Opteron 165 motherboard recommendation?

[I'mnot]

Hi--
I'm putting together a system around an Opteron 165--didn't arrive
yet, so I guess I won't know the flavor until I can see the number on
it. I need a motherboard that will overclock nicely, but nothing fancy
for video or storage. It's just regular home office stuff with
occasional video editing and DVD encoding and burning. I use
serial/parallel ports, Firewire... even onboard graphics are
fine--probably better than my old PCI card.
I'm familiar with the Asus Socket 939 choices as of today--any other
recommendations? Doesn't look like a lot of alternatives are around
for this chip.
Thanks--
Paul

 

[General Schvantzkoph]

Hi--
I'm putting together a system around an Opteron 165--didn't arrive
yet, so I guess I won't know the flavor until I can see the number on
it. I need a motherboard that will overclock nicely, but nothing fancy
for video or storage. It's just regular home office stuff with
occasional video editing and DVD encoding and burning. I use
serial/parallel ports, Firewire... even onboard graphics are
fine--probably better than my old PCI card.
I'm familiar with the Asus Socket 939 choices as of today--any other
recommendations? Doesn't look like a lot of alternatives are around
for this chip.
Thanks--
Paul

The socket 939 Opteron's are just rebranded Athlon 64s, the only
difference is that there are lower speed Opterons that have 1M caches, the
low speed A64s are all 1/2M cache parts. Any 939 pin A64 board will work.
The Nforce 4 cards are all pretty similar. The ASUS is fine, so is the MSI
K8N Neo4. Tyan and Abit also produce Nforce 4 cards. You can pick your
board based on features and price and the manufacturer's reputation. Both
Monarch and NewEgg have well organized websites that let you compare the
features of the boards.

 

[mk]

The socket 939 Opteron's are just rebranded Athlon 64s, the only
difference is that there are lower speed Opterons that have 1M caches, the
low speed A64s are all 1/2M cache parts. Any 939 pin A64 board will work.

Are you sure about that ? ASUS seems to think that A8N-E doesn't
support the opteron 165 but A8N-SLI does. What do you think the
difference could be, they haven't tested it ?

 

[I'mnot]

. Any 939 pin A64 board will work. ....snip...
Monarch and NewEgg have well organized websites that let you compare the
features of the boards.

I do like those sites and have bought from both places over the years.
But the manufacturers specify that only certain 939s will support the
Opteron. Even on boards that do support it, the company specifies the
BIOS revision you have to have in order to use it.
I wouldn't want to order a board that doesn't claim to support the
chip, unless a number of people have had success with it.

 

[General Schvantzkoph]

Are you sure about that ? ASUS seems to think that A8N-E doesn't
support the opteron 165 but A8N-SLI does. What do you think the
difference could be, they haven't tested it ?

Do they say that they don't support the 165 or did they simple not mention
the part at all? The A8N-E and A8N-SLI are virtually the same motherboard.
They use different variants of the Nforce4 but that shouldn't matter
because the Nforce chips are mostly the same.

 

[General Schvantzkoph]

I do like those sites and have bought from both places over the years.
But the manufacturers specify that only certain 939s will support the
Opteron. Even on boards that do support it, the company specifies the
BIOS revision you have to have in order to use it.
I wouldn't want to order a board that doesn't claim to support the
chip, unless a number of people have had success with it.

Monarch sells tested combos as well as whole systems. Buying a tested
combo is the best way to insure that the motherboard and the CPU are
compatible. Unfortunately each new release of the A64 has required a BIOS
update so it's always a gamble when you buy a CPU and a motherboard
separately. A high volume dealer like Newegg is unlikely to have old stock
on the shelf so the chances are pretty good that what you buy from them
will have a recent BIOS. Monarch updates the BIOS to the current rev when
they build a system.

 

[Chinooks_FURY]

This is the best (from a value standpoint) non-SLI board out there for the
Opty 165:

DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 Ultra
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813136152 $129

The best platform for performance & rock-solid stability would be this mobo
(non-SLI):

http://www.tyan.com/products/html/tomcatk8e.html approx. $185

Great choice on a CPU - the 165 is the rage because of it's overclocking
capabilities and price. Here a link for you to follow over at the AMD site:

http://forums.amd.com/index.php?showtopic=61008&hl= Just check out the
mobo's listed in the signatures of those involved with the discussion. "The
Return of Az" is the undisputed expert on this particular CPU. Pull up a
list of his post topics and find what you need. He's cool as hell and will
answer any and all questions. Great Opty guru . . .

Good Luck with your build!

 

[Doug Lynn]

Hi, correction not any socket 939 motherboard will work properly with Dual
core Athlon 64 165, only the ones that can handle 95W cpu power. A list of
recommended boards at
http://www2.amd.com/us-en/recmobo/ResultsHandler/1,,30_182_869_8819^8821~68707,00.html

As you can see the only Dual core Opteron 165 recommended board is Tyan
S2865.

doug
www.lynncomp.com

 

[Doug Lynn]

Hi, oops, correction not any socket 939 motherboard will work properly with
Dual
core Opteron 165, only the ones that can handle 95W cpu power. A list of
recommended boards at
http://www2.amd.com/us-en/recmobo/ResultsHandler/1,,30_182_869_8819^8821~68707,00.html

As you can see the only Dual core Opteron 165 recommended board is Tyan
S2865.

doug
www.lynncomp.com