A64 Mobo

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aohellasux

Weaksauce
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Aug 2, 2004
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My birthday is coming up in about a month, and I am wanting to upgrade my P4 rig to an Athlon 64 system. I'm not really up on the AMD side of things right now, so I'm looking for recomendations on a good motherboard for gaming and some light overclocking. I'm a wimp and just stick with air cooling, so I don't need anything that overclocks like mad, just something that is fast and stable with a little overclocking potential. I also welcome any recomendations on which model A64 processor to get. Mostly I play FPS games, but I do some racing games and even some C&C Generals once in a while. Thanks in advance!
 
jubei, thanks for the links. one more question, is there any advantage to the socket 940 parts? Isn't that the newest socket the A64 comes in? If so, I'm assuming its more expensive than either the socket 939 or 754 stuff. Thanks again for the links!
 
aohellasux said:
jubei, thanks for the links. one more question, is there any advantage to the socket 940 parts? Isn't that the newest socket the A64 comes in? If so, I'm assuming its more expensive than either the socket 939 or 754 stuff. Thanks again for the links!
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Socket 940 came out the same time as socket 754. At the time, socket 754 supported Athlon64 CPU's and socket 940 supported the FX and Opteron series CPU's. When I bought my system, I decided against the socket 940 solution in favor of the socket 754 CPU (even though I could have afforded both at the time). Socket 940 requires the use of registered memory, and paying an extra $400 for the CPU for almost no differences between the A64 3400 and FX 51 just did not make sense. The performance gains, if any, were VERY minimal.

If I were you, I'd go with socket 939 stuff. It's the newest release from AMD and so you'd be "future-proofing" yourself. This is the way AMD is heading currently. I'd like to go with socket 939 because of the fact that you can actually run dual channel memory on it. The only reason I'm not going that route now is because I can't afford the FX 53 at the moment (I'm picky and that's the only one I'd want :p ). If the 939 stuff is too much, then go with 754. You won't be able to run dual channel, but it's still a very solid platform to build on. There were rumors that AMD would be phasing out 754 soon, but my understanding is that they still have a new CPU to release for 754 in the near future. As far as socket 940 stuff, I doubt you'll find any support for them even now. IMHO, Socket 940 was a waste of time and money a year ago, when I bought my system, and it's an even bigger waste now.

EDIT: To put it simply... No there's no advantage to going with socket 940. :p
 
ballr4lyf said:
Socket 940 came out the same time as socket 754. At the time, socket 754 supported Athlon64 CPU's and socket 940 supported the FX and Opteron series CPU's. When I bought my system, I decided against the socket 940 solution in favor of the socket 754 CPU (even though I could have afforded both at the time). Socket 940 requires the use of registered memory, and paying an extra $400 for the CPU for almost no differences between the A64 3400 and FX 51 just did not make sense. The performance gains, if any, were VERY minimal.

If I were you, I'd go with socket 939 stuff. It's the newest release from AMD and so you'd be "future-proofing" yourself. This is the way AMD is heading currently. I'd like to go with socket 939 because of the fact that you can actually run dual channel memory on it. The only reason I'm not going that route now is because I can't afford the FX 53 at the moment (I'm picky and that's the only one I'd want :p ). If the 939 stuff is too much, then go with 754. You won't be able to run dual channel, but it's still a very solid platform to build on. There were rumors that AMD would be phasing out 754 soon, but my understanding is that they still have a new CPU to release for 754 in the near future. As far as socket 940 stuff, I doubt you'll find any support for them even now. IMHO, Socket 940 was a waste of time and money a year ago, when I bought my system, and it's an even bigger waste now.

EDIT: To put it simply... No there's no advantage to going with socket 940. :p
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Ok, thanks! I thought 940 was the new one... I haven't had an AMD system since my Athlon T-bird 750, so I don't really know what's going on with the AMD stuff, just that from what benchmarks I've seen of games and apps I use, the Athlon 64 seems the way for me to go in a new system. Thanks again!
 
What about the 90nm 3000+ and 3200+ socket 939 processors. Shouldn't those be less costly than a 3500+ if he decides to go with a lower cost solution. That's what I've been looking at. Last I checked they were at about 175 for the 3000+ socket 939.
 
Trinz said:
What about the 90nm 3000+ and 3200+ socket 939 processors. Shouldn't those be less costly than a 3500+ if he decides to go with a lower cost solution. That's what I've been looking at. Last I checked they were at about 175 for the 3000+ socket 939.
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Actually the s939 3000+ is around 200 bucks right now...maybe a bit less. Also, the 3000+ s939 chip is only 1.8ghz while the s754 3000+ is 2.0ghz. Socket 754 will be cheaper if you give direct comparisons to speed or ratings. I gave him the 3500+ option because it's close to the price of the lower end s939. It be cheaper to go s754 3000+, which is what I have and it's blazing fast...so if he'd want to swap out the s754 3500+ for a 3000+ to make it cheaper, it's a good idea.
 
ballr4lyf said:
I'd like to go with socket 939 because of the fact that you can actually run dual channel memory on it.
Click to expand...

You can run dual channel memory on s754 boards as well. Dual channel is a misnomer in that it doesn't run any different than regular RAM. Dual channel memory is just a two stick bundle where the sticks are identicle to each other and have been tested together to insure compatibility. Buying a s939 board for this reason isn't a good idea. Buying it for the pci-e and future nForce4 chipsets are the better reasons.
 
jubei said:
Actually the s939 3000+ is around 200 bucks right now...maybe a bit less. Also, the 3000+ s939 chip is only 1.8ghz while the s754 3000+ is 2.0ghz. Socket 754 will be cheaper if you give direct comparisons to speed or ratings. I gave him the 3500+ option because it's close to the price of the lower end s939. It be cheaper to go s754 3000+, which is what I have and it's blazing fast...so if he'd want to swap out the s754 3500+ for a 3000+ to make it cheaper, it's a good idea.
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Hopefully this stuff will all be a birthday present, so I'm not so worried about price. Just gotta remind my dad that he got my brother a $1000 b-day present in February, and I think I'll be good.

Everyone, thanks for all the info. Now that I've got some basic knowledge of the current AMD platforms, I'll have to keep up on it.
 
jubei said:
You can run dual channel memory on s754 boards as well. Dual channel is a misnomer in that it doesn't run any different than regular RAM. Dual channel memory is just a two stick bundle where the sticks are identicle to each other and have been tested together to insure compatibility. Buying a s939 board for this reason isn't a good idea. Buying it for the pci-e and future nForce4 chipsets are the better reasons.
Click to expand...

Sure you can run the dual channel sticks on s754 boards, but you get use of single-channel mode only. The s939 boards have the dual memory controllers allowing for the two channels to be used which means greater memory bandwidth. Buying a s939 board for this reason is a good idea.
 
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