I'm currently sitting on my current system below, but am underwhelmed by the Asus board and my oc'ing capabilities (2.46 max prime stable), so I decided it was time to hop on the dual core wagon and at the same time add a bit more graphics juice to power my monitor. On a spur of the moment buy I spotted an Opteron 170 in stock and immediately requested my 165 backorder be changed into a 170 order.
As of right now this is what's sitting in my closet:
2x 512mb OCZ Gold BH-5/UTT PC3200 ($130)
DFI NF4 LanParty SLI-DR Expert ($190)
Sapphire X800GTO2 ($220)
Opteron 170 ($410)
Now, they will be replacing their respective counterparts within my case but I'm starting to feel regrets over my cpu purchase.
Would it have been more advisable to settle for a X2 3800+? A 165 was out of the question at the time of purchase. If possible I would have gone for a 3800+ and a 7800gt, but I already had the gto2 on hand from when they first popped up. I plan on using it for the time being and upgrading in late January or Mid February to whatever newer graphics solutions may appear (of course selling the card to cut down the cost a bit).
Ultimately I understand that the extra cache only makes a difference in certain applications on the Opteron 170, so at stock speeds I couldn't justify the extra 90 bucks for cache. OC'ing potential came to mind but there's also a good chance that I could get a 3800+ that would oc to the same speeds anyway.
The option I'm thinking of now (and it involves a rather huge hassle on my part) is returning my 170 and using the money to buy a 3800+, leaving me with a spare 80 bucks.
Just on a side note: I definitely game a moderate amount, but I'm more or less an Anime freak. Along with watching I also plan on encoding quite a bit. I can definitely live with a GTO2 for the time being, but it's going to be replaced as soon as I see even more improvements on PureVideo and AVIVO. I just more or less want to know if you guys think I should bother returning the 170 and getting a 3800+ (ultimately losing 10 bucks).
Edit: And yes, I do plan to oc the heck out of whichever I ultimately drop into the dfi expert.
As of right now this is what's sitting in my closet:
2x 512mb OCZ Gold BH-5/UTT PC3200 ($130)
DFI NF4 LanParty SLI-DR Expert ($190)
Sapphire X800GTO2 ($220)
Opteron 170 ($410)
Now, they will be replacing their respective counterparts within my case but I'm starting to feel regrets over my cpu purchase.
Would it have been more advisable to settle for a X2 3800+? A 165 was out of the question at the time of purchase. If possible I would have gone for a 3800+ and a 7800gt, but I already had the gto2 on hand from when they first popped up. I plan on using it for the time being and upgrading in late January or Mid February to whatever newer graphics solutions may appear (of course selling the card to cut down the cost a bit).
Ultimately I understand that the extra cache only makes a difference in certain applications on the Opteron 170, so at stock speeds I couldn't justify the extra 90 bucks for cache. OC'ing potential came to mind but there's also a good chance that I could get a 3800+ that would oc to the same speeds anyway.
The option I'm thinking of now (and it involves a rather huge hassle on my part) is returning my 170 and using the money to buy a 3800+, leaving me with a spare 80 bucks.
Just on a side note: I definitely game a moderate amount, but I'm more or less an Anime freak. Along with watching I also plan on encoding quite a bit. I can definitely live with a GTO2 for the time being, but it's going to be replaced as soon as I see even more improvements on PureVideo and AVIVO. I just more or less want to know if you guys think I should bother returning the 170 and getting a 3800+ (ultimately losing 10 bucks).
Edit: And yes, I do plan to oc the heck out of whichever I ultimately drop into the dfi expert.