Maximum PC

Ok, "What is the best processor and motherboard for Socket 939"

In 2007 on Tomshardware forum this was an on going discussion:

"Quote :


I have decided to upgrade my socket 939 processor from single core to dual core. I can't decide among the following processors.
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ / 2.4Ghz
AMD Athlon 64 FX-60 OEM / 2.6Ghz
AMD Opteron 180 / 2.4Ghz

Is the server processor (Opteron) any good for gaming? Would I notice any advantage (ex. gaming)? Please help me to decide!






Well for gaming and you have a 939M/B maybe you shouldn't go dual core just yet since theres such good prices now for the fastest single core CPU on the planet the FX57, in many games the FX57 outperforms the dualies, I see benchie braggers posting their 3D Mark Scores coming in lower than mine, so what are they really bragging about, I'm still trying to figure that out.

I'm an owner of an FX60 and an FX57, the 57 was my gaming rig, I got the 60 for Christmas and its great for multi apps, however if you're going to play a game you surely won't be playing back a DVD at the same time and unless the game is written to take advantage of the second core, its pretty much useless, except for possibly running background apps.

Some games even get really funky on a dual core, like FarCry one of my favorite games, so I pulled the 60 out of my gaming rig and gave it to my wife and slapped the 57 back in the machine, funkiness is gone and gamings great.

You'll hear all kind of suggestions here, but if you intend to play your games fullscreen and really don't want any side effects at all get yourself an FX57, the multiplier is unlocked you can easily run 3ghz with a 15x multi on air cooling, I know you said you weren't going to OC at all but you can without touching the FSB.

Anyhow if i didn't already have an FX57 I'd get one myself, but its your money.

Once we really start getting software and games written for dual cores, then that will be great, but its just trickling in, maybe Vista will change things faster, but do you want to wait or play whats available now??? "
You can read it all for yourself, here:............. http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/21891 ... sor-socket

I have this Opteron 185 slated for this new server, multimedia server and I'm getting an Athlon FX57 @ 2800MHz. I think the Opteron is the better choice.

AMD Athlon 64 FX-60 OEM / 2.6Ghz

Very good proc.

The fx55 is awesome too. Hot overclockers, but loads of coolers available for them. (My work has them in stock, I believe).
The server processor would also be good for gaming too, but I would opt for a new rig at these prices ($150 and up for the processor alone). You could build a new system for around $700 that would kick the snot out of that machine, but this may be a budget issue and I can sympathize.

Good luck!

Sure, but this is going to be an HTPC media machine and only dishing out the video, movies and music while being the central location for anything we want saved for all machines in the house; a server dishing it out to DVico's TViX and an HD Homerun unit. Connects every TV in the house to whatever I have multimedia on the server.

Got the Cooler Master HAF 932 to hold 10 2tb hd's (this has taken me three years to get these many 2tb HD's, Seagate and Samsung), 4g pc3200 RAM, 185 Opteron with Cooler Masters Hyper 212 + cooler and I'm thinking about dropping a 7900 256mb GT for video ( because I have it laying there forever not being used ).

This FX57 is a really good single core 2800MHz processor. My gut keeps telling me to use as many processor cores as I got even if they are slower.

Once this machine is finished, I should concentrate on the backup server, maybe even RAID it.

In the end, I know from my NASA days when the RAND corp. taught us to insure we had at least 3 (three) backups of anything that's critical.
My entire Video, movie, music and data from the last 20 years must have at least one backup, preferably straight copy and if I am smarter still use a 3rd backup to follow the RAND rules.

Boy oh boy, this gets expensive in hardware as well as on going electrical costs. But, with only one unit.... I will surely lose it all.

In my posted topic here new Motherboard USED
. I expain how I got all these parts super cheap from eBay. Like $61 for the A8N SLI Premium (ASUS) and so forth.

I am replacing an Intel E4450 Core 2 Duo because I think the Opteron is a better server choice.

Nowadays I'd go with a 4400+... but why are you considering this anyways exactly? For the price of a 4400+ system on ebay, you can get an AM3 motherboard and CPU.

I have nothing to add. A decent AM3 mobo and CPU would be leagues better than the older hardware, especially if more than one person in your house wishes to use your HTPC-File-server at one time....

You know we're talking about the Opteron 185 dual core server processor, unified memory. definitely (note that it is spelled correctly) more multi-core processing power than a core 2 duo as a file server. Doesn't have to play anything, only dish it out on separate threads, And again, more effeciently than any Intel processor except a Zeon. This Opteron should be able to go head to head with an Intel Zeon.

Somebody lied. Opterons aren't faster than similarly clocked Core 2s, they just support ECC and multi-proc motherboards, as well as being binned higher. Honestly I still think you're making a mistake.

well, I haven't kept numbers and or even botherd to benchtest the machines but I can tell you the Opteron machines seem more stable than any other processor I've used for server situations. I am not singleing Intel either. I have been running 15 to 20 machines for the last 20 years in my computer business with at least 2 servers running 24/7/365 and I am contending how the machine feels and responds under many different circumstances.
The machine I use on a reguar basis, this one, my personal machine is a Core 2 Quad Q6600 and it plain rocks for just about anything I throw at it.
I don't think the Opteron could do what this Q6600 can do but the setup for this server I am putting together is very good for the price I paid. The most expensive thing I spent ont this machine would have been the G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ for $180.00. I paid $62 for A8n ASUS motherboard and $35. for the 185 Opteron. All I need to do is dish out files to play on TV's over the internal 100/mps network through DVico TViX and a HD HomeRun unit's as well as the whole-house server for anything we need or want 24/7. Truely the Opteron will be more stable than anything else I've used. Right now that duty belongs to an Intel E6550 with 4gig ddr2 on a Foxconn motherboard and I don't like it. It feels unstable at times and requires too many reboots to refresh it. Maybe it's the motherboard; I like ASUS best and picky about which ones. My work machine uses the Intel E6850. All in all, my personal machine the Q6600 on the ASUS P5N32 SLI and the Opteron 185 on an A8N32-SLI are very similar and the Intel is a quad, the 185 is a dual.
You must know what I mean by feeling the difference, right?

your not going to be able to use that opteron with that kit of DDR2 as socket 939 was DDR1 only.... other than nostalgia purposes (i still have an Athlon 64 FX60, 2 X2 3800's, and an Opteron 165 laying in the closet) you would be better served with the Core2Duo. look back at the initial reviews of the Core2 from about August of 2006 and you can see the e6300 (a 1.83ghz dualcore with 2mb L2) matching and surpassing the 2.6ghz dualcore FX60. also from a heat and power usage perspective, the C2D is based off of a 65nm process compared to that opty's 90nm process. the C2D will run cooler and use less power which means it will be a quieter system (which is something you gotta think about for an HTPC. dont wanna watch a movie over a couple of 120mm case fans cranking max rpm's)

Funny, I will have a Dual-Xeon processor motherboard with 512mb of 800mhz non-ecc rdram up for sale in a few days (including dual xeon 1.5ghz procs, 100gb hdd, dvd-rom, XP-Pro sp3, etc). Been folding with it and it's actually folding about 3/4 as fast as my Phenom X4 9850 3.0ghz system.

The sale may show up as a link to my boss' ebay in the Hardware swap in the next few days... But it would definitely make an excellent fileserver/folder.

But I agree... something was calculated wrong perhaps.

RIGHT: I miss typed that, I bought 4 DDR PC-3200 1gig sticks for this puppy and plan to run Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Enterprise x64. I am not sure if the motherboard will give me all 4gig's of RAM especially if I use the PCI-Ex slot for graphics.

If this doesn't give me what I want and if it labors, I will change the sub-system to the Intel Quad Q6600, my personal system and bounce me up to something like the i9 something. But hey, I am starting out by trying to save some duca's. In the end it could cost me more than I possibly imagined. LOL

ok! phew im glad that was a mistype on the ram heh well maybe you can use it as justification on building yourself a new main system while the Q6600 gets bumped to the server

Don't hold your breath.... I know from experience it will work great!