Retail Opteron 144 for $140 and 146 for $165 @ Tankguys

[MrUniq]

Yea I'm seriously looking at these, I just got back into hardware buying and reading reviews about how cheap these optys were..then actually looking at prices and scratching my head. Guess OC'ers artificially raised prices on them.

 

[burney]

Originally posted by: TankGuys

Originally posted by: demontooth
Stock speeds. I've been out of the loop for a while and it's all very confusing now.

At stock, the 144 would be ~3000 Venice, and the 146 would be a 3200.

It's tough though, since the Opterons also have twice the cache, so they are kind of like the San Diego core... they also overclock better (in general) so it's not quite apples to apples.


FYI: I'm going to edit my first post here to answer any further questions, as I don't want to keep bumping this thread, because that's unfair for me to do that.

since it has larger cache it opteron 146 should perform a bit less then vience 3200+.. i saying this as if there should be more cyles required as it has larger cache..unless opteron has a faster cache?

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: furballi
The larger cache found in the Opty amounts to about a 100MHz bump in core speed of the A64 chips (3000, 3200, 3500).

Well, maybe. You can take AMD's word for it, but then again their word sometimes changes. As for the "official" speed boost, one example is the difference between Venice 3500+ and San Diego 3700+. Both are 2.2GHz, with differing cache amounts. AMD says 200+ MHz. You can probably find some software that show even greater gains in performance, and you can probably find some software that shows absolutely no gain in performance, and of course some software will be in-between. Since any two persons may use their computers in different manners and with different software, there is no single right answer.

The "easy" answer of course is to go by what AMD says. However, I think I'm more in agreement with your numbers. Like I said before, more MHz > more cache. That's what makes overclockable Semprons so great.

 

[furballi]

My independent test between the 754 Sempron 3100 and the 939 A64 3000 shows about a 150MHz deficit. Of course we're talking about single channel RAM, 1/2 cache size, "inferior" memory controller, and a slower chipset.

 

[vtohthree]

Man tankguys rocks!!! I want to order another one just to give them business, I like dealing with good people. Haha, hope I didn't raise anyone's expectations, but yeah, I had a great experience with them, recommended my relative to order from there too. THUMBS UP! Hot Deal!

(if you guys ever have an opteron 165-170 deal coming up let me know!

PS. the 146 in my sig is from Tankguys, running like a champ.

 

[ruckdaddy]

there's also a used OEM 144 for $181

oh and zap please never use the imaginary word guestimate ever again!

signed, your pal at the base

 

[fliplyricist]

monarch takes long to ship? hmm...they shipped out my opteron the day after I placed my order :shrug:

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: ruckdaddy
oh and zap please never use the imaginary word guestimate ever again!

signed, your pal at the base

Pal at base?

BTW, what's wrong with imaginary words? Not any worse than using common acronyms. Guestimate FTW!!!

Originally posted by: fliplyricist
monarch takes long to ship? hmm...they shipped out my opteron the day after I placed my order :shrug:

Well, I've placed four orders with Monarch. Two shipped out next day, one shipped out after three business days and one shipped out after four business days. I think my experience would reflect what others are seeing just based on all the comments I've read about Monarch. Basically, YMMV. They don't have the reputation/expressed intent to ship out ASAP like Newegg/ZipZoomFly/ChiefValue does.

 

[TankGuys]

Alrighty, I'll post again now since it's already bumped near the top anyway:

Originally posted by: Zoomer
But that makes referring to answers difficult.

True - but I guess we'll have to deal

Originally posted by: Zap

Why would it be unfair? You are answering legit questions and offering a legit hot deal. Also, you weren't the one to originally post, so not like you're pimping your own site. Besides, some "other" vendors have had preferetial "stickifying" of their "official" deals for forum members. Hmmm, perhaps you can give us "Anandtech only" deals such as free budget shipping for forum members or something... hint hint...

Well, the other vendors who have stickies here are paying quite a bit for them. So, there's a good reason for them to be near the top. I don't mind responding if this is already bumped near the top anyway, but if it hits page 2 I'll just edit my post. My point is that I appreciate the folks at anandtech letting us post here in the first place, and I don't want to abuse that by getting advertisement for free.

 

[Avalon]

Originally posted by: Zap

Originally posted by: Avalon
3) Monarch takes about fourteen weeks to ship out your package.

That's incorrect. They actually only sit on your order for about 4 business days doing nothing, before shipping out your package. See, that way if your order included something with a rebate, then the rebate will be invalid because their emailed invoice will be dated based on shipping, not on ordering. :disgust:

Ugh, that would make me so mad. First time I ordered from them, it took them three days to ship my order (basically doubled for every order afterwards). I had purchased a DFI Ultra-D/Venice 3000+ combo, which they guarantee to test and verify that it works. When i got mine, my DFI had an older bios that couldn't correctly identify the newest Venice stepping, so it was having issues with my system, and took me hours to figure it out. Very frustrating.

 

[jbubrisk]

Hey guys,
I don't know too much about the optys so I had some questions. If I were to build a system for a 146, with the purpose of overclocking for gaming, how high do you think I could get with a zalman 7000? What would be the "equivalent" CPU at that overclocked speed. Also, how much would it run me for a decent mobo and 2gb of good ram? To me, it seems like I could get the asrock dual, and some ram for like $60 and $140 respectively. I'm looking to get dual channel.

Basically my system right now is a P4 2.26, 1gb of RD RAM, and an agp x700 pro. Should I get that combo, I'm kinda strapped for cash. Or, should I hold out til the summer when I have a job, and get an opty 165? (Dual core sounds pretty).

Its no rush, and I don't know how much I'll be able to swing for this stuff, so I'm just throwing the questions out there. I know its hard to answer these questions, but do the best you can! Any info is appreciated! Thanks!

-John

 

[KoolAidKid]

Originally posted by: jbubrisk
Hey guys,
I don't know too much about the optys so I had some questions. If I were to build a system for a 146, with the purpose of overclocking for gaming, how high do you think I could get with a zalman 7000? What would be the "equivalent" CPU at that overclocked speed. Also, how much would it run me for a decent mobo and 2gb of good ram? To me, it seems like I could get the asrock dual, and some ram for like $60 and $140 respectively. I'm looking to get dual channel.

Basically my system right now is a P4 2.26, 1gb of RD RAM, and an agp x700 pro. Should I get that combo, I'm kinda strapped for cash. Or, should I hold out til the summer when I have a job, and get an opty 165? (Dual core sounds pretty).

Its no rush, and I don't know how much I'll be able to swing for this stuff, so I'm just throwing the questions out there. I know its hard to answer these questions, but do the best you can! Any info is appreciated! Thanks!

-John

If you're strapped for cash you might consider the ECS Nforce3/Sempron 3100+ combo at outpost.com, on sale for $79.99.

 

[jbubrisk]

Originally posted by: KoolAidKid

Originally posted by: jbubrisk
Hey guys,
I don't know too much about the optys so I had some questions. If I were to build a system for a 146, with the purpose of overclocking for gaming, how high do you think I could get with a zalman 7000? What would be the "equivalent" CPU at that overclocked speed. Also, how much would it run me for a decent mobo and 2gb of good ram? To me, it seems like I could get the asrock dual, and some ram for like $60 and $140 respectively. I'm looking to get dual channel.

Basically my system right now is a P4 2.26, 1gb of RD RAM, and an agp x700 pro. Should I get that combo, I'm kinda strapped for cash. Or, should I hold out til the summer when I have a job, and get an opty 165? (Dual core sounds pretty).

Its no rush, and I don't know how much I'll be able to swing for this stuff, so I'm just throwing the questions out there. I know its hard to answer these questions, but do the best you can! Any info is appreciated! Thanks!

-John

If you're strapped for cash you might consider the ECS Nforce3/Sempron 3100+ combo at outpost.com, on sale for $79.99.

but would that be a big enough performance increase over my current system. Also, it doesn't support dual channel, or the switch to PCI-E in the future.

 

[aboothman]

what stepping is that 2.26? If it is the right stepping, it may be one of the 3.4 chips that was (in theory) dropped to 533 FSB...I and
many others have had great luck OCing these to 3.3+ on stock volts just by raising the FSB back to 800.

 

[pclstyle]

mine shipped already , ordered 12 hours ago

 

[TankGuys]

Originally posted by: pclstyle
mine shipped already , ordered 12 hours ago

Just an FYI To anyone else though: Orders place today will "ship" tonight/tomorrow, but won't start moving through the FedEx system until Monday. At least, that's most likely how it will work. So don't be surprised if your tracking number doesn't seem to work until Monday

 

[stockjock]

I don't know much about these Opterons...I'm running a Big Water water cooled system right now on A64 3000 Venice...what could I get the 146 upto using my water cooled setup? Anyone know? I'm a big time gamer if that matters.

 

[vtohthree]

Originally posted by: stockjock
I don't know much about these Opterons...I'm running a Big Water water cooled system right now on A64 3000 Venice...what could I get the 146 upto using my water cooled setup? Anyone know? I'm a big time gamer if that matters.

First off, since you said you're a gamer, I'm assuming that you want this to be running 24/7 primestable and not with a ton of volts to near death experience for the chip(phase change cooling or dice with the IHS taken off).

Expect to see anywhere from 2.8-3.0ghz from these Opteron 146's with a good cooling setup(water or real good air) running on near stock volts(<1.4v is a good chip), YMMV obviously, but these CACJE chips are pretty darn good from what I've seen, I'm running at 2.82ghz on 1.36volts(on a cab2e), primed it for 9 hours, also gamed on it. BTW I'm on air, xp-90. Great single core chip! Great price too! FTW

 

[themusgrat]

Just saw this. Great deal, TankGuys rule.

EDIT: I agree. You should see 2.8 on an Opty 146 on a good day, 2.4 on a really bad day. On a super day with lots of volts, upwards of 3Ghz. As a gamer, you would benefit greatly by upping to 2.6 or so, as you only need the 1 thread, and this proc is really, REALLY awesomely cheap. You can sell a 3000 on ebay for at least half that. I remember my first A64, a 3000+ that cost 160. My, how Optys have changed everything.

 

[filibusterman]

hey i have a 146 opty and i love it since I am an AMD fan. but i got a 2.26GHz 533FSB from one of my dad's old dell servers and it actually runs at 3.4 just by bumping up the fsb to 800. dont know if this works for all of them but i think it might be worth a try. that bump would probably show quite an improvement in performance. the only p4 bord i have is single channel ram so its not a fair comparison to my opty but on cs source everything bumped up i get probably 140 with teh opty and low 90s with the oc intel chip. I dont know how much teh dual channel matters to the intel chip but something to think about or give a try if you are into overclocking.

-Phil

 

[jbubrisk]

So I have a 2.26 P4 as you know, but its a Dell Case + mobo, so when I go to the bios, there are like 2 options. Nothing changeable relating to voltage, FSB (which is 133 x 5 I think), or the CPU. It doesn't even have anything about temperatures. What to do!? Is there software that can OC my CPU? What about the temps though? Do I need to by a temperature monitoramajigger? Any help is much appreciated! Thanks Filibusterman, I have always been afraid to OC my comp because I can't afford to lose it! Maybe it will be ok Its worth a shot!

EDIT: I also forgot to add that I have 4x256 PC 800 RD RAM so yeah, dont know if that matters...

 

[stockjock]

hey...shouldn't you put in your title or in your summary that the prices do not include shipping. I was a little disapointed that it was going to cost me over $10 to have the 146 shipped.

 

[Zap]

jbubrisk, if your Dell motherboard officially supported 800MHz FSB chips, you can try doing a BSEL pin mod to the CPU, and as a backup using the "wire trick" for voltage, but that's risky without pre-testing the chip on a more capable motherboard. At this time I'd say that you are better off just... upgrading everything. RDRAM FTL.

Originally posted by: vtohthree
Expect to see anywhere from 2.8-3.0ghz from these Opteron 146's

Nah, don't expect didly squat. That way you'd be pleasantly suprised if the chips do well, otherwise you'd be disappointed that the chip didn't do what you "expected." Yes, quite a few Opterons are clocking that nice. No, they don't all do it.

 

[TankGuys]

Originally posted by: stockjock
hey...shouldn't you put in your title or in your summary that the prices do not include shipping. I was a little disapointed that it was going to cost me over $10 to have the 146 shipped.

I know the shipping seems high, but those are exact prices from FedEx. Though, it does include the following:

-Full Insurance
-Signature Service
-Saturday Delivery (for the Home Delivery option)

Anyway, we don't make a penny on shipping, they are exact quotes directly from FedEx.

 

[MrCoyote]

I only have DDR400 Mushkin memory. I want to keep it at that speed or under, but overclock this processor. What divider will give me roughly DDR400, and at what CPU speed?
Is there an article that explains the dividers? I've been out of the picture too long. If I put my memory on DDR333, then it will reach DDR400 at HTT 250MHz, correct? What speed does that give this processor?