Athlon 64 3200+ or Opteron 144?

[Caveat Emptor]

Building a home desktop system. Just basic home use, plus a database
and some Java applications to be run.

Was all set to buy an Athlon 64 3000+ or 3200+ with an Asus A8NE mobo.
(about $ 145 + $ 110)
90 nm (Venice) core, 67W, socket 939, 512 K L2 cache

Saw the prices of Opteron 144 and 146 have fallen to comparable levels.
They come with a 1 MB L2 cache, also 90 nm, 67W, socket 939 There was a
line in www.anandtech.com price guide that suggested that the prices
for the Opterons are very good.

1. Which is a better buy, given the comparable prices? Should I be
lookig at other features?
2. Will any socket 939 mobo be compatible with the Opteron, give the
same number of pins? most sites allow one to filter for mobos that are
Athlon 64 compatible, but there is no mention of Opteron compatibility.
3. Mobo recommendations? Not looking to spend a lot of money, not a
gamer.

Thanks for the help in advance.

 

[General Schvantzkoph]

Building a home desktop system. Just basic home use, plus a database
and some Java applications to be run.

Was all set to buy an Athlon 64 3000+ or 3200+ with an Asus A8NE mobo.
(about $ 145 + $ 110)
90 nm (Venice) core, 67W, socket 939, 512 K L2 cache

Saw the prices of Opteron 144 and 146 have fallen to comparable levels.
They come with a 1 MB L2 cache, also 90 nm, 67W, socket 939 There was a
line in www.anandtech.com price guide that suggested that the prices
for the Opterons are very good.

1. Which is a better buy, given the comparable prices? Should I be
lookig at other features?
2. Will any socket 939 mobo be compatible with the Opteron, give the
same number of pins? most sites allow one to filter for mobos that are
Athlon 64 compatible, but there is no mention of Opteron compatibility.
3. Mobo recommendations? Not looking to spend a lot of money, not a
gamer.

Thanks for the help in advance.

The 939 Opterons are rebranded A64s. The only difference is that the low
speed grade Opterons have 1M of cache while the low speed grand A64s have
only 1/2M. At the high speed grades the A64s also have 1M of cache. If the
price is close I'd definitely go with the Opteron.

 

[Yousuf Khan]

The 939 Opterons are rebranded A64s. The only difference is that the low
speed grade Opterons have 1M of cache while the low speed grand A64s have
only 1/2M. At the high speed grades the A64s also have 1M of cache. If the
price is close I'd definitely go with the Opteron.

Is the unregistered ECC memory mandatory on the Opterons? I've not seen
any real discussion about this. My suspicion is no.

A64's can get by with unregistered non-ECC memory.

Yousuf Khan

 

[General Schvantzkoph]

Is the unregistered ECC memory mandatory on the Opterons? I've not seen
any real discussion about this. My suspicion is no.

A64's can get by with unregistered non-ECC memory.

Yousuf Khan

The 940 pin Opterons use registered DIMMs, the 939 pin Opterons use
unregistered. The 939 Opterons are Athlon 64s. AMD has done a terrible job
of labeling their chips. In the Athlon 64 line they intersperse .5M cache
parts with 1M cache parts without providing any indicator as to the cache
size expect for the model number. They also label the highest clocked part
as an FX even though the only difference is the clock speed. Now they've
further complicated things by introducing the 939 pin Opterons which are
really just relabeled Athlon 64s. If I were in charge of naming parts for
AMD I'd differentiate the parts more clearly. For example I'd call the .5M
chips Athlon 64s, I'd call the 1M parts Athlon64 FX, and I'd have all
Opteron parts use registered ECC DIMMs, not unbuffered DIMMs.

 

[Yousuf Khan]

The 940 pin Opterons use registered DIMMs, the 939 pin Opterons use
unregistered. The 939 Opterons are Athlon 64s. AMD has done a terrible job
of labeling their chips. In the Athlon 64 line they intersperse .5M cache
parts with 1M cache parts without providing any indicator as to the cache
size expect for the model number. They also label the highest clocked part
as an FX even though the only difference is the clock speed. Now they've
further complicated things by introducing the 939 pin Opterons which are
really just relabeled Athlon 64s. If I were in charge of naming parts for
AMD I'd differentiate the parts more clearly. For example I'd call the .5M
chips Athlon 64s, I'd call the 1M parts Athlon64 FX, and I'd have all
Opteron parts use registered ECC DIMMs, not unbuffered DIMMs.

Well, they did used to make the 100-series Opterons Socket 940 before.
They consciously decided to make them Socket 939 now. I suspect it's to
gain marketshare in the cheapass server marketplace, the ones which
companies like Dell cater to where they sell Pentium 4 desktops and even
Celerons as servers! The 100-series Opterons using registered DIMMs
would not have been able to effectively compete in that market.

But anyways, you didn't answer the question. Does Socket 939 Opteron
absolutely require ECC memory or not?

Yousuf Khan

 

[General Schvantzkoph]

Well, they did used to make the 100-series Opterons Socket 940 before.
They consciously decided to make them Socket 939 now. I suspect it's to
gain marketshare in the cheapass server marketplace, the ones which
companies like Dell cater to where they sell Pentium 4 desktops and even
Celerons as servers! The 100-series Opterons using registered DIMMs
would not have been able to effectively compete in that market.

But anyways, you didn't answer the question. Does Socket 939 Opteron
absolutely require ECC memory or not?

Yousuf Khan

AMD's website makes a big deal about supporting unbuffered ECC memory on
the 939 pin Opterons and they don't mention non-ECC memory. However the
Athlon-64 supports unbuffered ECC memory as well. On the Monarch website
you can configure a system with the Opteron 1xx and they don't even give
you the option of ECC memory. So I'd say that ECC memory is not required.
The only reason that AMD keeps mentioning it is that they are trying to
create the impression that there are differences between the Athlon 64 and
the Opteron 1xx when in fact they are exactly the same part. If you look
at the AMD website they claim the Opteron 1xx is made with Opteron die
material as if that's somehow different from the die material that they
use to make consumer Athlon 64s.

 

[Kimmy]

The only reason that AMD keeps mentioning it is that they are trying to
create the impression that there are differences between the Athlon 64 and
the Opteron 1xx when in fact they are exactly the same part. If you look
at the AMD website they claim the Opteron 1xx is made with Opteron die
material as if that's somehow different from the die material that they
use to make consumer Athlon 64s.

AMD's FAB is just running very well on 90nm ATM.
Actually the Opterons do get the better silicon, AMD would be stupid not
to use their best quality wafers on these chips, there is too much at
stake to do otherwise.