After saving up all Summer -- and finding out my finances were so bad that if I didn't get my job I would have been screwed -- I have finally brought myself to purchasing a nice upgrade. After a lovely patent bet coming off -- that's 3 singles, 3 doubles, and a triple -- I managed to pick up a lovely AMD Opteron 170, with stepping CCBBE 0615EPMW.

Now, do not be fooled, this is a 3ghz capable stepping. Sadly, it seems my cooling is not up to the job as the core likes to overheat when I push the vcore. My trusty Arctic Freezer 64 could handle my 3000+ Winchester going from 1.8ghz to 2.65ghz, but a dual core Opteron is too much for it. It managed to push the chip to 2.85ghz without any changes to the vcore, and it can reach 2.95ghz with 1.4 volts. Sadly, the last 50mhz is proving elusive and I would have to push the chip to 1.48v to get a rather stable 3ghz.

Here is the problem, with 1.48v the chip seems stable until the temperature raises over 60c were it, quite rightfully, craps out. So as I owe Arctic Cooling for making a great Winchester cooler, I thought picking up the Arctic Freezer Pro was the right thing to do. It has not arrived yet, but with another heat-pipe and a bigger fan it should do the trick. The best thing about the damn thing is that it no longer pushes air into either my power supply or the back of my graphics card! The unit can be rotated to I can blow air straight at my exhaust fan.

So, I leave you on a happy note for a change. Hopefully with a naked Opteron running at 3ghz soon!