Tom's Guide > Forum > Homebuilt Systems > General Homebuilt > Advice on Upgrading 2x Single Core Opteron 248

Advice on Upgrading 2x Single Core Opteron 248

Forum Homebuilt Systems : General Homebuilt - Advice on Upgrading 2x Single Core Opteron 248

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sulfur1022   08-15-2008 at 09:25:21 PM

Hi all,

I'm more of a s/w guy so I need some expert advise from the h/w gurus here. I am thinking of upgrading my home PC, which has been/will be used mostly as a game PC:

- Asus K8N-DL w/ 3 GB ECC DDR DIMM (6x 512MB, probably DDR266 or DDR333)
- 2x single-core Opteron 248 2.2 GHz OC to about 2.5 GHz
- 6800 GS
- Antec SmartPower 2.0 500W ATX

1) If I upgrade the video card to an AMD 4850, will the CPU/mobo/RAM be a bottleneck?

2) Would it help if I also pickup a couple used dual-core opterons, eg 265/270/275 and OC them? Or should I save my money and upgrade to a single quad-core & new mobo + RAM?

3) In general how would two older dual-core opterons fare against a single quad-core phenom for the same GHz, i.e. 2x 275 vs 1x phenom 9550?

Thanks.

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ohiou_grad_06   08-16-2008 at 12:06:33 AM
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I don't know about how they would fare against a phenom. Some of the old opterons are good chips. That said, two might do good, but I don't think you would be getting your money's worth. Figure $150 bucks for a new one if you can't find a used one. So 2 of them for 300 bucks, you could realistically have a new AM2+ motherboard, 2 gb of ddr2 1066 memory, and a quad for under that amount. So at that, I don't think I could recommend the dual opteron dual core idea. Put it this way, if you upgrade your old stuff, you are dumping money into an old design. If you go with newer stuff, at least it's not outdated as fast. It's up to you, but as it gets older it may get more expensive.

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sulfur1022   08-19-2008 at 10:53:14 PM
- 0 +

Thanks. I posted after seeing somebody selling used ones on eBay for US$49.99/ea but guess I missed the chance. All gone now.

You're right at $150/ea it would not be worth my while. I was wondering if I could get a decent boost for $100 + shipping.

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ohiou_grad_06   08-20-2008 at 02:28:33 AM
- 0 +

Yeah, can understand. I know I got into that deal of do I try to upgrade old stuff or get all new, and it's really getting to where unless you have something old that's relatively quick and is loaded with ram, it's almost better to upgrade to the current designs rather than dump money into an old rig.

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