Opteron 144, CABNE stepping....

[mindgam3]

Maybe some of you guys here will be able to help me out... i'm looking for the above CPU in the UK. Is there anywhere else other than eBay where I can tell what stepping im getting before ordering it? If so, where?

edit: i only ask as i intend on building the following soon:

Mobo - Asus A8N SLi Premium - £111 - Dabs
CPU - Opteron 144 1.8Ghz - £115 - Scan
CPU HS - ThermalTake Big Typhoon - £26 - OC UK
Memory - 2 GB COrsair DDR500/PC4000 3-4-4-8 - £157 - Scan
GPU - 2 x XFX GeForce 7800GT Extreme 256Mb - £493 - OC UK
HD - Hitachi Deskstar 160gb - £55 - Dabs
PSU - ThermalTake PurePower 600W - £76 - OC UK


with the intention to overclock the 144 to 2.8Ghz under air cooling. From what i've read, with the right stepping this shouldnt be too difficult....

What do you guys reckon to the setup? What would you change, sticking within the budget set out?

[gigdy]

you know cabye is supposedly the better stepping? i just ordered a 146 and got cab2e :(

[mindgam3]

1. CABNE 05xx (excluding 0540)
2. CABYE 0540
3, CABNE 0540 / CABYE 05xx (excluding 0540)
4. CAB2E 05xx
5. CABGE 05xx

"It should be known that CAB2E's are more variable than other steppings. They are a bit hit or miss, a fact which diminishes their probability of hitting 3GHz. 146 CAB2E's seem stronger than 144 CAB2E's do. Recently, weeks later than 0540 have begun to show up, but we do not have many results yet."

This is the list i keep cropping up of most overclockable to least overclockable.

I've seen results of 2E's getting up to 2.8, but not any further, what were you looking for? ANy more than 2.8 and your probably looking at water cooling although i have seen someone with a 3.2 air cooled cabne, can't remember what original speed it was

[gigdy]

ive seen the list but i dont think ive seen it with the "ne: on top like that. As for overclocking i was never really planning on more then 2.7 so it didnt matter too much, which is why i just went for the cheapest price instead of stepping.

[crazidude]

I really doubt there's a way to find out your stepping before buying. I doubt it displays the stepping on the sticker thing on the box if your buying retail, so they'll have to actually open the package before finding out what stepping it is. If you're buying oem I suppose you can just call the store and ask what stepping it is. But I doubt it matters which stepping you get as they all o/c quite well.

I'm not too sure how much a seasonic psu will cost you, but it is far better than any TT product out there. Stable rails all the way up its maximum output, quiet and efficient.

Like thamar said, a raptor will boost performance more than you would expect. Load times is significantly lower than any normal hd out there, though I think the new 7200.9 seagates are kinda close.

Could you get an evga vidcard? They're cheaper, generally, and have a life time warranty just like xfx. They also have better service from what I hear.

The asus a8n32 is a better mobo if you're gonna go with SLI. Performance increase is generally 6% or more, I can't really remember, and it's not that much more expensive.

It may also be wise to get consider the new 1900xt. It beats the gtx 512 hands down and at high resolutions it can beat an sli'd gtx!

[gigdy]

If you buy retail there is a window on the box, and you can see the stepping. Id say your best bet is to call some of the places and ask. I know i saw a review that said one place did it. But i dont know the place and it probabl didnt ship to UK.

[crazidude]

If you buy retail there is a window on the box, and you can see the stepping.
lol I can't believe I forgot about that :oops:. I was envisioning a brown box when I was typing that message lol.

[Overmind]

Get a raptor harddisk!
No shit, buying that disk will be a huge gain in performance! Have the 74Gb myself, and a lot of other people I know have switched from 7200rpm to 10k rpm raptor disks and none of them regretted it! Yeah sure, they're more expensive, but also hella fast ;)

You don't necessary need to buy the 74GB version a smaller one will do as well. You only really want to put your OS and swap space on a 10k drive.