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AMD Opetron and Athlon 64 - please suggest


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Hello everyone.

 

I am looking to build a new more updated system t replace my long gone dual ahtlon mp... can someone please tell me the difference between the operon and athlon 64? I cant seem to find it on their site in simple words...

 

I am going to be using ADT2005 and Revit 6 in addtion to Viz2004 or Max5

 

I know I need al least 1Gb of ram to start; but I want to be able to work fast or decent sized model in ADT and revit while designing. I can not stand a laggy system. I know ram has a lot to do with that correct?

 

I am also going to be looking at a GFX card, which direction should I look at?

 

thanks !

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Go opetron if you are looking at going with a dual CPU system. If your budget is only allowing for a single CPU the 64 is the way to go.

 

Yes the more ram the better. 1GB is a good place to start.

 

Graphics Card wise you should look at the Quadro line.

 

 

graphix

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Running VIZ or Revit in an opteron kinda does not make sense to me, unless the Opteron is faster than a 32 bit AMD processor.

 

These are 32 bit applications running in a 64 bit processor, meaning, you're not using all the resources you have available. Since there is no 64 bit version of these apps or even a 64 bit Windows (It's beta right now), it's like buying a porshe that you can only drive in 1st and 2nd gears. The only advantage you get, with the 64 bit OS, is the capability of using 4 GB of memory when using the 64 bit OS, but there maybe some other problems since the OS is Beta and things are changing.

 

Alexander

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The benifit of using a 64 bit processor is the bandwidth available to the processor. I went from rendering taking 3 hours to just under an hour. same amount of memery, processor before was 2200+amd and the new system is a amd64 3200 with 1meg cache. same video, network cards and same hard drives and XP Pro sp1

 

MIke

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The benifit of using a 64 bit processor is the bandwidth available to the processor. I went from rendering taking 3 hours to just under an hour. same amount of memery, processor before was 2200+amd and the new system is a amd64 3200 with 1meg cache. same video, network cards and same hard drives and XP Pro sp1

 

MIke

 

Well, to be honest, I'm surprised. Running 32 bits in a 64 bit processor is not making use of any extra bandwidth. All you're doing is filling the extra 32 bits with nothing.

 

I would understand if they can make 32 bit processing faster, but it's not because of the 64 bits. If that was the case, the 64 bits would be 2x faster than the Athlons at the same speed and that's not the case.

 

Alexander

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The benifit of using a 64 bit processor is the bandwidth available to the processor. I went from rendering taking 3 hours to just under an hour. same amount of memery, processor before was 2200+amd and the new system is a amd64 3200 with 1meg cache. same video, network cards and same hard drives and XP Pro sp1

 

MIke

Mike: You actually dropped your rendering times that much? I like the sound of that, as I currently have an AMD 2100, and am thinking about going to AMD64 3400. Do you have to use ECC ram with that?

 

Some interesting test results comparing Intel & AMD at

http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/roundupmobo/athlon-64-3400.html

 

and

 

http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/3dsmax-render-speed-method/intel-amd-cpu-roundup-3dsmax-1.html

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The Opteron is the way to go if you’re looking for a dual processor system, if not go with the Athlon. Don't listen to those who say that having a 64 bit processor is a waste of time and money. Just think about it for a second, those who think buying 64 bit is stupid are probably buying the latest P4 or Xeon chip. In a year when the new windows 64 bit OS comes out you will see a significant performance gain by simply buying a $100 upgrade. Those still using a 32 bit system won't see any performance gain and the will have to buy a new system in order to take advantage of it, while you are extending the usefulness of your system by another year or two.

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is there any advantage to a opteron 100 (1 way) over an athlon 64?

provided they are both of the same speed?

 

Also,

 

What does it mean when there is the words OEM in the product description of a processor on ebay?

 

"AMD Athlon 64 3200+ 1MB L2 Cache OEM CPU "

 

Mobo Q. What motherboard do I need for an athlon64 for it to run with 1600Mhz FSF? In addtion is an athlon 64 board with PCi-X ?

 

Thanks for you help !

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I think OEM stands for Original Equipment Manufacturer. Like, Dell makes computers, so they get the OEM price on the components they use. Regarding CPU's you can buy a CPU for an OEM price, or pay a bit more and get the retail version. With AMD, when you buy the retail version, it comes with a 3 year AMD warranty. If you buy an OEM version, it is usually covered by a very short warranty from the seller (sometimes as short as 30 days).

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HELLO??!!??!!!?!! IT DOESN'T MATTER!!!!!

 

Should I use a mouse or a track-ball? Which is faster????

 

The CPU is NEVER the limiting factor in a system -- if it is new. It is always the hard drive, cache, memory, networking, remote file storage, etc. that holds you back...

 

You want a fast system:

1.) Buy a server motherboard. Why -- because they have multiple PCI buses built-in. One for file storage, one for networking, etc. It is the same reason everyone is using AGP for the graphics card.

 

2.) Get a RAID-0, 5, or 10, depending on cash. Yes mirroring is better, however, STRIPING with two, three, or four channels will always be better than one sssllllooowwww channel.

 

3.) Cache/memory - Unless you have 3-4GB or Ram, no one cares if it is 32, 64, 256, whatever... Get Supercache from Superspeed software!

 

4.) Gigabit networking (Cards, cable, router, AND server)? How about bridged dual gigabit channels?

 

If we all switch to electric cars, where do we get the electricity from?

Don't they have to burn or nuke something and send it to me anyway with all that transmission loss?

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>>The CPU is NEVER the limiting factor in a system

 

 

did you really just say that?

cpu is the MAIN limiting factor when rendering, unless the scene doesn't fit into the available memory.

 

harddrives in a raid-stripe is a nice thing, but not really useful for most 3d work, once the scene is loaded there shouldn't be much swapping going on.

while rendering there is no hd access, so there wont be a benefit.

video editing is a very different situation of course.

the same is true with gigabit networking.

 

it always depends what you're doing.

 

opteron vs. athlon 64...it's like athlon xp vs. athlon mp.

if you want to use more than 1 cpu you have to go with opterons. apart from that they are pretty much the same chips.

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>>...opteron vs. athlon 64...it's like athlon xp vs. athlon mp.

if you want to use more than 1 cpu you have to go with opterons. apart from that they are pretty much the same chips.

 

 

Thank you for the answer !!

 

 

does anyone make athlon laptops with a 64 chip? I am also looking at a laptop instead of a workstation.

 

Alienware has laptops that you can put 2BG of ram in it. I am in school to I am starting to think a laptop would be very advantageous? , but I also like to build very complex model and scenes as if there were real projects ? ( and some are real projects (renders))

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I am going to be using ADT2005 and Revit 6 in addtion to Viz2004 or Max5

 

All that matters is overall system performance...

 

Do really need dual cpus and do you want to pay for that?

Would a 3.4 HT with everything else loaded up do the trick?

 

Just remember that HT is in the P4s like Xeon and that opteron is really the way to go if AMD is your thing. Just don't get twisted up and pay a bunch of extra money if you can't feed the processors...

 

Are you looking to go with the 64 bit Os, if it every really comes out? Then Opteron.

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I would understand if they can make 32 bit processing faster, but it's not because of the 64 bits. If that was the case, the 64 bits would be 2x faster than the Athlons at the same speed and that's not the case.

 

Alexander

I don't mean to further this argument going on with this thread between 32 bit and 64 bit processors, but in regards to the 2x faster increase in speed by going with a 64 bit processor, I don't think that is quite right. If I'm not mistaken, it was Cadalyst that compared the processing power between a 32 and 64 bit processor. If you refer to the processing power of a 32 bit cpu to the size of a business card, a 64 bit cpu would be the size of the top of your entire desk. It's not just double the processing power, it's exponential (if that's the word to use).

 

Also, I'm not sure why anyone would not at least consider purchasing a 64 bit system if you're starting from scratch. Why spend money on yesterday's technology when you can buy tomorrow's for a little bit more, and when the software becomes available, your hardware is already there to support it. If you're spending $2000 - $4000 on a workstation with 32bit processors, you're going to be tied down to that system for at least a year, probably 2 or 3 if you're like most small companies. Meanwhile, you're chugging away on 32bit processors while your software has 64bit versions waiting for you to purchase and increase your productivity exponentially - at least in regards to processing time.

 

Eric

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