CPU/Mobo Some questions about the AMD platform

[RenderMan]

Hi guys,
this is my first post in a technical thread and i have a few questions for you, some of which may sound stupid, but it'll a go a long way in helping me to understand a few things about the amd platform.hope you understand..

1. I'm a normal pc user and i have no knowledge about overclocking. I do not even intend to oclock my cpu.So which cpu will suit my needs more, A64 3000+/3200+ (939) or an Opteron 144?

2. What is the difference between an A64 3000+ (939) and an Opteron 144?

3. If i do not overclock, will an opteron 144 be a cpu of choice for me? will it still outperform say, a 3ghz P4 ?

4. I went to a few motherboard sites and i saw five different chipsets of nforce4.. 1. Nforce4
2. Nforce Ultra
3. Nforce SLI
4. Nforce SLI x16
5. Nforce 400/geforce 6100
Now i'm totally confused as which chipset to go for. What is the difference between these?

5. Which motherboard should i buy for A64 939/opteron 144 ?

Your inputs will be of immense help to me..thanks.

 

[K.I.T.T.]

The opteron 144 and the venice 3000+ both share the same speed (1.8 GHz), but the opty has the advantage of the extra L2 cache (1MB vs the 512 kb on the venice).

Clock per clock, the opty will be slightly faster than the venice, but not sgnificantly enough to notice in real world applications like gaming.

The opty 144 will be slightly faster at stock than a venice 3000+ and so should be on par, if not slighly faster than a 3 GHz P4 .

The nForce 4 range of chipsets is the best for overclocking at the moment. However, it doesn't support AGP graphics cards, only PCI-express. The opposite is true for nFoce 3.

The nForce force 4 ulta is the chipset of choice if you plan on using a single graphics card. If you however are going to be using 2 nVidia (SLi compatible mind you) graphics cards in SLi, or plan to move on to SLi in the future, the nForce 4 SLi chipset is the way to go.

The DFI LanParty nForce 4 series motherboards are currently the best performing ones on the market, by a considerable margin.

 

[Switch]

First of all suggesstions...

For normal PC usage a AMD 64 3000+ or 3200+ is good enough... And the chipset which you shuld go in for is nForce 4 Ultra...

For for answers to your questions...

1. I'm a normal pc user and i have no knowledge about overclocking. I do not even intend to oclock my cpu.So which cpu will suit my needs more, A64 3000+/3200+ (939) or an Opteron 144?

Already answered that... But trust me with AMD's you would wanna overclock...

2. What is the difference between an A64 3000+ (939) and an Opteron 144?

The Opterons have 1 MB cache memory which is always a plus over 512KB in 64's but if you are using PC for normal usage then it doesnt make that much of a difference...

3. If i do not overclock, will an opteron 144 be a cpu of choice for me? will it still outperform say, a 3ghz P4 ?

Yes and Yes... Basically depends on the stepping and the rest of system components like the mobo and the RAM...

4. I went to a few motherboard sites and i saw five different chipsets of nforce4.. 1. Nforce4

2. Nforce Ultra

3. Nforce SLI

4. Nforce SLI x16

5. Nforce 400/geforce 6100

Now i'm totally confused as which chipset to go for. What is the difference between these?

The above mentioned chipsets are of nForce 4 series and have different feature sets...

The nForce4 chipset is the most basic chipset of the series and doesnt come with extra SATA/Raid controllers and also have few other things missing... Not to mention a complete dud at overclocking...

The nforce Ultra chipset is basically a revved up version of the nFORCE 4 chipset... Have lots more features... Like firewire,more usb ports, overclocking options, extra SAT/PATA/RAID controllers etc etc etc...

The Nforce SLIchipset has basically two PCIe 16x slots and this chipset can run two PCIe Grahics cards at the same time(the only difference from nForce 4 ultra)... If the cards are of nVIDIA 6xxx or 7xxx series then they can be paired togather to deliver more performence... But mind you not all 6xxx cards can be paired... And also you need to excat same series cards so run in SLI mode... example a 6600 Gt and a 6600 cant be paired togather to run in SLI mode but both can be run at the same time... You need two 6600 GT so that they can run in SLI mode...

Nforce SLI x16 chipset is basically a newer version of the SLI chipset... The older chipset had one 16x line and when two PCIe Gfx cards were used the line was shared by both and it operated in 8x mode but with this chipset both cards run of 16x line... Therotically there is an advantage but technically no card uses 8x

Nforce 400/geforce 6100 is the newest chipset by nVIDIA and i dont have a very good knowledge about the same... I do know that this is an IGP chip which means it has integrated gfx onboard the chipset itself... But beware this is not a great overclocking platform...

5. Which motherboard should i buy for A64 939/opteron 144 ?

Again that depends... For starters i would recommend a ASUS A8N E or if you wanna use two cards then ASUS A8N SLI... You can also look in for the MSI Neo 4 platinum or Neo 4 SLI platinum if you want to run two graphics cards togather... But mostly try to get the ASUS... Also you will hear a lot of DFI but trust me its no good for you...

Hope this helped...

 

[RenderMan]

hey KiTT & switch, thanks a lot..u two have addressed my queries so well..all this info will be of immense help to me when i go to buy stuff for my rig..

BTw, i still need to know a few more things...hope its not too much for u all..

1. If i go for an Nforce Sli motherboard, can i still use a single pci express card in it for the time being?

2. What are the 1x slots in new pci express motherboards for?

3. If i go for the Nforce Ultra chipset, which motherboard would be the best for me?

4. If i think of overclocking in future (after i learn to do it) how important will be a good smps for the purpose..is a powersafe 400w smps good enough?

5. Which ram modules will be ideal for ocing?

6. Finally shud i settle for an easily available 3200+ venice or try to find the opteron 144? which one is better performance wise?

thanks in advance..

 

[K.I.T.T.]

1. If i go for an Nforce Sli motherboard, can i still use a single pci express card in it for the time being?

Sure can!!

2. What are the 1x slots in new pci express motherboards for?

These are for the next generation of interface cads including sound cards, dial-up modems,etc. It will eventually replace PCI, the same way PCI replaced ISA.

3. If i go for the Nforce Ultra chipset, which motherboard would be the best for me?

It really depends on your budget, how far you plan to overclock, etc. not knwing where you are (India I presume), It would be hard to comment on prices as I'm in the Uk right now :S . If you can give us a list of motherboards in your budget, I'm sure I could help you further

4. If i think of overclocking in future (after i learn to do it) how important will be a good smps for the purpose..is a powersafe 400w smps good enough?

A good SMPS/PSU is essential. 400W is slightly on the weedy side...I'd recommend atleast 450W. HOWEVER, rather than wattage, you should look at how many Amperes the 12 v rail can provide. I have had cheap 500W PSUs catch fire because (seriously) they were low quality and only had about 12 Amps on the 12V line. A 350W PSU with 20 Amps on the 12V rail would be much better. Ideally, you want 25 Amps or more, however over 20 should be fine

5. Which ram modules will be ideal for ocing?

That all depends on your budget and your motherboard. BH-5 tends to be the best and can usually do 250 MHz with timings of 2-2-2-x. However, the need quite a high VDIMM (> 3.2 v) which isnt provded by the majority of motherboards (TheDFI nForce 4 series being an excpetion). TCCD usually does 280 MHz + at 2.5-3-3-x (or is it 2.5-4-4-x, cant remember) and requires less voltage, however the drawback is unless your motherboard is a good overclocker and stable at high FSBs, you loose any benefits of TCCD. That said, I have personally tested both, and find that Bh-5 at 260 MHz at 2-2-2-5 is faster than TCCD at 300 MHz 2.5-x-x-x. Not noticably in real world benchmarks. You can always get bog standard ram and run it on a divider async. to the FSB.

6. Finally shud i settle for an easily available 3200+ venice or try to find the opteron 144? which one is better performance wise?

The 144 and 3200+ are really close to each other in terms of performance. At stock, it would be hard to say, but I'd bet the 3200+ would be slightly faster due to the advantage it has in clock speed. However, I'd still get the 144, as you wouldnt notice any difference in everyday use, and also, it has the advantage of 1 MB of L2 cache and is almost guaranteed to clock as well as the venice, if not faster.