not really if you can afford a dual core opteron. beware the smithfield runs HOT. if you want to overclock like in the article on THG (curse you THG) you need a decent motherboard
one thing people never seem to take into account is that THG don't care if their hardware only lasts a week. articles like this are suicide runs. just because they made it that far doesn't mean it is practical. i don't think the chips lifespan would be very long under those circumstances.