Presler 920 Stepping?

[tycanadian]

Hi guys,

I've been with AMD for a long time and quickly browsed through the Presler sticky and a few pages of the forum. Is is luck of the draw or are there any particular steppings I should look for/avoid when I buy my Presler 920 in a few weeks? Thanks!

[JCLW]

So far the only stepping that has been released is the B1. The new C1 is due out in a week, but you may not see them is stores for a little while, espeically up here.
The prices are supposed to drop significantly at the same time, to make room for the new 960.

Here's the PCN: http://developer.intel.com/design/pcn/Processors/D0105761.pdf

The 920 will stay at B1, so you might want to look for a 930 "SL95X" C1.

It looks like the biggest changes will be:
- Reduced power consumption
- HALT and EIST will be re-enabled (which should allow the use of the 14x multiplier on boards that support it).

[tycanadian]

Thanks for the info, that's good to know. If the 930 is the better overclocking choice, I wonder what my best overall bang-for-the-buck would be if I want to spend around $800-900 CDN on a CPU/mobo/RAM dual-core setup? I'm doing mostly database calculations so not sure which would be better between AMD/Intel. Maybe I should look at some AMDs as well, although with the price drops on the Preslers coming up, Intel still might be tempting. I'll look into it a little more, and as always, any opinions are welcome. Thanks again.

[greenmaji]

If your doing database calculations are you sure you want to overclock your system????

[JCLW]

From where I usually shop:

$255 - P5WD2-E - http://www.pccanada.com/viewitem.asp?id=4258
$390 - 930 D - http://www.pccanada.com/viewitem.asp?id=4173
$225 - OCZ 2Gb DDR2-667 Dual Channel Value Pro - http://www.pccanada.com/viewitem.asp?id=3752
--------
$870 right now.

But I'd wait for the C1s and price cuts.

edit:

As an alternative:
$140 - P5LD2 - http://www.pccanada.com/viewitem.asp?id=3643
$165 - 805 D - http://www.pccanada.com/viewitem.asp?id=4273
$225 - OCZ 2Gb DDR2-667 Dual Channel Value Pro - http://www.pccanada.com/viewitem.asp?id=3752
--------
$530 right now.

[tycanadian]

Greenmaji - I called them database calculations...I guess that's still what they are, but mainly just boils down to a massive amount of large array operations (what I'm actually doing is backtesting and optimizing stock trading algorithms on a large database of historical data). So if it crashes, it's not too critical, but speed is very important to me. I'm actually waiting for Conroe to come out but I need something to tide me over until then, and then I'll just swap my CPU/mobo/RAM and do a clean install.

JCLW - That looks not too bad. I think I'd take the higher performance (920 or 930) setup rather than the 805. The prices where I usually buy my stuff (www.ncix.com or www.memoryexpress.com) are similar. One thing I'm still unsure of is the RAM as well. Assuming everything will have good cooling (Stacker 830 case with Big Typhoon), would the OCZ value RAM be sufficient to support the expected CPU overclock (whatever that may be)? I was looking at the 2x1GB Mushkin XP 5300 3-3-3-10 RAM kit but I'd much rather buy the cheaper stuff if there won't be much difference. Any thoughts?

Thanks again.

[greenmaji]

Ahhhh.. historical data and such ok.. you said database and I was thinking live possibly vital info :eek:
667 should be good enough for conroe (well the non XE anyway) but the timings on the stuff linked is how do I say it :eh?:
I've been told 800 cas4 would cut it for OCing conroe with some FSB to spare. (or just really good OCing ram like you picked out already)

[tycanadian]

I'm actually thinking to get new RAM when Conroe comes out since I'll most likely end up putting this CPU/mobo/RAM into a new el-cheapo box with a cheap hard drive and no monitor. I'll just run it over the network since the stuff I do is quite parallel and I have things set up to use networked CPU power. However, I'm hoping to get 4GHz+ out of a Presler until then, and I want to make sure whatever RAM I get won't hold me back.

[greenmaji]

If your going to be replacing it anyway I would try to find a deal like this..
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820141211
yea, I know its in the states but its a great deal its cas4 677, and its held pretty strong with OCing presslers :D

[tycanadian]

Wow, that is dirt cheap. Sadly, Newegg won't ship to Canada :(. We get pretty good deals up here too but usually not the full spread of products Newegg has.

Any idea how the green Mushkins overclock? They're dirt cheap too:
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=15194&vpn=991382&manufacture=MUSHKIN

[Stratus_ss]

if I were you I would watch the classifieds/BST forums on other sites
I picked up (if it ever gets here) that PQI memory mentioned for $110 shipped

most of the guys here are pretty good about shipping to the 'forgotten' up here in Canada ;)

[batboy]

Any idea how the green Mushkins overclock? They're dirt cheap too:
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=15194&vpn=991382&manufacture=MUSHKIN

That Mushkin you listed should be fine. It's rated DDR2-667 which means you can run it at 333 FSB using the 1:1 ratio and it would still be in spec. Even with a 920, 333 FSB would be 4.66 gig. Yeah, I'd say that RAM could handle it and Mushkin has a good reputation for quality.

[tycanadian]

Hmmm. Thanks for the info guys. Yeah I had Mushkin in my old AMD box and loved it. To put a new spin on things, I've been browing the XS forums and noticed that there might be one or two Conroe-ready 975X boards available very soon. If that is the case, I'd probably go for the higher end RAM to carry me over to Conroe and just sell my 930 chip when I upgrade. Just what I need as I scramble to sort my life out as I move back from Switzerland to Canada, another difficult decision :).

EDIT: Now perhaps 965X boards sooner than these 975X boards? Also from XS Forums.

[JCLW]

:thup:
http://img105.imageshack.us/img105/3988/asusp5bdeluxe6lm.jpg

[tycanadian]

One word:

WHEN?