socket 939

G

GoodDoc

n00b
Joined
Jul 2, 2004
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29
yes I know, these proc's are REALLY old. anyways before I get started this is what I have.

amd64 3700+
2gb RAM
A8V-E Deluxe mobo
ATI x1800
500w powersupply


I built my computer 7 years back and haven't upgraded until now. I had an extra hundred dollars lying around so I decided to see what I could find to upgrade. I upgraded my x1800 to the 6670 and saw a nice little frame jump in some of the games I play (diablo 3, and dota2) from 20-30fps to 35-40fps.

I also bought a AMD x2 4400+ processor off ebay for a good price, however didn't realize that the A8V-E Deluxe doesn't support it, so I have switched back to my 3700+ for now since I'm getting better framerates with it, I am wondering if it would be worth the 30 bucks to get a mobo that supports this processor (like the A8V-E SE), or will this processor not give me what I am hoping for (those few extra frames).

And before anyone tells me to just save up and get a new comp, I'm planning on it, but its going to be a while, and I'd like to try and hit a constant 40-50 fps on low settings in those games to tide me over until I have the money.

Now, time for you experts to open up. :D
 
yes a dual core will help, but ask your self "will the small fps boost be worth taking away $30 from my new pc build fund"?
 
if i was cheap i d got microcenter bundle amd fX cpu + mobo 99$ , and get highest ddr3 mobo can support.

or core i3 2120 bundle on new egg 180$ minus memory (mother board 2 memory slots 1 pci-e)

Best would be those 350 to 400$ bundle core i5 2500k and mobo +ddr3

Whats your monitor? 1080p lcd ? or an old crt ?
 
Just do a budget AM3 build with an ASrock board and pick a reasonable processor the cost is minimal.

With that CPU even a dual core Athlon II would thump the living daylights out of it. I ran a dual core AMD 4200 x2 and replaced it with an Athlon II x2 3.2 GHz big improvement, your pick up would be massive even with that.

Or future proof yourself with an AM3+ board an update is cheap keep you HDD if you want, memory is dirt cheap too, very little outlay don't waste money on upgrading that old rig, not unless you can lay your hands on s/h parts for next to nothing.
 
Thanks for the input, after consideration of funds and opinions of you all and others, I am going to hold off on the mobo, chalk this up to a loss, and save up for better parts in the future.

thanks again :)
 
As far as the games you play then yes a dual core 939 would be good. I have a s939 system still running that does real well with gaming as it is a SLi board. It has been relegated as a cruncher nowadays. And I am getting ready to replace it this weekend with a Quad core. But in it's day it was hard to contend with and still do good today.

So to answer your question if you can get a good board (one like my Asus An8 SLi Premium) then yes you can get the frame rates you want without issues and more with the dual core proc and a pair of Nvidia cards.
 
Ya good luck finding old parts! My comp is a generation older than yours :p If you could find an old FX chip for your 939 for cheap (if you board supports it) that would help until you build your new comp.
 
I love my 939 x2 4200+, it's been with me thru hell and back since '05 during the Quake years and I still use it daily as my couch surf machine and full time HTPC. Just recently bought an MSI board for it from amember here and OC it to 2.5mhz on the stock cooler and before I returned my HD7770, it even maxed out Diablo 3 and managed to play a few semi modern games like Left4dead2 and Assasins Creed IIon low with decent frame rates.
 
I wouldn't spend money on any 939 parts when you can get a dirt cheap Athlon II, mobo, and 4gb ram for like $120. That would be a pretty big improvement over that 3700+ and would probably be worth getting if you need something to tie you over till a full system purchase.

EDIT: I'm an idiot and thought he had $100 to spend at this moment.
 
I can't let go of my 939 system, I'm going to pick up a opty 165 off ebay here soon. Honestly with a 2.8ghz clock on the opty 144 its fine for day to day tasks. Plus i spent money on 2gb of dd500 a few years ago.
 
I swapped a CPU over in a customers old PC this week.

His had a Athlon64 FX57 in it. Never seen one before. I swapped it for a 4200+ X2 so it worked a bit smoother after that.

Got what was $1000 of CPU on my desk. Not really worth that now.
 
I recommend NOT to invest in obsolete hardware, really everything from socket A to AM2 is not worth any upgrading and investments anymore. You can get a brand new AM3 rig in under $200 which will pwn your 939 like nothing.
 
Ah phooey. I have a s939 SLi system that still runs great. Obviously the op isn't doing anything supper heavily intense because if he was he would have a Am2+ or Am3 system. Hell I have 2x am2 ddr2 systems that work great for crunching, One is running a 970be and the other is running a 1055t. I am pretty sure they can hold there own with newer games and such also.


Op find a Motherboard for cheap that will support your x2 chip and you will be golden. Then you can save for the next gen stuff.
 
I could have sworn that the A8V-E would work with the X2 with a bios flash. I went from a 3500+ to an X2 4400+ on my Asus A8X-X (sorry dont remember designation off hand, maybe A8N?) and thought I remembered using the 3500 to update the bios so that it would recognize my X2. Could be misremembering, but that is what my grey matter is telling me.


Still have the X2 (different mobo though) and that thing is a tank.

daglesj said:
I swapped a CPU over in a customers old PC this week.

His had a Athlon64 FX57 in it. Never seen one before. I swapped it for a 4200+ X2 so it worked a bit smoother after that.

Got what was $1000 of CPU on my desk. Not really worth that now.
Click to expand...

I remember the FX days well, those things were the hotness. You should put it on ebay, I am sure someone would be interested in the nostolgia alone.
 
aarcam said:
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I remember the FX days well, those things were the hotness. You should put it on ebay, I am sure someone would be interested in the nostolgia alone.
Click to expand...

I agree. That was the boot that was kicking Intel's ass back then. :D I would frame it and place it next to my 3Dfx cards, and my Asus P3B-F board.
 
GoodDoc said:
yes I know, these proc's are REALLY old. anyways before I get started this is what I have.

amd64 3700+
2gb RAM
A8V-E Deluxe mobo
ATI x1800
500w powersupply
Click to expand...

I had a PC with an AMD64 4000+ and an 8800gt, I swapped the CPU for an Opteron 175 dual core I found cheap on ebay and it made a HUGE improvement. You gotta keep a reasonable resolution though (1280x1024 or 1440x900, something like that).
 
I wasn't going to "let go" of my socket 939 system but then the board packed in and well I sold off the x2 4200 and got a bit more for it than you might think. Folks will pick up second hand parts quite quickly and you'd get a few $$/££ back for the processor alone.

Reality is though the budget Athlon II x2 at 3.2Ghz was a lot quicker, used less power and heat..and the Asrock board was better than the old one too, budget or not. I'm all up for "this is good enough don't splash out cash" did that for years. So even if you like it..things can change nothing lasts forever.

I'm actually glad it did pack up because I built a new budget pc for peanuts and it runs just great
 
There is for mobile. here

Only certain desktop mobo's supported it, some modifications for the heatsink mount had to be done also.
 
Acer_Sheep said:
I recommend NOT to invest in obsolete hardware, really everything from socket A to AM2 is not worth any upgrading and investments anymore. You can get a brand new AM3 rig in under $200 which will pwn your 939 like nothing.
Click to expand...
What he said.

Or don't even think about playing Tripple A titles and stick to Indy games. But that's no fun.

Your GPU is the newest component in your rig and it is horribly outdated.
 
I still think 939 stuff is OK with a dual core processor, I plan to get a couple of more years out of the machine. After its usefulness has ran out the current am3 stuff will be available used for dirt cheap. Sure I'd like to upgrade to a budget am3 system now, but I have a perfectly working computer and for another $25 for an opty 165 It will be even better. I just hate spending money on current gen products, a couple of years ago i built an e8400 system, and barely utilize it to its ability. Now its even considered outdated.
 
TBJ said:
Your amd64 4000+, was it a 754 pin or 939?
Click to expand...

939 Athlon 64 4000+ San Diego, which I replaced with an Opteron 175 i got for about $30. I eventually sold that mobo/ram/cpu last year for $150 and put that money into am AM3 system for my wife.
 
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I really had a wonderful series of systems based on the good old 939 socket. Had two 3800+ builds that were overclocked to high-heaven (at the time) on water. Then a 4800+ Clevo laptop which got hotter than hell. Scored a FX-60 chip open box off Newegg for a good deal less than retail. Kinda wish I had one of these old systems still. 939 is probably the most nostalgic socket for me :D
 
IIRC I went 3500+ Newcastle (hot hot) then 3500+ Winchester then 3700+ Venice then 4000+ San Diego then 4200+ X2 then Opteron 180.

Was a great time. About 2004 to 2009 I ran all those.

I was still running a 4200+ X2 on a modern 939 785G motherboard as my work PC till recently.
 
I ran a socket 754 system for almost 4 years, to the point people were doing AM2 systems.

Venice 3400+ on 754 worked for a long time until we started getting dual-core optimization in games.

Moved to a s775 e5200 dual core / x1950xtx for a year or two...then moved to my AM2+/Phenom II system (re-used my 6GB of DDR2) + HD4670 which I've been running since ~February 2010 to improve my Dragon Age: Origins performance.

Doubt I'll move off of AM2+ any time soon. I don't play much in the way of cutting edge FPS games or anything like that. You can run behind the curve a bit, easily, as long as you're not focused on playing the latest shiny FPS games.

939 x2 seems a bit farther behind the curve than needed but if it does what you need...
 
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I'm going to echo what most here are saying, save your pennies for a new system. If you're going to go AMD, I strongly recommend 4+ cores. 2 or 3 cores just don't cut it for some of the more CPU demanding games out there. Honestly, considering how long you keep your systems, might as well just go with 6-8 cores. It's not that much more.
 
That's what I figure, my next system will have to be future proof as possible, I don't see the point in a budget board having to upgrade in a couple after the fact. I'll have other expenses.
 
If you want to future proof even further and you're going with an all new build. Intel would be the longer lasting option.
 
You can never really future proof yourself., apart from sticking to the lastest socket.
That is why last year I picked an AM3+ board..it is easy for me to update this with newer processors.

Saying that, I see plenty of AM3 Athlon/Phenom II processors around s/h and some new for you to build an effective and decently fast pc. Just pick a quad/6 core processor and you have instant very big performance boost. The idea of a budget board is simply this..a budget. You don't have to buy "Junk" at the budget end plenty of budget builds I've done working just fine.

I would not even build using a very high end board myself I got a mid level one. It's pointless spending that money out if you have no need for the premium board stuff, it's wasted money you get nothing performance wise for it.

FM1 is the only socket I would avoid as it's end of life
 
I've got a boxed retail version of the AMD Opteron 185 that I've been trying to unload for $120 on kijiji for months. When I reduced the price to $100, there were people interested. Use that as your baseline.
 
I have a feeling you're going to be blown away by the difference whenever you do upgrade. Even the cheapest Athlon II X2 and mobo would be a huge difference. I went from a 2.7ghz Opteron 170 dual core to a Phenom II 720 x3 and the difference just in source games were giant. Was using a 4850 on both systems, and the Phenom was a stock 2.8ghz. TBH if you are going to spend more than $100 on a CPU, I'd make the bump up and snag like a good deal on a 2500k or something. It's getting harder and harder to recommend AMD for anything but low budget unless you are already on an AM3 platform.
 
I think these folks are giving decent -CPU- advice. When I see 2GB of RAM, however, I HAVE to recommend moving to 4 GB(or more) and Win 7 64-bit.

DOTA2 really likes to eat ~ 1GB RAM by itself. When RAM is short, that is always my recommendation for a cheap boost in speed.

Get 2 2GB sticks of your mem (probably DDR 400) and rock that out. I say 2 new sticks because some boards act flaky with all 4 slots populated, and the 4GB kits aren't way out there, even for old DDR stuff (which is higher due to not being produced), and easy to get stable dual channel out of.
 
Hehe........

I still use a Shuttle with an FX-53, 2GB of DDR and an AGP GT 6800 for basic internet and an occassional video.....graduated from a 3500+ when I pulled it out of retirement.

The thing is still rockin, and runs W7 smooth as silk.:D
 
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