Comp Advice: Building Dual Opteron 240

[Jim .E.]

planning on building a Dual Opteron 240 system with about 2GB of ram...was wondering about the following questions:
- is it worth it?
- what motherboard?
- are they relatively stable to overclock? if so water cooling or 2 Scythe ninjas would be suffice?

i wont be building the beast until about summer but i want a heads up on if itll be beneficial or not (looking to create a server out of my old pc and make this into a gaming rig and just make it powerful so i dont have issues with render times when i start modelling heavily with the cg apps i have)

[Harry]

Opterons are generally intended for stable server use. You will not find too many system boards that lend themsleves well to overclocking. It is possible though.

As for which board to use, it is best to define what you intend to do with said system. If you want cheap, you can get an MSI or tyan board. No PCI-X, but AGP, RAID, SATA, up to 4GB REG ECC.

With all of the opteron boards you will need Registered ECC.

[bmdbley'sBro]

Fuu this just came up on another board.
I think over clocking is possible, but "stock" the latency will be so low that
you won't really need to.
especially if sata'd with paird pc3200+ (or whatever) ram

I can run CoD2 & BF2/ Bf2 special forces on my 2800+ (2ghz) Semperon that i built.

so 2cpu's is just overkill

[rhythm]

Dual Opteron 240's wouldn't qualify as a "best" anymore, they are 1.4ghz. You're best bet is to get a DualCore AMD64 and some ram. It would be a lot cheaper and faster.

[Proliphic]

If I were you id look into getting the Athlon 64 4000+ @ 2400 MHz,
price is about the same as the 2 Opertons
wider selection of motherboards, less heat, great gaming powerouse cpu

heres a link to show performance diff over the P4 550 @ 3400 MHz
http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/...5E9585,00.html

[Harry]

Originally Posted by Proliphic

If I were you id look into getting the Athlon 64 4000+ @ 2400 MHz,
price is about the same as the 2 Opertons
wider selection of motherboards, less heat, great gaming powerouse cpu

heres a link to show performance diff over the P4 550 @ 3400 MHz
http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/...5E9585,00.html

Is that a crack piep I see? Must be.

The 240's go for about $60 each on 2cpu. 4000+ = $410. Cheaper for the 240? No. There is also no chance of the 40's being hotter than a 4000+.

[Proliphic]

Originally Posted by rhythm

Dual Opteron 240's wouldn't qualify as a "best" anymore, they are 1.4ghz. You're best bet is to get a DualCore AMD64 and some ram. It would be a lot cheaper and faster.

Cheaper ??? the DualCore are a lil bit of a jump in price..
64 4000+ = around $400
Dual Opertons 240 = around $400
64 DualCore 4800 = around $800

and for not much of a diff as far as bang for your buck goes.

Image Below is from http://techreport.com

[Proliphic]

Originally Posted by Harry

Is that a crack piep I see? Must be.

The 240's go for about $60 each on 2cpu. 4000+ = $410. Cheaper for the 240? No. There is also no chance of the 40's being hotter than a 4000+.

well off Pricewatch.com Operton 240s going for $158 USD per cpu
not sure where you get your CPUs but id like to get the hook up lol..

[rhythm]

Originally Posted by Proliphic

If I were you id look into getting the Athlon 64 4000+ @ 2400 MHz,
price is about the same as the 2 Opertons
wider selection of motherboards, less heat, great gaming powerouse cpu

heres a link to show performance diff over the P4 550 @ 3400 MHz
http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/...5E9585,00.html

They don't sell opteron 240's anymore, so they can't be the same price as the 4000+. You can get them used for about $50-$60.

[rhythm]

You also might want to take into consideration the cost of a good stable dual motherboard, and don't forget that ECC ram will run you into the ground.