buying advice please, AMD64 3000+

[ease_one]

My plan was to upgrade when Doom3 and HL2 come out, but that seems to be taking longer than expected and some new games like BF:V, FarCry, and UT2004 are out and it would be great to play them with everything on high. Still, I want a hot machine when Doom3 and HL2 show up. My system right now is such that I can't really upgrade any one thing, so I am going to need a new Motherboard, CPU and RAM.

I would prefer going with AMD, but I am open to whatever is the best value for my dollar. (I don't have any problems with overclocking as long as I don't have to mod any HW)

I have been thinking about getting an AMD64 3000+ because it seems to be a pretty good price for the performance and hey, viva la 64bit! Course with that I would be getting a new MB, and like a gig of RAM. Problem is I hear that AMD is going to switch to the Socket 939 soon (how soon?) And I would hate to be stuck with a Motherboard that can't be upgraded again in 6 to 9 months with a fast new CPU.

So I guess the question is, how soon are the Socket 939 going to show up? I know sometimes when HW is released it is a paper launch and it takes forever to actually hit the streets. Also new HW is often pretty expensive and I don't want to spend much more than say $200-$250 on a CPU, so if the new Socket 939 CPUs start at like $350 and come out 3 months from now, and then I have to wait another 2 months for the price to drop, I will be waiting a long time to play FarCry with high detail settings. Another issue is if the motherboards for Socket 939 CPUs suck when they first come out I don't want to get stuck with buggy board.

If I bought a gig (2x512) of say 3200 ram now could I use that with the Socket 939 CPUs whent hey come out, or are they going to require new RAM too?

If the Socket 939 are not too far off I can limp along with my current system. If its going to be six months, I might as well upgrade now, and then look into selling it in 6 months and then upgrading again.

Also like I said, I don't know what intel is up to, but if I could buy an intel setup now (I hear those 2.8s are great for OC), and then upgrade the CPU 6-9 months down the road that would be great, but maybe they will be switching up their socket type too?

Thanks for any help

 

[3lite]

Get a 3.4C or 3.2C and OC it.

In benchmarks the difference betwwen a 3.2/3.4C is nelligabale (dont even know if that word exists lol) and you can OC the intel a good 600-700Mhz, which would slay the 3400+. The 3400+ is a reall poor overclocker.

 

[the_village_treky]

id say go for the 754, its suposed to last for about a year and a half...(theyl still louch a 754 for a while after they louch 939)

 

[CIWS]

I've moved this into the AMD area. They will be able to better answer your questions concerning the release of 939 and other points.

 

[ease_one]

So... If I bought a gig (2x512) of say 3200 ram now could I use that with the Socket 939 CPUs when they come out, or are they going to require new RAM too?

 

[CIWS]

The 939s are supposed to be using Unbuffered DDR RAM. So you could get the RAM now and use it on a 939 later on. That's why a lot of folks have been waiting on 939, to save them from having to buy Registered ECC to use with the current 940 pin platform. So you could get a 754 Pin A64 now with 1 Gig of unbuffered DDR (at least PC3200) and then after 939 gets out, look at the performance and features of it and decide if it's worth it to invest in that one.

 

[specter554]

Originally posted by 3lite
Get a 3.4C or 3.2C and OC it.

In benchmarks the difference betwwen a 3.2/3.4C is nelligabale (dont even know if that word exists lol) and you can OC the intel a good 600-700Mhz, which would slay the 3400+. The 3400+ is a reall poor overclocker.

Would you really trust someone who spelled negligible "nelligable" . Check out thisRoadmap . IMO it is more important for gamers to wait for PCI-E if you want your comp to be upgradeable then to wait for 939. PCI-E cards and 939 are supposed to show at the end of Q2.

 

[GodsMadClown]

I agree. Wait until August for PCI-E slots and Socket 939.

http://www.techreport.com/reviews/2004q1/pentium4-3.4ghz/index.x?pg=16

The future, of course, always figures prominently in the final analysis. Right now, both Intel and AMD are preparing new sockets for their processors, and all the chipset manufacturers are gearing up to deliver PCI Express, more Serial ATA, better audio, DDR2 memory, and a whole range of other enhancements to the PC platform. The graphics guys, too, are looking to make April a big month for new products. Not only that, but Intel has confessed that 64-bit extensions now lie dormant in Prescott, ready to be turned on in future versions of the Pentium. This fall, Microsoft will deliver a 64-bit version of Windows, and both AMD and Intel processors will run it.

You could buy a new PC right now and have a very solid, very fast system that would last you a couple of years, at least, without much hardship. But if I were you, I'd wait about 45 days or so before pulling the trigger on a new PC. I'd hate to miss out on all the new things coming.

http://www.anandtech.com/cpu/showdoc.html?i=2002&p=11

With socket 939, there will be a much wider selection of processors to fill the platform, and there is much more room for future upgradeability. Add PCI Express to that and you've got a platform that could last for a (relatively) long time.

Of course, when socket 939 does hit the streets, we will have to re-evaluate the situation. The FX-53 has potential, but that's not always enough. If we get some good performance gains from using high quality unbuffered RAM with the FX-53, and if we start to see overclocker-friendly boards with plenty of PCI Express slots on them, we might just be talking after a price drop. Right now, both the very high end Intel and AMD parts are priced too high to recommend. The performance gains that we see in our tests just aren't enough to warrant the kinds of price differences currently seen in the marketplace.

So, the final recommendation? If you absolutely need a system now, go with either a Pentium 4 or an Athlon 64 3000+ (Newcastle) depending on your usage model. But just wait if that's at all possible. The end is near, we promise.