron I ordered on a whim and tried to cancel arrived today ... so that'll be getting a spin for good measure and I'll keep the best one though I reckon that the RAM is more matched to the X2 for absolute best performance but time will tell.

 

[ecosoft]

Dude Nice rig 'ya assembled. You are smart not to over-voltage the CPU because even though you can achieve higher clock rates, you also accelerate thermal molecular decomposition (chip disintegrates itself!).

All else being equal I would expect your OC potential for gaming purposes will be better with the Opty even though your base 1.8GHz vs 2.2GHz x2 is a huge diff, but so is the cost.

As for HL2 croaking when invoked ... have you configured your router ports correctly for Steam communications? Also, I've noticed with HL2 that it's super sensitive to single bit high mem errors (above 512MB), which can easily occur when OC'ing memory ... run memtest86 at your present OC speed and see what 'ya get Good luck, aand please report the results from your Opty vs 4400x2 with water cooling

 

[BlackNinja]

Dude Nice rig 'ya assembled. You are smart not to over-voltage the CPU because even though you can achieve higher clock rates, you also accelerate thermal molecular decomposition (chip disintegrates itself!).

I have lost one processor to date and that was a Celeron 300A @ 463MHz running almost constant for 18 Months But I reckoned I got my money's worth even if the fan noise was a bit bothersome - that CPU saw me lose way too much time to HL Multiplayer coupled with my first 3D card!

All else being equal I would expect your OC potential for gaming purposes will be better with the Opty even though your base 1.8GHz vs 2.2GHz x2 is a huge diff, but so is the cost.

I am hoping that the 'quality' of the Opty will shine through and if using RAM dividers does not impede performance with the RAM being limited to about 260MHz then it should be better! I am anticipating near 3GHz on both .... specially as the X2 is OK on 1.7v @ 2.8GHz if a bit hot!

Also, I have done a MemTest (about 1/2 hour) on this config and 45mins of 2-way Prime95 using 900MB each (still running as I write this) with Temp going up to 56 so might back down a bit more, both passed thus far but tis early days yet.

 

[BlackNinja]

For those who are interested I have now put the Opteron 165 in the mobo and given it an initial seeing to ... the result is stable and up to 55C under dual Prime95 (with limited testing admitadly but initially all looks well with Prime95 & 3DMark 05) @ 2.8GHz @ 1.52v which beats the X2 hands down .... I am impressed. The X2 is going to a new home

The 3DMark run is here (12393) http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm05=1873067

Some other specs are: 311 FSB, 233.3 MHz RAM @ 2.5-3-2-6

Next step is to put the Water Cooling in there ...

 

[a1ien]

8O Nice overclocks you got there. Very nice rig you got there too! 8)

 

[BlackNinja]

Have been running absolutely stable for 2 days doing everything at:

2.8GHz .. 9x311 @ 1.47v on water with fans at 5V (i.e. Quiet!) Temps up to 45C. The NB is the problem area! looks like I gotta wc that too as the NB fan is the loud part ..

2.9GHz will boot into windows and start P95 but will last no longer than a few minutes ... I suspect the MOBO as temp is Ok and it only needed 1.5v to get there but however much more I put in the result is the same! I am now thinking that a 170 would have been a better choice to keep the FSB down)

I am sticking to 2.8GHz and will try to tweak the RAM timings more ...

 

[a1ien]

Awesome, keep us up to date on how it goes. Show us some SuperPi times if you want to show it off. 8)

 

[BlackNinja]

I think that I am done with this now: 2845MHz @ 1.52V, 316x9
I can't get any higher it would seem ... any more and benchies crash. My Water Cooling is still setup for quiet mode & all components are crammed inside my case to keep the kids at bay (with a few kinky tubes) which is not the best for absolute performance so I may work on that next and I reckon that controlling max temp a bit better will give me the reliable 2900 MHz I am after still in quiet mode!


SuperPi, 1M = 30s (My Athlon XP gave 38s @ 2800 MHz)


3DMark = 12400, see ... -->

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm05=1883026

Maybe I can get the card to go higher!

 

[BlackNinja]

Currently running 1GB Corsair XMS PC3200 @ 203 MHz 2-2-2-6 2/3 divider .... this benches faster than the 2GB 3500LLPRO @ 260 3-4-4-8 (9fps faster in doom3 @ 1280x1024) - I thought that I would need faster ram to hit the a good performance level ... not so it would seem although the extra GB is probably having an effect here. HTT has been automatically set to 933.