Best motherboard to overclock Opteron 165?

[DBA_Diver]

Hi,

I am looking for the best motherboard around $100 - $150 to overclock an Opteron 165 on. I will be running the CPU for long periods of time at 100% usage (crunching numbers). I don't play games. I don't plan on using RAID because most of my useage will be high CPU/Memory, not I/O intensive. I would like support for dual video cards so I can use two monitors at once, again not for games.

Thanks,
DBA_Diver

 

[GameGuru]

Get yourself a DFI board. I have the NF4 Ultra-D, you can find this board for around $115. Try newegg, monarch computers or zipzoomfly. I also have an Opty 165 OC to 2.8gig I don't care what anyone else tells you but DFI boards are absolutely amazing for overclocking. I have owned Asus, Abit and many others in the past but none come close to the DFI boards. I will have to say this though, there are for the experienced user so go to DFI street forums and read up a bit it, it's worth it in the long run and they have a great support team.

So overclocking your $300 Opty to the spec's of a $1000+ cpu...... Hell ya :lol:

 

[vimka]

Get a DFI board. The Lan-Party SLI-D would be a good choice. With some patience (and preferably some faster RAM) you should be able to OC that 165 to at least 2.4 GHz, and many people get 2.6 GHz or higher.

And yes, more RAM would be nice. DDR-500 is good, and not that much more expensive. You can get a 2GB kit of OCZ Gold for around $200 on newegg.

By the way - you realize that unless you're on 64-bit Windows you're not going to be able to use all of that 4GB right? And that by using 4xDIMM you will be limiting yourself to 2T timings (and 333MHz memory on some boards)? Just something to consider, as you said you wanted to OC the system.

Get 2x 1GB sticks and run them in dual-channel. It's the only way to fly.

 

[DBA_Diver]

Thanks for the advice, I just checked out the NF4 Ultra-D and it looks pretty good. I'll probably buy one later today unless anyone else has a better suggestion.

Thanks,
DBA_Diver

 

[DBA_Diver]

By the way - you realize that unless you're on 64-bit Windows you're not going to be able to use all of that 4GB right? And that by using 4xDIMM you will be limiting yourself to 2T timings (and 333MHz memory on some boards)? Just something to consider, as you said you wanted to OC the system.

Get 2x 1GB sticks and run them in dual-channel. It's the only way to fly.

I understand the 3.5GB limit on RAM. 2GB should be enough for what I'm doing, so I could do that and leave 2GB in my current system and put 2Gb into the new one and run them in dual channel as you suggest. That's actually a good idea since I'd like to keep my old system running too.

I was hoping that PC3200 would not be too slow to use here, because I already have it..

I don't care about squeezing an extra 3% out of the system, but if I can bump it by 25% or 35%, that would be a huge help since my tasks are very CPU intensive.. it would save me a lot of time. Thats why I was looking to overclock.

Thanks
DBA_Diver

 

[vimka]

Thanks for the advice, I just checked out the NF4 Ultra-D and it looks pretty good. I'll probably buy one later today unless anyone else has a better suggestion.

You should be a happy camper. Sounds like it'll suit your needs quite well.