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939 vs AM2?

E

Episode666

n00b
Joined
May 28, 2006
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42
Would there be any point to building a new performance system around 939 or is AM2 the only way to go? Would I sevearly gimp myself by going 939? Does 939 have ANY advantage over AM2?

Dumb questions, I know. Thanks.
 
It's not that AM2 is all that much more of a performer over a 939 system, it's that it's continuing to be supported. All socket 939 production has ceased for as much as is known, remaining stock is back stock.

AM2 really only added the support of DDR2 memory, which due to it's continued production is getting to be much cheaper than equivalent speed DDR. DDR like the 939 CPU has also been ramped down in order to ramp production of DDR2 up.

At this time, I won't upgrade my existing X2 939 system as there'll be little advantage at this point. I've 2GB of very fast and stable RAM and a decent proc.

But if you are buying new, get an AM2.
 
939 has one advantage over AM2, it uses the same kinda RAM you have in your sig, but you have so little ram, it's not an advantage in your case. Another one is that sometimes you can find the stuff for it pretty cheap. It's going away fast, however.

A few months ago I scored a used s939 DFI and 3500+ for $110 and a 7600gt for $100 to tide me over until I go for AM3 action.

If you do go AM2, you'll apparently be able to move that cpu over to an AM3 mobo in the future, but you'll likely need new ddr3 RAM when that day comes, unless someone makes boards that run DDR2 or DDR3.
 
It's just not worth buying a 939 system anymore since it's not supported and parts are scarce. If you want a new rig, have you considered a C2D rather than an AM2? Don't get me wrong, an AM2 is a good system, but you could get a C2D cheaper and better performance.
 
You could check the FS/FT thread on here if your leaning to 939,however. If your going to build new using amd. The Am2/Brisbane core should work for a low budget build.

If you want intel on a semi-low budget then you might want to look at their Allendale core.
 
I also have a S939 rig (DFI Lanparty UT Expert) along with 4 gigs of RAM and an Opteron 175 and was faced with an upgrade decision. I was really taking a hard look at an Intel Core 2 or an AM2 setup - did some reasearch and found out that the performance increase wasn't going to be all that much (instead, it will cost me more $$$ for an expensive motherboard, $$$ for new RAM, $$$ for a new Processor - which would frankly suck because I'm sure we'll have nice cheap quad cores within a year, year and a half)..

So what I ended up doing was buying an FX-60 from Tiger Direct (299$), an extra MSI mainboard (for backup - MSI K8N Neo4 nForce ULTRA for 40.99$ from geeks.com <-- cheap just in case my DFI Lanparty Expert decides to die an early death), and an EVGA 8800GTS 640 MB - 359$ after rebate.

I'm thinking this rig should still have about 2 years of life left.. Basically It'll buy me enough time to hang on until Intel sorts out their bearlake chipset (with PCIEX 2.0), boards that properly support quadcore without issues, along with a nice quad-core CPU at 45 nm. (or something from AMD).
 
Because I'm just gaming and not doing much encoding or anything like that, I decided not to make the move to Core2Duo and stick with my 939 setup. A few FPS doesn't justify moving to a new platform for me so instead of betraying my beloved AMD by going to Intel, I'll stick it out and wait for AM3/K8L.

I'll upgrade to a DX10 card faster than I would to a new proc :D
 
I have been looking to upgrade a s939 processor for 1 of my computers for some time now and was looking at an opty 165, but it pretty much dropped off the face of the earth and the slowest dual core s939 I can find is $180, which is a bit more than I want to spend, so it looks like I will sticking with what I have until that system dies.

If you want an AMD, AM2 is really the only way to go now, but Intel prices are in fact better than AMD's.
 
protias said:
If you want an AMD, AM2 is really the only way to go now, but Intel prices are in fact better than AMD's.
Click to expand...

Although the 3600+ x2 @ $145 with an Nforce 5 based Biostar motherboard isn't bad at all. You can find the 3600+ x2 by itself for about $115.

The 3600+ x2 is most definitely the best bang v buck in my opinion.
 
quadnad said:
Although the 3600+ x2 @ $145 with an Nforce 5 based Biostar motherboard isn't bad at all. You can find the 3600+ x2 by itself for about $115.

The 3600+ x2 is most definitely the best bang v buck in my opinion.
Click to expand...

Well, an Intel Pentium D 805 is $95 right now on Newegg, so ya....I just got one and I hate the way it attaches to the motherboard. It is a lot more of a pain to install than an AMD, so you can see where I stand there ;)
 
protias said:
Well, an Intel Pentium D 805 is $95 right now on Newegg, so ya....I just got one and I hate the way it attaches to the motherboard. It is a lot more of a pain to install than an AMD, so you can see where I stand there ;)
Click to expand...

Yeah, but the PD is significantly slower and consumes more power than the 3600+ x2. Supposedly the X2s have also been hitting very high overclocks with relatively low voltage (probably due to the 65nm process).

Looks like I was wrong about the 3600+ price as well, considering the 65W 3800+ x2 is selling for $109 at mwave and the same at newegg. Overall I still think that the bang vs buck still goes to AMD for the value end.
 
quadnad said:
Yeah, but the PD is significantly slower and consumes more power than the 3600+ x2. Supposedly the X2s have also been hitting very high overclocks with relatively low voltage (probably due to the 65nm process).
Click to expand...

Yeesh, and I heard the 805 was lower in power consumption....doh :(
 
protias said:
Yeesh, and I heard the 805 was lower in power consumption....doh :(
Click to expand...

as a rule of thumb, almost anything based on Netburst will have worse power consumption characteristics than comparable A64 or Core2 chips.
 
Boyo said:
It's just not worth buying a 939 system anymore since it's not supported and parts are scarce. If you want a new rig, have you considered a C2D rather than an AM2? Don't get me wrong, an AM2 is a good system, but you could get a C2D cheaper and better performance.
Click to expand...


Note: You cannot get a C2D cheaper right now. thanks.
 
quadnad said:
Yeah, but the PD is significantly slower and consumes more power than the 3600+ x2. Supposedly the X2s have also been hitting very high overclocks with relatively low voltage (probably due to the 65nm process).

Looks like I was wrong about the 3600+ price as well, considering the 65W 3800+ x2 is selling for $109 at mwave and the same at newegg. Overall I still think that the bang vs buck still goes to AMD for the value end.
Click to expand...




That's my brizzy :)
 
heh I was happy when I hit the 1 ghz overclock mark.. it made me sniffle.

I did get to 3.1 ghz but the temps were a little high. I need to reseat my heatsink with artic silver.
 
TeamStrykerCore said:
heh I was happy when I hit the 1 ghz overclock mark.. it made me sniffle.

I did get to 3.1 ghz but the temps were a little high. I need to reseat my heatsink with artic silver.
Click to expand...

The all important Prime stable....worth much more than an extra 200mhz anyway.
 
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