So many . . . stability, overclocks insanely & most bang for the buck .
Disadvantages:
None except that Intel C2Ds now yields better performance .
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
Currently the leading budget overclocking AMD dualcore processor, why? simply becourse the price/performance ratio is ridicolous, let me explain in detail in the best of my ability.
(I´m assuming that the reader/s have some or even better knowledge about overclocking & the terms used in the semi-advanced school of computer knowledge, if youre a newbie thats fine too as I will try to write this review so that it´s understandable to some extent by everyone & reading is the key to learning, there are also plenty of guides on the net to satisfy your apetite ;) ) btw I´m no expert myself, merely a layman with a couple of self-built "puters" in my CV.
Initially the CPU cores run at 1,8GHz which is more than enough when surfing the www & playing music + having your system loaded with AV, Anti Spyware & various other apps + resource hungry services without "CPU-lag", for most users thats fine as you can also watch movies & play many recent games with a semi-decent graphicscard added & I recommend having atleast 1GB PC3200 RAM(2x512MB in dualchannel mode) to enjoy this CPU in Windows XP (if running Vista i would say double that RAM size as Vista is more "memoryhungry").
However if you want to get a hefty speedbump then its no problem as even with the accompanied heatsink, which sports a copper base with heatpipes on it (unlike the X2 package) I will dare to say that between 2.4GHz to 2.6Ghz is obtainable (without increasing the Vcore), now if you decide to go for an aftermarketcooler (type Zalman,Tuniq Tower or Scythe + not having too high ambient temperatures inside your chassi e.g well ventilated with about 2-3x120mm fans) then this baby can reach about 3GHz! (of course youll need to increase voltage & know quite alot about overclocking to get a succesful overclock) I must also say that overclocking voids your warranty it´s a well known fact, even by not using the standard heatsink you will void it!.
I will not get into the depths of watercooling, but by using H2O fellow forumites have reported succesful OCs in the 3GHz to 3.3Ghz area, thats a huuuge OC close to double that of its original speed.
Another factor is the stepping of the CPU, as the difference between a good/bad stepping can make your maximum OC halt @ around 2,4GHz with bad stepping & 3GHz with a good one (on good air-cooling).
Even more factors can make a world of difference like PSU quality RAM type & the features of your motherboard.
Moving on....don´t understimate the benefit of using a good thermal paste like AS5 (Arctic Silver) as when the paste which by the way has as the name suggest silver in it, that fills in the gaps of the often rough area of the heatsink base. this paste will most likely make your CPU temperature drop around 5 degrees celsius, which is a good thing when overclocking (even without OC lower temp makes your CPU more stable especially on full load).
Remember what i wrote about the ridicolous price/performance ratio ?this CPU is the entry level CPU of the dc opteron family not only is it much cheaper than the 185 but also reaches about the same overclocking speeds therefore it delivers most "bang for the buck" ( I have read a whole lot of info about this on various sites/forums hence why i know a fair amount of this CPU, btw no info is taken directly from other sources just bits of info to clarify my review in order to avoid false statements from my side to the reader/s). If you however feel that this review contains false information just comment on it so that I will get the chance to edit (if your proven right of course).
Finally the Opteron 165 have one other feature that it´s entry level X2 siblings are a bit short of & thats probably why its so fast in so many applications & benchmarks that i have runned
FYI I´m currently running this gem @ 2.7GHz (that´s a good 900Mhz OC) & the temp is so low compared to my former AMD A64 3200+ (Venice) around 15 degrees celsius lower on the average.
I can also add that I bought this one just to OC the heck out of it, so immediately after the break-in time of 3 days I ramped up the speed adjusted the various settings in the BIOS & ran PRIME95, ORTHOS & 3DMARK06 I was utterly impressed with the performance gains & stability I received.
edit: about 3DMARK06 CPU performance, with my AMD A64 3200+ @ 2520MHz I got around 900 points (cpuscore) compared to 2179 with the opty @ 2835MHz what a difference.
So now I´m feeling ready to wrap this up by writing that the Opteron 165 is the best CPU i have ever laid my claws on, the blistering speed, the superb multitasking & how cool it runs (how does 25-30 degrees celsius (+ around 10 degrees depending on ambient temps inside the case & room temp) idle/some surfing ,listening to music (and running overclocked) sound to you? sure on full load the temps rises but stays within tolerable levels (if you choose to purchase a Tuniq Tower 120 I´ll bet your temps will be even cooler as its widely known to be one of the best aftermarket coolers, if not the best).
I most likely wont upgrade until the Intel Nehalem 45nm Quadcore CPU has been out long enough to get it for a bargain, but that will certainly take quite a while so its a good thing for me that I have "my precious" until then & that feels very comforting.
More details
Stability
Very stable
Evaluate this review
How helpful would this review be to someone making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
