What can I expect from Propus?

[hat]

I've been trying to scratch up a job, putting applications in here and there... something entry level, like a cashier or something.

Anyways, I was thinking of celebrating a bit if I got hired... I'm too lazy to upgrade my hard drive or motherboard, my video card is still great, and 4GB RAM is still plenty... so the only viable upgrade left is the processor. I was thinking of buying an Athlon II x4, as WCG will certianly benefit from that, as well as a few of the games I play, like BFBC2 and SUPCOM 2 (supposedly anyway).

Now, my motherboard has a 95w limit on it. I'm not comfortable overvolting even my current 65w AII 240, so I'll certianly not be overvolting the quad-core Propus. I'll clock it on stock voltage. About how far can I expect to get on stock volts? I hope to match my 240's speed of 3.5GHz, but a higher speed would certianly be welcome... then again, I wouldn't be completely devistated by losing out a little bit.

[jellyrole]

Does your motherboard support the unlocking of CPU's? I forgot what that setting was called....

[hat]

No unlocking on this board. The Regor is a native dual core anyway, so there's nothing to unlock.

[Fourstaff]

No point unlocking a X4 =.="

Even without overvolting, increasing frequency will still increase power consumption (cant remember formula, it was current TDP*frequency/stock frequency*voltage/stock voltage or something like that), so with the 95w in mind, I will not bother to overclock it.

[hat]

Well supposedly some of those AII x4s are Deneb cores in disguise, so you could unlock the L3 cache on them... but that's besides the point.

[hat]

Wow, there's a PII x4 820 at Newegg for $100. The next cheapest quad they have is an AII x4 for $2 less. I think I know which CPU I'm getting if I do make the upgrade... both 95w too.

[JrRacinFan]

x4 820 is pretty nice for how much/what it is. You should get it man!!! They overclock pretty good too.

[brandonwh64]

I know the benches are not too far off but im partial to Phenom II BE chips but finding a 95W chip would be difficult

[hat]

I'm not spending the extra money on that... wouldn't be able to clock it any higher anyway given the limitations of my board.

[theonedub]

The Athlon X4s I had did not go too far without a voltage boost. Neither of them could get to 3.5 without a bump.

[wolf]

staying within a tight budget i still think a stock 3-3.2ghz AII x4 will heed a good gaming improvement over the Athlon x2.

I went from the same CPU as you to a 1090T... and while thats hard to compare against an x4 I can easily say the difference in games was night and day, and that was using a 9800GTX too, your card is about twice as fast as that.

[hat]

Pah, I'm pushing this bastard one last time. I just booted at 3.75GHz, using 300x12.5 on the 1.6GHz HT strap (giving 2.4GHz at this speed). RAM is currently set to 800MHz on the 533 multi for now, later on I'll push it back to ~1GHz at the 667 strap. I'm sitting pretty at 1.475v, which should put me right around 95w if that formula has any worth to it. I might to up to 1.5v, but I really don't want to, for a number of reasons. Power draw, mobo quality, heat, degredation and such.

Pah, I was going to try 300x12 to get 3.6GHz flat, stock volts. I tried setting the 667 mem divider, which should give me 1000MHz flat, which was stable at 250FSB. When I try to boot at that level, it fails saying DQS training failed on last boot, reverting to default settings. What's all this about DQS training? I assume I should increace my NB volts, I'm going to do that now. The only other voltage options I have are vram and HT voltage, would those have any effect?

^^I just maxed NB and HT voltage, as well as set ram to 2.25v (normally runs 1.95v) and the cpu to 1.475v, still failed.

[hat]

I tried 266x14 at 1.5v cpu, everything else lowered and out of the way. Test failed. Either my chip really, really sucks and can't do 3.72GHz when others are going over 3.8 at that same voltage level, or my board can't handle the 16MHz increase from 250FSB. Given the board's build quality... I could raise NB/HT volts and risk frying the board, or I could just sit at 3.5. CPU volts alone won't take me any higher.

I just noticed I have a C2 revision. I've read a lot of talk about how much better the C3s are as opposed to the C2s... having a better chance for unlocking (when it applies... not for my Regor), clocking better, and just in general being faster clock for clock. Seems I always get stuck with the lesser CPUs... I remember all the fun I had with my F2 5200+ Windsor that I could not get over 2.9GHz regardless of what I did with it... and the F3s were maxing out at 3.3 (with some big volts, though).

[hat]

Well, I got that job I wanted... heh

[wolf]

get a quad!

[hat]

yeeeeeeeeeeee