*HOT* Opteron 146 = $171

[Ike0069]

Originally posted by: bob4432

Originally posted by: Conundrum
I'm interested in getting the 146. I haven't upgraded in a while, I still have my 3200+ AthlonXP. I would need a new motherboard in order to use it though. I'm interested to know what the people posting in this thread would recommend. Also for combo deals that might save me a buck or two in shipping.

A lot of people have been talking about the 144 being a good choice if you don't have a board that OCs well. So what's the best board to go with this CPU?

since you are swithcing to skt939, are you going to keep your agp card or go pci-e?

That's a good question. This really needs to be answered first, before a MB recommendation can be made.
If you are planning on buying a PCI-e card now, you might want to try and wait a littel longer as the new gen cards are due out soon (ATI this month, nVidia next month).
Significant price drops are a possiblilty for current gen cards when this happens.

 

[zikronix]

Originally posted by: bob4432

Originally posted by: zikronix

Originally posted by: bob4432

Originally posted by: zikronix
well i just ordered from excaliber pc for 171.00 so we will see if it comes in if it does looks like im selling a A643200+

good luck

They just called me and confirmed my order said it was instock and that it will be shipping today.

excellent, glad to hear they are taking care of biz

IT SHIPPED....I HAVE A TRACKING NUMBER....AWESOME

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: zikronix

Originally posted by: bob4432

Originally posted by: zikronix

Originally posted by: bob4432

Originally posted by: zikronix
well i just ordered from excaliber pc for 171.00 so we will see if it comes in if it does looks like im selling a A643200+

good luck

They just called me and confirmed my order said it was instock and that it will be shipping today.

excellent, glad to hear they are taking care of biz

IT SHIPPED....I HAVE A TRACKING NUMBER....AWESOME

CONGRATS !!! :thumbsup: :beer:

 

[will792]

Did Dell buy up all of AMD CPUs? Availability is abysmal lately. I thought it would get better in January but instead it got worse.

I would be more than happy to see Dell PCs with Athlon 64 (X2) CPUs but the current availability sucks big way.

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: will792
Did Dell buy up all of AMD CPUs? Availability is abysmal lately. I thought it would get better in January but instead it got worse.

I would be more than happy to see Dell PCs with Athlon 64 (X2) CPUs but the current availability sucks big way.

they wouldn't be buying the retail stuff except to sale it on their site. hopefully they will be offering amd machines...

 

[will792]

Originally posted by: bob4432

Originally posted by: will792
Did Dell buy up all of AMD CPUs? Availability is abysmal lately. I thought it would get better in January but instead it got worse.

I would be more than happy to see Dell PCs with Athlon 64 (X2) CPUs but the current availability sucks big way.

they wouldn't be buying the retail stuff except to sale it on their site. hopefully they will be offering amd machines...

There was a report by some financial analyst that Dell is planning to start selling PCs with AMD CPUs in the second half of 2006. He upgraded Dell stock as a result assuming that it would give a boost to Dell's PC sales.

 

[Mucker]

Just ordered a 146 retail from Excaliber...$177 shipped.

4:39 PST placed order
4:45 PST packed
4:51 PST shipped (received FedEx tracking number :Q)

Smokin ass service there.....:thumbsup:

m

 

[mordantmonkey]

i jumped on that too 178 shipped for me. $20 more than flickerdown, but it's worth not to have to wait a month plus.
they are getting these out the door fast.

 

[2GNTTurbo]

Is there a MB I can get for around $100 that has high enough htt to OC a 144 to around 2.8 ghz?

 

[duragezic]

The Epox 9NPA+ Ultra or whatever the hell it is (Nforce 4 Ultra) is rated by Anandtech as the 2nd best overclocker, only slightly behind the much more expensive DFI. This is probably your best bet. There are several different models. I read a thread saying that the lowest model/cheapest one isn't a very good overclocked since something to do with a locked HTT. So go for the mid-range one with nvidia Firewall, etc... which I believe is right around $100.


edit: Actually here's a link to what I would choose.

 

[faststangerragtopman]

Just a reminder the Epox does not have an AGP slot!

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: 2GNTTurbo
Is there a MB I can get for around $100 that has high enough htt to OC a 144 to around 2.8 ghz?

do you need pci-e or agp?

 

[zikronix]

woot its on its way it will be here the 18th now i just need to sell my a64 - 3200+ any offers...LOL

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: Rapier

Originally posted by: bob4432

Originally posted by: Ike0069
I preordered a 146 from Tankguys for $169, and it shipped tonight.
Check the site in the morning to see if there are any 146's left, as I'm sure any remaining ones he might have will go fast.

excellent congrats, i was afraid to wait...still haven't o/ced mine yet but it is running very nice. @ stock it is faster than my p4 @ 3GHz is at most, except some encoding, but the amount of heat it puts off is much less. about the same time i ordered the m/b & cpu, my crt died so i replaced it with a 17" lcd, so my computer room temp went down about 5F and i am sure i am saving at least 50W when the computer is running @ 100%. the amd power tool is pretty cool, slows it down and drops the power and you never notice it.

How's the OCing going, Bob?

just put in my new psu and messed around with it, just to see what i could get it too without much trouble. this is not prime stable, basically what it would boot to. i will mess with it more later but here are the highest i have acheived booting only and not prime tested so far:

2.6GHz - 8x325
2.8GHz - 9x311 (i did get a bsod after it was on for a bit, something about a usb***.sys issue)

both of these required 1.45V. my board will do a htt of 455, so is it better to do a higher htt or multiplier? also, is it better to run x4 HT (800MHz) or x5 HT (1000MHz)? not familiar with the HT/HTT terminology, will read more...

again, this is what i messed with for about 15mins and was not prime tested at all, just for booting and figuring out the bios...

 

[cmv]

Originally posted by: SwellWave
I'd be wary of Monarch Computers. I placed 2 orders from them for the 165 and the 144 combo deal and they responded with some BS email that they're not able to send to shipping address and that the shipping address had to be registered and verified through my bank. This I have never heard of before and too much of a pain to deal with so I called to cancel. Meanwhile, they had already debited my account for nearly $600, which would not be returned to me for at least 15 days the clerk says! It appears to be a tactic to buy time until shipment arrives.

Monarch sucks in that regard... They must have been hit hard with stolen CCs or something to take such a hard stance on theft prevention.

 

[2GNTTurbo]

Originally posted by: bob4432

Originally posted by: 2GNTTurbo
Is there a MB I can get for around $100 that has high enough htt to OC a 144 to around 2.8 ghz?

do you need pci-e or agp?

pci-e

 

[Ike0069]

Originally posted by: bob4432
just put in my new psu and messed around with it, just to see what i could get it too without much trouble. this is not prime stable, basically what it would boot to. i will mess with it more later but here are the highest i have acheived booting only and not prime tested so far:

2.6GHz - 8x325
2.8GHz - 9x311 (i did get a bsod after it was on for a bit, something about a usb***.sys issue)

both of these required 1.45V. my board will do a htt of 455, so is it better to do a higher htt or multiplier? also, is it better to run x4 HT (800MHz) or x5 HT (1000MHz)? not familiar with the HT/HTT terminology, will read more...

again, this is what i messed with for about 15mins and was not prime tested at all, just for booting and figuring out the bios...

You'll want you HT to always be <1000 for stability purposes. (Some boards don't even like it at 1000). There is very little difference in performace between say 800 and 1000. But in general, a higher HTT is better, even if the difference is very small.

To get your actual HT, take the HT multiplier * HTT(FSB).......200(HTT)x5=1000
So once you start rasing the HTT, drop the multiplier to x4. When you go over 250, you need to drop it to x3 (which is good up to HTT@333).

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: Ike0069

Originally posted by: bob4432
just put in my new psu and messed around with it, just to see what i could get it too without much trouble. this is not prime stable, basically what it would boot to. i will mess with it more later but here are the highest i have acheived booting only and not prime tested so far:

2.6GHz - 8x325
2.8GHz - 9x311 (i did get a bsod after it was on for a bit, something about a usb***.sys issue)

both of these required 1.45V. my board will do a htt of 455, so is it better to do a higher htt or multiplier? also, is it better to run x4 HT (800MHz) or x5 HT (1000MHz)? not familiar with the HT/HTT terminology, will read more...

again, this is what i messed with for about 15mins and was not prime tested at all, just for booting and figuring out the bios...

You'll want you HT to always be <1000 for stability purposes. (Some boards don't even like it at 1000). There is very little difference in performace between say 800 and 1000. But in general, a higher HTT is better, even if the difference is very small.

To get your actual HT, take the HT multiplier * HTT(FSB).......200(HTT)x5=1000
So once you start rasing the HTT, drop the multiplier to x4. When you go over 250, you need to drop it to x3 (which is good up to HTT@333).

thanks

 

[bob4432]

Ike0069 -
ok, so far @ 2496MHz stock V and prime stable for just 1 after which i stopped it(no errors). max temps for cpu were 40C. i have to run my ram at a pretty slow speed and the way the board has it ram speed options, i am runing the cpu @ 3x277 and 3xht with the ram @ 178MHz because i know my ram will not go higher than 215MHz, which i am pretty sure the next ram option increase puts it over 215(which i have tried to get over but didn't even with 2.8V). is the ram speed that important?

also the reason i am using the 9x is so i can set the multiplier in the bios to "auto" and still use amd's power program, which will throttle down the cpu. if i have it locked at 8x and run a different htt, the power program can not throttle down. the reason i bring this up is because to get the desired result, gogar's calculator may specify a 8x multiplier, but i choose the one that is with a 9x that is highest on the list. is this a problem if the number at the far right on gogar's calculator is ~.01-.03?

any other input, or is this going down a good path?

 

[Ike0069]

It sounds like you are doing perfect. RAM speed does matter, but not near as much as CPU speed. With A64's RAM speed/timings are not as important as they are for Intel chips. That's one reason why AMD was never in a big hurry to go to DDR2 RAM and it's higher speeds.

For the best benchmarks, using a different CPU multiplier could be beneficial. But for noticeable results, I don't think you'll actually see any difference.

There is a way to use a 150 RAM divider though. Install A64 tweaker, and in Windows you can set the RAM divider to 150.

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: Ike0069
It sounds like you are doing perfect. RAM speed does matter, but not near as much as CPU speed. With A64's RAM speed/timings are not as important as they are for Intel chips. That's one reason why AMD was never in a big hurry to go to DDR2 RAM and it's higher speeds.

For the best benchmarks, using a different CPU multiplier could be beneficial. But for noticeable results, I don't think you'll actually see any difference.

There is a way to use a 150 RAM divider though. Install A64 tweaker, and in Windows you can set the RAM divider to 150.

thanks. i just ran prime95 last night for 11hrs at 2.496 and no problems. my computer room was down to 70F and the cpu was only at 36C max during prime95(kind of questioning the onboard dioded, seems way tool cool), so i will move up to 2.6 today and see how that goes. for the price, i think th board is a steal if you still need agp

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: Ike0069
It sounds like you are doing perfect. RAM speed does matter, but not near as much as CPU speed. With A64's RAM speed/timings are not as important as they are for Intel chips. That's one reason why AMD was never in a big hurry to go to DDR2 RAM and it's higher speeds.

For the best benchmarks, using a different CPU multiplier could be beneficial. But for noticeable results, I don't think you'll actually see any difference.

There is a way to use a 150 RAM divider though. Install A64 tweaker, and in Windows you can set the RAM divider to 150.

here is what i settled into -
9x280(stock V)
3xht
ram=210 (+.1V over stock)

this yields 2520MHz, allows me to set the mulitplier in the bios to auto and still use the amd power utility to drop it down when it can to lower the heat emission/save power and give me my 2.5GHz

i ran another couple of hours of prime95 on the blend and had no issues, tonight i will run it again for 10+hours to verify, but this is a pretty good setup.

thanks for the assistance

 

[Ike0069]

2.5 stable is excellent. For $150, these chips are unreal. Congrats.

My 146 will be here Tuesday, but I still need to order a case/PSU/MB. I kind of just bought the CPU, and my wife was not too happy. I'll have to try and sneak the other orders in soon, because it's gonna kill me having this CPU just sitting around.

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: Ike0069
2.5 stable is excellent. For $150, these chips are unreal. Congrats.

My 146 will be here Tuesday, but I still need to order a case/PSU/MB. I kind of just bought the CPU, and my wife was not too happy. I'll have to try and sneak the other orders in soon, because it's gonna kill me having this CPU just sitting around.

thanks i hear you on the wife portion. when i told her i was going to get a new psu, mine was pretty cool...

good luck on the 146, you will have to fill us in on your progress

 

[Rapier]

Originally posted by: bob4432

Originally posted by: Ike0069
2.5 stable is excellent. For $150, these chips are unreal. Congrats.

My 146 will be here Tuesday, but I still need to order a case/PSU/MB. I kind of just bought the CPU, and my wife was not too happy. I'll have to try and sneak the other orders in soon, because it's gonna kill me having this CPU just sitting around.

thanks i hear you on the wife portion. when i told her i was going to get a new psu, mine was pretty cool...

good luck on the 146, you will have to fill us in on your progress

Throw a little voltage on the chip and take her on up.