x2 3800 vs x2 4200 vs op165

[john1818]

ok her in the uk i can pick up an x2 3800 for £200, an x2 4200 for £230 and the optie 165 for £250. which would you recommend?
it seems that the optie is a very good overclocker but would my memory (ocz gold extreme pc3200 2048mb) be able to handle the fsb increase?
i would also need a good overclocking motherboard wouldn't i? (pref. not the lan partys, way too expensive, something in the £80 range would be better)

arrgh, too many choices!!!

 

[mcgruff]

I'd personally go for the 3800 on the grounds that it's best value for money. Life will be much simpler (and cooler and quieter) if you just plug it in and go. Do you really need to squeeze the last few per cent out of your chip? (Maybe you do).

Incidentally the opty 165 is on sale here for £210.

 

[SidVicious]

A merit of having an on-die memory controller is that you don't get any performance hit when running your memory on a ratio. That's how and why I chose to run my X2 3800+ @ 9x 317MHz (2.85GHz) while keeping the memory at 238MHz (150/200 or CPU/12).

One huge factor is the type of chips your memory modules are based on, Winbond chips need a lot of voltage (3.2V+) to keep tight timings at high frequencies while Samsung chips will do just fine at 2.85V, as long as you keep relaxed timings.

Since the maximum voltage that you can shove into your RAM is dictated by the motherboard, it would be wise to chose a motherboard that can supply the appropriate voltage, preferably without any physical modifications (Vdimm mods).

I was'nt able to match your memory on This list as there are no entries for "OCZ Gold Extreme PC3200", is that the exact model name ?

If you can get an Opty 165 for £210 from scan.co.uk, jump on it !

 

[john1818]

change of memory to this=
OCZ Enhanced Latency Dual Channel Platinum Edition - memory - 2 GB ( 2 x 1 GB ) - DIMM 184-PIN - DDR

cheers for the heads up mcgruff

 

[SidVicious]

OCZ Enhanced Latency Dual Channel Platinum Edition - memory - 2 GB ( 2 x 1 GB ) - DIMM 184-PIN - DDR

Should be Samsung TCCD if your modules are Rev2, just find the highest frequency at which they can run CAS 2 stable and work your way up from there by using the memory dividers as you pump the bus frequency.

Since those TCCD chips don't require insane voltage, you got a lot of motherboards to chose from, will you be migrating an AGP GPU to your new platform or buying a new PCI-Express GPU ?

Have you made any decisions regarding a cooling system ?

 

[john1818]

i will be buying a 1900xt, so pci express
i had heard that the stock coolers on x2's and opties were pretty good, so wasn't thinking of changing it. if i did the coolermaster Susurro seems to be pretty good

 

[mcgruff]

Also worth considering: Scythe Ninja.