Opteron 180 or Upgrade my Ram, for Gaming!

[GraveFiller]

Hey there fellas,

I've got an Amd 64 3200 cpu.
It's definitely old considering how cheap cpu's are today.

Should I get a new Amd Opteron 180 Denmark, or Should I ditch my 1 gig of pc3200 ram and get 2 gigs of DDR 400?

Which will see a marked improvement in my gaming?
Ram or Cpu UPgrade!

Will my Abit Uguru Socket 939 mobo be able to handle DDR2 Memory? Or am i stuck with pc3200?

I don't want to ditch this board because i just bought 4 months ago an ATI X850Pro XT video card.
It runs good, figured i'd keep this old beatch running a bit longer. .... so no Pci-express 4 me yet.

From compatibility charts...my board should take the following memory:

PC-2100 - DDR266
PC-2700 - DDR333
PC-3200 - DDR400 What I have now!
PC-3500 - DDR434
PC-3700 - DDR464
PC-4000 - DDR500
PC-4200 - DDR525
PC-4400 - DDR550
PC-4800 - DDR600

I've read alot about ddr2 that it's faster, but will my board take it? I'm Not sure...Help!!!

can you please steer me in the right direction.

Hell, will my mobo even take DDR500? i.e (PC-4000)

Of course i'm going to upgrade my cpu and memory, but which will help me right away more...THE RAM OR THE CPU?

tHANKS for any input...



p.s my motherboard specs:------------------------------------->>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Motherboard Properties:
Motherboard ID 02/23/2006-K8T800P-8237-6A7L1A19C-27
Motherboard Name Abit AV8 / AV8-3rd Eye / RocketBoy AV8

Front Side Bus Properties:
Bus Type AMD Hammer
Real Clock 217 MHz
Effective Clock 217 MHz
HyperTransport Clock 1083 MHz

Memory Bus Properties:
Bus Type Dual DDR SDRAM
Bus Width 128-bit
DRAM:FSB Ratio CPU/12
Real Clock 180 MHz (DDR)
Effective Clock 361 MHz
Bandwidth 5771 MB/s

Motherboard Physical Info:
CPU Sockets/Slots 1 Socket 939
Expansion Slots 5 PCI, 1 AGP
RAM Slots 4 DDR DIMM
Integrated Devices Audio, Gigabit LAN, IEEE-1394

Motherboard Chipset K8T800Pro
Extra Features Abit MicroGuru

Nick!

 

[KennyT772]

I would just save your cash and wait until you have enough to build a new computer. You don't have a motherboard that is really worth upgrading with and you are stuck with agp.

What video card are you using?

 

[bacardi9966]

yea. buy a new board with PCI-E X16 and DDR2 ram.

ddr2 ram runs much faster and not much of a price difference

 

[GraveFiller]

I would just save your cash and wait until you have enough to build a new computer. You don't have a motherboard that is really worth upgrading with and you are stuck with agp.

What video card are you using?

I just bought The ATI X850 Pro... 256Gddr3 memory...is fast as hell.....and i unlocked from 12 to `16 pipes....

For the video card i'd have to get for pci...that'll be like 600 bucks... geforce 8800 or something like that..x1900 xt is expensive too...but for now....wouldn't opteron 180 be good ?

 

[DrunkenMafia]

I would get a opty 165 rather than the 180 and oc it a little. You already have 1gb, is it 2x 512 sticks or 1gb stick? you can just grab another stick to make 2gb.

BTW PC3200 is same as DDR400.

That rig will still last for another 12 months or so no probs.

 

[GumCuz]

You have your memory labeled as pc3200, but you have it on a divider. and it's not 180mhz DDR, it's set to 180, and your effective rate is 360mhz DDR. You can't use DDR2 memory, not only because it won't physically fit in a DDR1 slot (240pin vs. 184pin), but it's prefetches are totally different. In real-world applications, DDR2 is just barely better than DDR1. Just like DDR3 is all new & shiny, it won't really surpass DDR2 for a year or so. Anyway, the reason DDR500 (pc4000) and higher exist, is so you can overclock your system without running your memory on a divider. don't buy it unless you know what you're doing. In fact, buying high performance DDR1 these days is kind of like throwing money down the toilet. If you're going to do anything to that system, just get like a 3700+ processor, or something to hold you over for a little bit. There's absolutely no reason to keep pumping money into a dead rig like that. If you're dead-set, im guessing you have a 2x512mb memory kit in it right now, and you have 4 mem slots. get another 2x512mb kit exactly the same as what you got right now. That'll give you more of a boost. And, no. An x850xt is dog-ass-slow. You could get a PCIe card that would blow that antique away for $75. An x1600/1650xt, or 7600gt would kill that AGP card. Like pretty much what everyone else said, you'd be better off with an e6320, a P5B, 2 gigs of DDR2-800, and a $100 video card. It would slaughter what you're using right now, and be way more upgradable.

 

[GraveFiller]

I would get a opty 165 rather than the 180 and oc it a little. You already have 1gb, is it 2x 512 sticks or 1gb stick? you can just grab another stick to make 2gb.

BTW PC3200 is same as DDR400.

That rig will still last for another 12 months or so no probs.

Yes exactly...I figured this rig will be good at least 1 more year..then all the people who have kick ass rigs now...will have old has been shiz, and i'll smoke em...in 2009..! lol.

Oh yea, I have 2 512 mb Sticks of ram...What is the fastest ram my 939 mobo will take?
Thnks for your help!

 

[GraveFiller]

You have your memory labeled as pc3200, but you have it on a divider. and it's not 180mhz DDR, it's set to 180, and your effective rate is 360mhz DDR. You can't use DDR2 memory, not only because it won't physically fit in a DDR1 slot (240pin vs. 184pin), but it's prefetches are totally different. In real-world applications, DDR2 is just barely better than DDR1. Just like DDR3 is all new & shiny, it won't really surpass DDR2 for a year or so. Anyway, the reason DDR500 (pc4000) and higher exist, is so you can overclock your system without running your memory on a divider. don't buy it unless you know what you're doing. In fact, buying high performance DDR1 these days is kind of like throwing money down the toilet. If you're going to do anything to that system, just get like a 3700+ processor, or something to hold you over for a little bit. There's absolutely no reason to keep pumping money into a dead rig like that. If you're dead-set, im guessing you have a 2x512mb memory kit in it right now, and you have 4 mem slots. get another 2x512mb kit exactly the same as what you got right now. That'll give you more of a boost. And, no. An x850xt is dog-ass-slow. You could get a PCIe card that would blow that antique away for $75. An x1600/1650xt, or 7600gt would kill that AGP card. Like pretty much what everyone else said, you'd be better off with an e6320, a P5B, 2 gigs of DDR2-800, and a $100 video card. It would slaughter what you're using right now, and be way more upgradable.

Thanks for your info:
But your wrong on the video cards:

My card is X850xt below:
Codename: R530, 90 nanometer technology12 Pixel Shaders, Six Vertex Shaders, 12 Texture Units, 12 Raster OperationsProcessors256 bit memory bus520 MHz core, 540-MHz DDR (1400 MHz effective) Memory

The old X850 PRO has resurfaced in AGP circles, and delivers very, veryrespectable performance for the older interface. The 7600 GS and X1650 PROcannot really compete with the raw power of the X850 PRO.
It Had 12 pipes, but I flashed it to 16 pipes...respectable considering pci are 24 now..

Here's the benchmarking results of your 7800 vs. x850xt

Well, the 7800 wins the battle here over ATI x850 xt


VS. the Pci – Express version of 7800 GTX


3DMark's synthetic fill rate tests illustrate the problem, especially the multitexturing test. The Radeon X800 XT PE, like the Radeon X850 XT, has gobs of texturing capacity thanks to its very high clock speeds. The 7800 GS OC can't keep up in terms of pure fill rate.


Well, the chart didn't paste in here, but they were almost dead even.
I do appreciate your feedback man..... i just didn't want to buy new mobo, memory and intel extreme at this point. Wanted to try and squeeze another year out of this hoe.
Thanks a lot tho!

 

[DrunkenMafia]

The "Normal" highest FSB speed of aany DDR1 system is 400MHZ. Therefore the majority of the ram out there is DDR400 or PC3200.

To overclock your cpu you need to raise the FSB (front side bus) above 400. When you do this is also raises the speed of your ram therefore overclocking that as well. This is the reason that DDR500 etc, came out. It is only so that it can match 1:1 the FSB of an overclocked cpu.

If I were you and you are on a tight budget and really must upgrade your agp board, I would get 2 more 512mb sticks of DDR400 ram. that will make the biggest difference to the system.

The next thing I would do it overclock the cpu a little to around 2.5ghz. That can be done fairly easily. If you would like i can give you a basic list of settings you will need in your bios to do this, granted your bios has the options.

Are you an avid gamer??? what sort of games do you play..

Also, could you fill in your system specs so that we can all see what you have. Go to quick links at top of page and click on edit profile...

 

[GraveFiller]

I would get a opty 165 rather than the 180 and oc it a little. You already have 1gb, is it 2x 512 sticks or 1gb stick?

It's 2 sticks of 512 mem brutha!

 

[GumCuz]

I wasn't tryin' to dog on your x850. It's an alright card, i had one a couple years ago. I don't know where you're getting a 7800 card out of me, tho(especially a 7800gs, those suck!). I have x1800xt PE cards. Anyway, i'm just going on experience, cuz my buddy has an x850xt PE card, and we've benched them all. Its fine for playing BF2 @1280x1024, but F.E.A.R.? no-way.

Anyway, doubling up your memory is a good thing to do, and you could squeeze some more speed from your cpu. your memory is already on a divider, so you could turn your HT multiplier down from 5x to 4x, and raise your FSB speed to something like 230, that would give you an even 15% overclock. something you should know, most hypertransport buses don't like going over 1000mhz, and you're at 1084mhz right now. I don't know how much you know about overclocking, so don't take it as an insult, k? you CAN run it that high if it's stable, but you won't notice any performance difference if it's lower than 1000 (as long as it's not like, 400 or something crazy low) . lowering your HT multi to 4x will give you mass headroom to work with, as with your FSB@217, your effective bus speed would be 868mhz.

Also, you noted that a x850xt has 540mhz DDR memory (1400mhz effective). DDR stands for Double Data Rate. that means, if the memory is really 540mhz, it's effective speed is 1080mhz, not 1400mhz. You also noted that an x850xt has a "rv530 core". "5" series ATI cores are X1000 series, like mine. yours is an R420 core. Also, all x800/x850 cards are 130nm fab, not 90nm. for future reference, ATI "pro" and "gt" cards suck. they're the crippled, wimpy versions of the real cards, and don't allow overclocking. I was talking about an x1650"XT" card, which is roughly 10-15% more powerful than an x850xt and costs less. It's shader model 3 compliant, and has more vertex shaders to boot.

Anyway, you could get another gig of ddr400 for like, $60. Also, a cheapo athlonX2 would run you probably $90. don't get a opty180, they're way overpriced for what you're going to be doing with it. the 165 would be great if you could find one for less than $100. In real-world applications, your 3200+ could theoretically be oveclocked to like, 2.6-2.7ghz, and outperform a opteron180 in gaming. That would be the cheapest way to go, take a worthless processor, and make it worth something!

 

[devguy]

"for future reference, ATI "pro" and "gt" cards suck. they're the crippled, wimpy versions of the real cards, and don't allow overclocking."

Wha 'chu talkin' 'bout, Willis?

In fact, a lot of people advise when looking at a cheap way to get performance, buy an x1950 gt on the cheap, and overclock it to pro speeds (the x1950pro is a good card, it doesn't "suck").

Yeah, I"m still chuggin' along on the x850, but for the $35 I paid for it, I'm amazed at the performance. My next card will likely be the HD 2600XT gDDR3, unless there is a 2650 series, or there becomes a reason to get the gDDR4 version (a waste of money at the moment).

 

[Darknova]

In fact, a lot of people advise when looking at a cheap way to get performance, buy an x1950 gt on the cheap, and overclock it to pro speeds (the x1950pro is a good card, it doesn't "suck").

Me thinks he doesn't know what he's talking about. The Pro is a GREAT card, yeah so it's not a high-end card, but for the price it's flipping fantastic, my friend just bought one and it knocks the socks off of my 7600GT.

Yeah, I"m still chuggin' along on the x850, but for the $35 I paid for it, I'm amazed at the performance. My next card will likely be the HD 2600XT gDDR3, unless there is a 2650 series, or there becomes a reason to get the gDDR4 version (a waste of money at the moment).

for $35 that's a great deal, but as was said, the x850 does not support SM3, which means you will be severely limited when it comes to buying new games as a lot require SM3 to run now. Problem is that if you do upgrade your card to one with SM3 you might as well upgrade your entire system. It's just not worth pumping more money in to end up with an EOL (end of line) PC.
I'm currently doing a very cheap upgrade to tide me over which involves an X2 4200 (939) and a 1950XT. That will keep me going for another 12 months. If I'd bought a new CPU, motherboard etc. I wouldn't have been able to upgrade my graphics card. So it's always a balancing act.

I definately would NOT get an Opty though, not at this late stage, they are far too overpriced. Might as well find an X2 3800 or something for a lot cheaper.

 

[devguy]

My video card is on pcie x16, so if and when I upgrade my motherboard, the video cards should still be compatible. I'm not in your AGP predicament. BTW, what games "require" SM3 to run? I happily play games up to and including Halo 2 XP. Sure, some may require SM4 in the near future, but SM3?

Also, on NewEgg, you can get an Opty 165 for $95, or get an X2 3800 for just a little less. I'd definitely go for the Opty.

 

[PuMA]

I would def get an opty, as a matter of fact i've been planning to get opty 180, for cheap (150'ish.) 3800+ isn't that good(atleast mines: poor overclocker)

 

[GumCuz]

Yeah. optys aren't overpriced. i got my 175 6 months ago for $130. Usually, they're built a little better w/ strained silicon & such. as far as it being faster? no. Mine benched EXACTLY the same as a 2x1mb cache AthlonX2. I got a crap stepping that only hit 2.68@1.6v, so I went back to my 4200+, It clocks about 100mhz higher. It's just luck if you get a good enough stepping to OC it really far.

 

[devguy]

Yeah. optys aren't overpriced. i got my 175 6 months ago for $130. Usually, they're built a little better w/ strained silicon & such. as far as it being faster? no. Mine benched EXACTLY the same as a 2x1mb cache AthlonX2. I got a crap stepping that only hit 2.68@1.6v, so I went back to my 4200+, It clocks about 100mhz higher. It's just luck if you get a good enough stepping to OC it really far.

Does the extra 100mhz you scored with the 4200+ really outweigh the benefits of the opty's 2mb l2 cache? I mean I could understand if you were using the 4400+...

 

[GraveFiller]

I wasn't tryin' to dog on your x850. It's an alright card, i had one a couple years ago. I don't know where you're getting a 7800 card out of me, tho(especially a 7800gs, those suck!). I have x1800xt PE cards. Anyway, i'm just going on experience, cuz my buddy has an x850xt PE card, and we've benched them all. Its fine for playing BF2 @1280x1024, but F.E.A.R.? no-way.

Anyway, doubling up your memory is a good thing to do, and you could squeeze some more speed from your cpu. your memory is already on a divider, so you could turn your HT multiplier down from 5x to 4x, and raise your FSB speed to something like 230, that would give you an even 15% overclock. something you should know, most hypertransport buses don't like going over 1000mhz, and you're at 1084mhz right now. I don't know how much you know about overclocking, so don't take it as an insult, k? you CAN run it that high if it's stable, but you won't notice any performance difference if it's lower than 1000 (as long as it's not like, 400 or something crazy low) . lowering your HT multi to 4x will give you mass headroom to work with, as with your FSB@217, your effective bus speed would be 868mhz.

Also, you noted that a x850xt has 540mhz DDR memory (1400mhz effective). DDR stands for Double Data Rate. that means, if the memory is really 540mhz, it's effective speed is 1080mhz, not 1400mhz. You also noted that an x850xt has a "rv530 core". "5" series ATI cores are X1000 series, like mine. yours is an R420 core. Also, all x800/x850 cards are 130nm fab, not 90nm. for future reference, ATI "pro" and "gt" cards suck. they're the crippled, wimpy versions of the real cards, and don't allow overclocking. I was talking about an x1650"XT" card, which is roughly 10-15% more powerful than an x850xt and costs less. It's shader model 3 compliant, and has more vertex shaders to boot.

Anyway, you could get another gig of ddr400 for like, $60. Also, a cheapo athlonX2 would run you probably $90. don't get a opty180, they're way overpriced for what you're going to be doing with it. the 165 would be great if you could find one for less than $100. In real-world applications, your 3200+ could theoretically be oveclocked to like, 2.6-2.7ghz, and outperform a opteron180 in gaming. That would be the cheapest way to go, take a worthless processor, and make it worth something!

Thanks for all the info, i think i'm going to give this pc to my girlfriend, and spend 2,500 on a new rig.... ddr800 intel dual extreme E6 series.. etc. etc.
Thanks again tho bud! I learned alot and will try to overclock my cpu more nowl
take care.

 

[rod3663]

i would get a good overclocking intel motherboard....and an e6320http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115015 a gig of corsair xms2 ddr2 6400 5-5-5-12

 

[NinkobEi]

for the record, 1950gts dont always clock to pro levels. I must have some bad memory in mine because it only does 650 ;/.

and dont bother with the 2600...128 bit mem bus what the hell? that's some serious lameness. anything under 256 isnt worth much.

and 7600s are about the same as x800s as far as performance goes, minus the SM3.0 support.

 

[Darknova]

Yeah. optys aren't overpriced.

You live in the US, I like in the UK. Different prices. Over here Optys are pointless. I just bought an X2 4200 (2.2Ghz) for £60. The equivalent Opty (175) is nearly £100. £40 for an extra 1Mb of cache? Really not worth it. There is no gain to having an extra 1Mb, any benchmark will tell you that.

 

[GraveFiller]

The "Normal" highest FSB speed of aany DDR1 system is 400MHZ. Therefore the majority of the ram out there is DDR400 or PC3200.

To overclock your cpu you need to raise the FSB (front side bus) above 400. When you do this is also raises the speed of your ram therefore overclocking that as well. This is the reason that DDR500 etc, came out. It is only so that it can match 1:1 the FSB of an overclocked cpu.

If I were you and you are on a tight budget and really must upgrade your agp board, I would get 2 more 512mb sticks of DDR400 ram. that will make the biggest difference to the system.

The next thing I would do it overclock the cpu a little to around 2.5ghz. That can be done fairly easily. If you would like i can give you a basic list of settings you will need in your bios to do this, granted your bios has the options.

Are you an avid gamer??? what sort of games do you play..

Also, could you fill in your system specs so that we can all see what you have. Go to quick links at top of page and click on edit profile...

Yes, I love Playing Medal of Honor online, Call of duty 2 and that's about it. Far Cry is awesome looking too!
I just updated the specs part of my profile so everyone can see the crappy rig...lol (not really so bad) i got!

What do you think of me just spending 80 bucks and get amd 4000? that's like 3 ghz no?

 

[PuMA]

Yes, I love Playing Medal of Honor online, Call of duty 2 and that's about it. Far Cry is awesome looking too!
I just updated the specs part of my profile so everyone can see the crappy rig...lol (not really so bad) i got!

What do you think of me just spending 80 bucks and get amd 4000? that's like 3 ghz no?

its something like 2.4ghz on stock. and I dont see ur specs there

 

[GraveFiller]

its something like 2.4ghz on stock. and I dont see ur specs there

Yea i see that... i filled out my profile, but i don't see it under my avatar...weird huh?

Thnx for letting me know about the 2.4 gz and not 3......lol.

 

[PuMA]

uncheck/check the box "allow other users to see my specs"