64-bit or not?

lukeh182

Gawd
Joined
Jan 17, 2003
Messages
616
i am planning to upgrade towards the end of this month. my original plan was to get an NF7-S, 2500+ w/SLK-947, and Corsair PC3200 512MBx2. but i read somewhere that the NF7-S is beginning to be on the outs. not that it isn't still a good mobo, but that it's not as great compared to the new stuff. so i started thinking....... first mistake:rolleyes: why don't i spend a bunch more money and get a A64 3200+ and a nice board to go with it. same RAM.

so my questions is: is it worth spending the extra money now to get the A64 or should i just stick with the 2500+ setup? i want to get the "best bang for my buck"

if you say go for the A64 then also tell me a good mobo to go with it. i kinda like the features with the Chaintech ZNF3-150 but according to [H] it has some stability issues. so if anyone could expand on that it will be grratly appreciated:p
 
unless you are severely limited with your budget ... A64 is the way to go at the moment ...
 
There are a couple of reasons why I won't upgrade to an Athlon64 board right now. The first is because of the motherboards/chipsets. As of right now, there aren't any motherboards out right now that I would consider enthusiast boards. In some cases the chipsets don't lock the PCI/AGP busses or just don't seem to have the performance I would like. The SIS chipset seems to have just about everything right but isn't on a board that would be an enthusiast board yet. I would love to see what Asus can do with it though.

The other reason I wouldn't upgrade is because of socket 939. It will be out before too long and I'm not actually hurting with the system I am running right now. I would prefer to see what the 939 CPUs can do before I make a decision. Price could also be a factor.

I'm not telling you not to go for an Athlon64 right now, just to look at my reasons for not upgrading yet. If my arguments don't mean much to you, then go for the Athlon64 setup now.

I prefer to wait for now. Motherboards and chipsets aren't mature enough right now, in my opinion, to go for Athlon64. Some new motherboards for Athlon64 may change my mind though.
 
does anyone know if there are going to be any new boards coming out soon for the A64? i've read all of the [H] reviews and they all seem to be about the same in terms of performance and options.
 
Any word as to when the new 939 .9micron's will be released by AMD? Last I heard there was still problems with manufacturing.
 
Originally posted by Carnival Forces
i'd say go for it.
3000+ == budget.
3200+ == cash for cache.

Yeah the 3200+ is the way to go either way.

As for Motherboard's, the top two are the Albartron and the Chaintech. I am going to go with the Albatron I think because the Chaintech is too "bling blam" for me. I don't like the way it look's.

The Albatron won a 18 AMD Athlon64 Board review, and a 10 as well, the Chaintech was right behind it.

/IownZa
 
You could go for a decent A64 setup now, or wait a few months. Sometime around April or June the socket 939 should be out, and around summer time PCI Express boards should be out. Then around fall or winter ATi will have their own chipset out which should be pretty nice. I'm going to be waiting until everything settles down in 2005 and the A64 platform really takes off to build one myself, but if you got the extra cash then by all means go A64 now :)
 
Originally posted by tdg
You could go for a decent A64 setup now, or wait a few months. Sometime around April or June the socket 939 should be out, and around summer time PCI Express boards should be out. Then around fall or winter ATi will have their own chipset out which should be pretty nice. I'm going to be waiting until everything settles down in 2005 and the A64 platform really takes off to build one myself, but if you got the extra cash then by all means go A64 now :)

Onboard 9800XT's wouldn't be bad either :)

/IoWnZa
 
Why would the 3200 be the way to go either way? From what I've seen the extra 60 or so bucks doesn't justify its marginal performance improvement over the 3000. But that's just my opinion. I also haven't seen anything top the overall performance of the ecs 755-a2. Too bad the board setup and features suck.
 
Originally posted by logo29a
Why would the 3200 be the way to go either way? From what I've seen the extra 60 or so bucks doesn't justify its marginal performance improvement over the 3000. But that's just my opinion. I also haven't seen anything top the overall performance of the ecs 755-a2. Too bad the board setup and features suck.

I was judging between the 3200+ and the 3400+, the jump from 32-3400+ pricetag isn't worth it, but I would get a 3200+ over a 3000+.

/IoWnZa
 
Originally posted by logo29a
Why would the 3200 be the way to go either way? From what I've seen the extra 60 or so bucks doesn't justify its marginal performance improvement over the 3000. But that's just my opinion. I also haven't seen anything top the overall performance of the ecs 755-a2. Too bad the board setup and features suck.
it's really dependent on what you're using it for. if you do a lot of compiling or gaming, it's very useful. if you need raw speed to encode mp3s all day, it does very little. It will give an overall boost - worth 60 bucks? if it means you could get a bigger hard drive instead or more memory or a faster graphics card or a standalone audigy2 by getting the 3000+, then that might be the way to go.
 
Yeah, that was my point. It just didn't seem worth it to "ME" :)

I can't believe it's taken me 4 or so years to get on the boards here. Pretty nice so far!
 
i was originally looking at the 3000+ but when i saw that it only had 512KB L2 compared to the 1MB L2 of the 3200+ i decided the extra money is worth it.

iownza: i really like the chaintech so unless something else comes out better that is probably what i will get. course i'm not finished doing my research so i don't know for sure which board i'm gonna get!

btw: if you see in my sig, i have a chaintech board. i've NEVER had one problem with this board and i've owned it for probably at least 2 years now.
 
also, does anyone know if the SLK-947 will fit on a A64? specifically the chaintech board??
 
Originally posted by lukeh182
i was originally looking at the 3000+ but when i saw that it only had 512KB L2 compared to the 1MB L2 of the 3200+ i decided the extra money is worth it.

iownza: i really like the chaintech so unless something else comes out better that is probably what i will get. course i'm not finished doing my research so i don't know for sure which board i'm gonna get!

btw: if you see in my sig, i have a chaintech board. i've NEVER had one problem with this board and i've owned it for probably at least 2 years now.

Yeah, the 512kb/cache jump for $60 is well worth it, not to mention the slight speed increase as well. But I would pay the extra just for 2x the L2 Cache.

The chaintech is too bling bling for me, they have the same Chipset's and the same spec's so to speak, I prefer then plain, except my RAM light's up my entire case. platinum all the way!

/IoWnZa
 
Originally posted by lukeh182
also, does anyone know if the SLK-947 will fit on a A64? specifically the chaintech board??

I hope the hell so, that is what I want to use when I decide to get mine.

/IoWnZa
 
This is why i ask that question about the chaintech board: in the [H] review they show it with holes capable of holding the 947, but on newegg they show it with that bracket thing? anybody know what's goin on?
 
Originally posted by lukeh182
This is why i ask that question about the chaintech board: in the [H] review they show it with holes capable of holding the 947, but on newegg they show it with that bracket thing? anybody know what's goin on?

Maybe they are different revision's, or maybe the Bracket snaps out and reveal's the whole's for the HSF to reside...

/IoWnZa
 
The slk947 will not fit, however they recently released the 948u which is slightly larger and designed for the 64's. I believe it has a few more fins and a larger base.
 
Originally posted by logo29a
The slk947 will not fit, however they recently released the 948u which is slightly larger and designed for the 64's. I believe it has a few more fins and a larger base.

Yeah, I just checked their site and it look's as if that is what would be needed for a Athlon64 setup.

/IoWnZa
 
Originally posted by logo29a
The slk947 will not fit, however they recently released the 948u which is slightly larger and designed for the 64's. I believe it has a few more fins and a larger base.
everytime i am on this forum i am amazed at the knowledge of you people! i love it!:D i will never leave, you can't make me!
 
The Athlon64 is a great processor and buying it would be the [H]arder thing to do.
 
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