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Socket 754 or 939 ?

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rossco6

MIS
Jan 14, 2004
37
GB
I'm planning on upgrading my PC to an Athlon 64, but am a little confused as to which socket to go for.

Both CPU's are similiarly priced so not to choose from there!

Does anyone have any pro's and con's for either?

Any comments would be appreciated.

Thanks

Ross
 
The biggest differences are that the 754:

1) does NOT support dual-channel DDR
2) has a slower hypertransport speed (rated at 800MHz, but word is that it truly has a flaw which keeps it closer to 600MHz)
3) is limited in upgradability with the fastest CPU it supports being the 3700+ (the 939 will give you that option of upgrading well beyond 4000+ two or three years down the road)

See this thread for more:
thread602-979979


~cdogg
[tab]"All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind";
[tab][tab]- Aristotle
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884
 
The 939 processors should in theory run cooler as well. Something to keep in mind if you want to build a quieter PC.
 
A Socket 939 Winchester core is definately the one to go for right now - Socket 939 "is the furture" according to AMD, and even if you go for the lower 3000+ Model (which is much cheaper than a P4 3.2GHz), you get great 64-Bit Performance (particularly with a 64-Bit OS and Applications) PLUS, good upgradeability (is that a word).
 
The newest 939 PCIe Nforce4's are certainly creating quite a buz, especially amongst the gaming community, they are possitively salivating over the SLI feature, two high end gaming cards working in tandem.
Obviously NF4 PCIe's come at a high cost and overall system performance is said to be no better than the standard 939 platform with either the Nforce3 250 or Via K8T880Pro chipsets.
Dual channel and increased Hyper transport speed of the newer 939 socket are definately advantages over the older 754.
Thats not to say 754's aren't any good, if you find a socket 754 CPU/Motherboard bundle at the right price then I would still recommend it but at the same price 939 wins hands down.
Either or: Via K8T880 Pro or Nvidia Nforce3 250, both are very evenly matched.
MSI K8 Neo2 Platinum MS-7025 won anandtech best 939 board in November.
PCIe: well if you are building from scratch and have the extra money but don't expect much differance in performance unless you are a hardcore gamer.
SLI: (two cards in tandem) said to give between 3 and 20% increase in graphics performance over a single card.
Martin

We like members to GIVE and not just TAKE.
Participate and help others.
 
paparazi:

The KT880 is a Socket A chipset, the KT800 is the Athlon 64 chipset, just FYI. :)

Not that big of a deal, but wanted to keep the information straight.

Cheers!
 
edemiere
If it's a mistake it seems plenty of others are making it:




Thats just three of many examples I turned up in a quick google.

Got to say I've seen Via's Athlon64 chipset named both ways, so I wasn't that sure myself. [2thumbsup]

cdoggs the man "AS USUAL" !


Martin





We like members to GIVE and not just TAKE.
Participate and help others.
 
Thanks for all the input guys!

It's a 939 for me then!

I've ordered an Athlon 64 3200 and an Asus A8V Deluxe, VIA K8T800Pro, mobo.

Thanks again everyone!

Ross
 
rossco6
Fine choice!

Remember dual channel slots and 1T timing settings (with two matched modules)
Be careful of cheap memory on these boards, branded low latency if possible but if too much money at least branded (crucial/Kingston/Twinmoss) standard

Martin

We like members to GIVE and not just TAKE.
Participate and help others.
 
Dual channel slots?

Does that mean that my existing ddr ram (think it's pc2700) will not work on this board?

I haven't budgeted for new RAM, dammit.

I have 2 ddr chips, 1 x 256 (think it's Corsair) and 1 x 512 which was a cheap, non branded one.
 
rossco6
That is a problem but mainly because it's PC2700 and Athlon64's ideally require PC3200 or higher to work syncronously at their 400front side bus setting.
Secondly using two differant modules works but not in dual channel mode (that requires to matched modules)

This isn't unique to Athlon64, it would also apply to a Intel P4 with 800fsb.
Martin


We like members to GIVE and not just TAKE.
Participate and help others.
 
OK, so it wont cause a problem, it just wont work as well as it could?

It'll be OK until I can get some pc3200 ram bought?

Ross
 
Yes, they can work fine in single-channel mode for now. However, running slower memory than what the CPU's frontside bus requires isn't a good idea. It will run noticeably slower, even if you tweak the ratio settings in the BIOS.

Upgrade to at least one stick of PC3200 as soon as you can if you go with this CPU. Then a couple months down the road, you can add another identical stick to have dual-channel (performance gains are as much as 10%).


~cdogg
[tab]"All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind";
[tab][tab]- Aristotle
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884
 
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