Reply And You Might Convert Me To AMD

[Serra]

Alright, like the thread title suggests, I'm an Intel fanboy (but lets not get into that) so I don't know a lot about the AMD side of things and have one very pressing concern. You see, I'm likely to be getting an AMD dual-core processor pretty soon and need a motherboard to go with it.

Getting more specific, the processor I'll be getting free is going to be an X2 3800+ (I could pay the $90 CDN difference for a 4200+, but I just don't see that as a priority right now). From there, I also don't game.. and that's where the trouble comes in for me. It's easy to go find out what the best X2 mobo is for playing games, but I'm not willing to pay the extra $100+ that one needs for SLI, because I'm just never going to use it.

I will be adding on a cheap gfx card, so I don't need integrated video, and I'd like to be able to do some alright air OCing, but aside from that I'd like to pay as little as possible. I'm looking for boards from ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI, or DFI, preferably which can be found at the site www.memoryexpress.com . Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, and if it works out well you may just convert me from my Intel ways.

~ Serra

[.sentinel]

Look for a DFI Ultra NF4-D. That is the best board for AMD other than the Expert I think.

[Celcius]

Newegg has the DFI LanParty UT NF4 Ultra-D's for cheap:
$117
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813136159
Definately the best bang for the buck, it supports dual-core cpu's, and it's a great overclocking motherboard.

[menlatin]

Looks to be arpund $120 right now. Its dual PCI-E but its not SLI (unless modded) and its a damn good overclocker. BUT you have to remember this is s TWEAKER'S board. So, more than likely you're going to have to fight it to find max OC and stability. Not saying thats a bad thing, hell thats going to be my next board, but you just need to be prepared. The biggest issue that i hear about is memory timings when overclocking. There are ALOT of features with the DFI boards and it takes some time everything settled.

If you really dont care about THAT much overclocking feature, you can check out the ASRock Dual Sata II 939 board. Its ~$70 provides decent overclocking has AGP and PCI-E (1 slot), SataII, lan, audio and i think supports dual channel memory.

[jsriolo]

If you are going to put in an old gfx card then you need an agp slot. All of the NF4 boards mentioned have pcie so you are probably going to end up with some kinda NF3 board.

[Ugly n Grey]

I don't think there is any value in converting someone. Buy it because it fits your needs....or don't.

DFI Ultra-D

[Haltech]

Youre either an Intel whore or you arent. Dont need us to convert you. I think you already made that decision.. If you want AGP, you need a 939 board with an AGP slot. That leaves, MSI, DFI and Gigabyte. Neither of them are very good, however. Now, if youre talking PCI, you cant go wrong with the DFI's.

[Runner]

Epox has an nvidia AGP 939 board. Friend of mine had the DFI shortly after it came out, its probably better by now but I couldn't help but laugh trying to get that DFI board working, needless to say he no longer owns one.

[Thorry]

I love my MSI K8N Neo 2 Plat, it's 939 with AGP and when modded correctly (replace bios, replace all caps, mod the cpu voltage and memory voltage apply extra cooling to the mosfets, place a bigger sink on the chipset and disable the external SATA controller) it clocks pretty good as well.

Why go on whining about what to use Intel or AMD, just use both. I use a Dothan notebook, A64 754 at work, a Pentium-M Dothan as daily PC, A64 939 for gaming and a Celeron-M as media centre.

Intel or AMD? Just use both!

However stay away from Pentium 4 and Pentium D, those beasts pull more power than my hairdryer and produce just as much heat. And at that they are slow as well. Just go Pentium-M or X2.

[NickS]

My NEO4 rox, and is pretty cheap. I can, and have gotten 300HTT out of it easily stock. (haha and this is a refurb!!)

[Thorry]

I would hope a board can do 300 HTT stock... otherwise it's just p00p IMHO

[brandinb]

high voltages is a relative term ok.
you make it seem like you can compare the voltages between a p4 and a a-64 well it doesnt work quite like that.
voltages is only one part of the power use equasion and the amperage draw is the other.

[brandinb]

oh and btw id be willing to bet that dual core a-64 oced to 2.9 with 1.6 volts uses less power creates less heat and is much much faster then your pressler when oced

1.6 volts on a-64 is not that much really i run my 3700 sandiego core with 1.72 24/7 for half a year now and it runs very cool

btw what are your prime 95 temps of your prescot im sure its higher then 51-53 like you claim unless your motherboard does not use the internal probe of the cpu

[NinjaWreck]

I happened to see what the deal was with the X2 3800+ that everyones seem to be getting because I'm still on a quest for an amd set up but so far I'm not impressed at all with the "overclocking" results I keep seeing: high CPU voltage @ 2.9ghz (http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/8272/1m288600cj.jpg) at this thread: THIS ONE (http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=73800).
I intend on running my system overclocked 24/7 like I've been doing but most definitely I'm not going to give high voltage to my CPU so that it can be a couple of seconds (which it could me a short life-spam) faster.
Oh well, once again I think a Presler (http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1140646&postcount=60) will be the right choice for what I intend to do. 267fsb x full multi and less than 1.5v for CPU core. I will point out that I don't use CPU-Z to show my OC result, straight from System Properties, OC'D 24/7.


Well lets compare your CPU to mine. You have a single core with "HT" that is overclocked. Your processor is 3.2Ghz overclocked 800mhz or 25% on stock volts.

Mine is a dual core opteron which should be harder to overclock with a real second core. My processor is stock 2Ghz overclocked 700mhz or 35% on stock volts.

My processors rating would be around 5400+ or a 5.4Ghz Intel. Hmm thats a hard decision.

[biohead]

how about the asrock 939dual agp and pcie?

[Serra]

All very good. Who ever said anything about AGP though? I'd be getting a cheap pci-e card. But since I'm hearing DFI... I suppose that's what I'll go with, unless someone happens to post some particularly good reason otherwise in the next week or so.

~ Serra

[pancake]

get a dual core opteron , then you at least get 1mb of cache for each core , apposed to the x23800 which only has 512 per core

[cirthix]

opteron165 with an ultra-d or asrock pcie+agp mobo.

[racinjimy]

how about the asrock 939dual agp and pcie?


What he said, then you could upgrade to PCI-e when you want

O/C may not be the best (but not bad see AT review) but it sure is cheap

ASrock (http://www.asrock.com.tw/product/product_939Dual-SATA2.htm)

ANANDtech review (http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2524)

[Kobalt]

lol Nasgul...its actually Nazgul :stick:

[AJF]

Asus A8N-E might be right for you. Also, that $90 dollar difference between the X2 3800+ and the 4200+ plus is significant* in performance.



*In benchmark terms, of course...