AMD 64 Deja Vu?

Azza

Since AMD have dropped there price of the Athlon 64's I had look around a few sites until I came to komplett.ie which although not the cheapest showed something I have not seen on any other site

http://www.komplett.ie/k/kl.asp?bn=10056

I noticed 2 AMD 64 3400+ retails going for €337.00 and €329.00 the former is my cpu a clawhammer 2.2ghz with 1mb cache and the later I assume is a newcastle 2.4ghz with 512k cache. I would have assumed the extra clock speed would of cost more and preformed better than a 2.2ghz even with half cache.

Which do you guys reckon is the better preformer and which would overclock better
Or is this a mistake by komplett?

Töpher

There was always a 200mhz difference in the clock speeds of Newcastle vs Clawhammer. But are rated equally as the CH has 512kb extra cache. (Does this equal 200mhz tho?) But you can easily clock a CH up the extra 200mhz and have the extra cache. They can go to nearly 2.5 on air I believe. Wonder how far the NC 3400's can go, seeing as they start at 2.4...

BKtje

I would have assumed the extra clock speed would of cost more and preformed better than a 2.2ghz even with half cache.

The extra cache is more expensive and helps out in some programs. The two chips are basiclaly the same imo but i went with the clawhammer. basically figured that i could probably overclock it to whatever u could overclock the newcastle to anyway*.

*So far im doing ok but im still being blocked by the mobo

Azza

Update your bios B-K-DzR might help and run any sata drive in sata ports 3 and 4. Helped me alot.

Just checking you got a AMD 64 3200 2.0Ghz with 1MB L2 cache?

Anyway there must be more room in that setup.

what multiplyer and fsb you using?

Töpher

So a 3200 will clock as far as a 3400? Makes sense to get a Clawhammer then, no?

Stark

Don't they use different motherboards? As in one's a socket 754 and one's a socket 939. The socket 939 version (the newer chip with half the cache) would be more futureproof.

Azza

According to komplett its socket 754.

Töpher

Lowest 939 atm is 3500. Both def 754.

BKtje

Update your bios B-K-DzR might help and run any sata drive in sata ports 3 and 4.

Ive tried every single BIOS (except for the experimental review one cos its not stable but may try it).

I have actually found that 1.1 overclocks the best. I can push it as far as 256fsb before it wont post, 2,48ghz stable. I dont think its the cpu limiting it tho. Other Bios's it wont post at 236, 240 and 250.
No sata drives, ide here (for now).

Atm im at 248 x10.
The day MSI bring out a decent BIOS for this board will be the day that im a very happy camper

IM fairly sure its the board holding me back

Azza

Any chance the RAM might be a factor?

BKtje

unlikely. it should go to 250 fsb at those timings +. Ive even put it back to 210fsb too make sure it wasnt the cause.

Azza

B-K-DzR this is probably not what you want to hear having just got your motherboard and all but you could always considering changing to the more expensive new epox nforce 250 gb which has a fsb max of 350 but lower voltage options or the cheaper but no gigabyte lan chaintech nforce 250 option with good voltage options and a fsb max of 400. The Chaintech is suppose to be king of the overclocks and it does not even have a working multiplyer lock which is strange for nforce 250 boards. Maybe its something worth considering but if you ever did do your research (a volt modded Epox would probably rock the house).

Redrocket

azza nice system!!!

BAD SIGNATURE!!

Azza

Its not finished

Dempsey

AMD's Sempron, I think, shows AMD's intention to go with higher clock speeds over larger caches.

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2139&p=1

BKtje

I was considering changing motherboard but tbh atm i couldnt be arsed. It runs perfectly at 2.4ghz (some crashes at 2.48) so thats alreasdy a 20% overclock which aint bad.

I thought about all those mobos before i bought this one (the fsb limit of 300 on this board isnt a problem so 350 would be overkill) but this one seemed the best at the time. Im not so sure now but it aint a bad board at all. Just a littlye buggy when it comes to major overclocking. Ill be patient and hope MSI bring out a good BIOS.