745 vs 939

[beatmix01]

Here is my question.

A64 745 on a Asus KV8 w/ A64 3400+ w/1MB L2

vs.

A64 939 on an ABIT AV8 w/ A64 3500+ w/512 L2


Will be used mainly for digital video and audio editing.

Video - Powercolor ATI 9600 XT
1 GB Corsair RAM 2.5 CAS

Will there be a noticeable difference?

 

[CraigRT]

No, honestly there probably won't be much.. if anything the 1MB cache S754 system might be slightly faster. but it all depends, I am not 100% sure if the different sockets have different speeds, but normally the higher cached versions are lesser clock speed, so it might depend on the app.. raw MHz or cache size

either way its damn near a toss up.. Doom3 will like the extra cache more, but since you don't have to worry about that, hardly a selling point.
I'd go with the 939 system though strictly based on future upgradability.

 

[jkresh]

extra bandwidth of the 939 may make a difference and upgradeability is better. Do you plan on overclocking, if so and probably even if not I would go for a nf3 board over the via any day. Also there have been lots of problems with the k8v (it is verry picky on memory and on power supplies) so probably not the best 745 board to go with.

 

[mickles]

Overclocking abilities

3400+ 754 vs 3500+ 939???

 

[jkresh]

the 3500 might hit a slightly higher frequency but the extra cache on the 3400+ makes whatever frequecny it hits worht slightly more. On goog air cooling or water you will probably be able to hit a little over 2500mhz with either, as for which would be faster at 2500mhz, hard to say. Cache is definitely worth more as speed goes up, but memory bandwidth also has a larger impact at higher clockspeeds. If you do overclock make sure to go with an nforce3 board as most of the via's still dont have pci lock which makes overclocking probablematic to say the least.

 

[beatmix01]

I'm not much one for overclocking to be honest. Occasionally, in the past if I have been bored I would mess around with it, however to be honest I don't really have the time to be playing with things like that.

Jkresh - If not the ASUS board, then which? I am trying to keep the price down below $150 for the MB. Hek, one more day and I can just buy the 939 tomorrow from Newegg. It's only $60 differrence.

 

[mickles]

I was thinking K8N Neo Platinum.

I guess from what you say, jkresh, it's pretty much a tossup. I am a gamer.