Geeks

[lytic]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductCompare.asp?CompareItemList=N82E16819103546,N82E16819103583&SubCategory=343

Basically I'm looking at these 2 processors and wondering: what's the big difference?

AMD Opteron 175 Denmark 1GHz FSB 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket 939 Dual Core Processor - OEM
vs
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ Toledo 1GHz FSB 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket 939 Dual Core Processor - Retail

I've been an IT professional for 9 years now, and I'll do research for a few months on the latest and greatest products when I'm getting ready to buy. So, yes, I know the difference between OEM and Retail (I'm getting a Zalman for my chip, so I don't really need the retail) and I know what everything is. For the past 2 years I was able to keep up and read the magazines. However, I started working on my Masters in Management Information Systems and when I'm doing college everything else gets put on the backburner. From my past knowledge, if I remember right the Opteron is the premuim chip and the Athlon is the value chip. Now, that is just what I remember and I don't have a whole lot of time to research the big difference between these 2 chips, if any of you know off-hand what the difference is, please let me know.

For anyone interested, here is my current purchase wishlist:
http://secure.newegg.com/NewVersion/WishList/WishShareShow.asp?ID=1829851&WishListTitle=My%202k%20Rig
A few notes:
1 Raptor - I have 3 Raptors already, 1 in a RAID 0 config and 1 in another computer. My plan is to use all 4 in a RAID 5 config in this PC.
No soundcard - I have the SB Audigy with the front plate in my current gaming machine that I'm going to steal and just use the mobo sound on the old one and make it another PC for the kids (all 3 will have their own now).
1 video card on a crossfire ready mobo - Dude, those cards are expensive! I'll wait another year when they are about $150ish and purchase the second one.

[Schmidty]

Damn, I thought I was being asked about my chicken-decapitating expertise.

[Mr. Wednesday]

At the same clock speed, I'm not aware of any significant difference between a 100-series Opteron and the equivalent Athlon 64. There might be something relatively minor related to HT linkage or something.

[lytic]

Damn, I thought I was being asked about my chicken-decapitating expertise.

Please feel free to share, I have a love for all types of geeks.

[Marc Vaughan]

This has some comparisons and a bench mark test ... a lot will depend on what you want to use it for really (and to be frank I'd be happy with either, my dev PC is a lowly 2.8Ghz Dual Processor job at the moment ... at least until I upgrade in a few months time ;) ).

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,1813763,00.asp

[jeff061]

I think the difference use to be that the Opteron, and the FX series 64's, had more L2 cache. They closed that gap on a lot of the processors now though.

[lytic]

They kept talking about the 200MHz clock difference, but the 2 chips I was comparing have the same speed. It was a good article though. I think I'll just stick with the Opteron since they seem to talk about it being more stable. This PC is all about speed, but stability is a good thing too.

One other idea is to step down on the L2 cache and upgrade the RAM to a lower latency.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103547 $100 cheaper
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820227056 $100 more expensive.

Oh the choices!!!

[A-Husker-4-Life]

Don't get the 4200+ get the 4400+ it has more L2 Cache.

4200+ 2.2ghz 2x512 L2 cache

4400+ 2.2ghz 2x1024 L2 cache (about a 92 dollar difference)

I'd buy the 4400+ if I was you...

[sterlingice]

Why would you spend $500 on a chip? It's a 2.4 Ghz chip when a 2.0 is half that. It's one of those things that you'll be looking at in 6 months and it will be at $300 or less. Go find the one that was the stud chip 6 months ago.

SI

[Marc Vaughan]

Why would you spend $500 on a chip? It's a 2.4 Ghz chip when a 2.0 is half that. It's one of those things that you'll be looking at in 6 months and it will be at $300 or less. Go find the one that was the stud chip 6 months ago.

SI
This is what I do when purchasing dev systems at SI - we always stay one jump behind the bleeding edge, simply because across the company it saves us a small fortune (which in turn allows us to have 2 dev machines for each coder :D).

[sterlingice]

Well, exactly. PC Magazine has been showing people the pricing sweet spot for at least 10 years now. You can get 2x computers at 75%-85% of performance of bleeding edge for the same price of 1 at said bleeding edge.

SI

[lytic]

Don't get the 4200+ get the 4400+ it has more L2 Cache.

4200+ 2.2ghz 2x512 L2 cache

4400+ 2.2ghz 2x1024 L2 cache (about a 92 dollar difference)

I'd buy the 4400+ if I was you...

If I was going to get the 4400+, wouldn't the opteron be the better choice?

[lytic]

Why would you spend $500 on a chip? It's a 2.4 Ghz chip when a 2.0 is half that. It's one of those things that you'll be looking at in 6 months and it will be at $300 or less. Go find the one that was the stud chip 6 months ago.

SI

It's better than spending $1000 on a chip. Before I started looking at what I can get for prices I was planning on getting something dual core and 64 bit. I planned on spending $350-$500 on the processor. Since the Motherboard I ended up falling in love with is cheaper than I thought it would be, I thought the higher priced processor would be nice.