AMD Socket 939, DDR2 and PCI-Express

[Zivic]

How long till we have a socket 939 board that has both DDR2 and PCI Express?

 

[Dethfrumbelo]

Since the memory controller is on board the CPU, it would probably mean many changes, including changing the number of pins.

AMD has said no DDR2 until 2006 at the earliest. At that point, they might as well skip it and use DDR3 instead. Ever wonder why ATI and nVidia only use DDR1 and DDR3 on their newest boards?

 

[SrGuapo]

The athlon 64s don't use DDR2 because it has very little benefit to them. Many people think that AMD will never use DDR2 and skip to DDR3 when they start making dualies.As for the PCI-e, the nForce4 are already out, though they might take a while to get into circulation.

 

[bob661]

AMD will be doing dualies before they switch to DDR2 (if they even do DDR2). 2H05 is the time for dualies.

 

[gobucks]

i don't personally care if they use DDR2 or not. DDR scales just fine, and i'd rather have JEDEC stuck at 400MHZ DDR while overclocking memory goes faster and faster - as soon as i get my replacement NF4 mobo, i'm gonna crank that 3000+ up a bit and see what happens. As for a timeframe, though, it won't be for a while. The dual cores will still use DDR for a while, which is good news for everybody who just bought an NF4 mobo and wants an upgrade, since all that will be required is a Bios update. Also, i've seen roadmaps set for 2006 with Intel using DDR3 800MHz in their dual cores, so AMD might actually be able to skip DDR2, something i wouldn't have had any faith in when hammer was introduced a year ago.

 

[ChineseDemocracyGNR]

Here's a current article on DDR2:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articl.../display/ddr2-ddr.html

I think there were rumours that AMD would announce its DDR2 processor in early 2005, but who knows?

 

[VStrom]

ABIT has a 939 mobo that has PCI - AX8 (hard to find) and ASUS has one but it is the SLI PCIE board (I forget the name of it).

 

[bob661]

AMD said they won't do DDR2 in 2005. There's NO reason for AMD to go that route. A64's are not memory starved like P4's. If they did do it, you would see no performance difference but would have to pay more for memory. That's just silly.

 

[ChineseDemocracyGNR]

The dual-cores may be a little more bandwidth-hungry. Anyway, AMD launched a whole new socket (939) for a 3% speed increase, I don't see why they would skip DDR2, specially as prices are going down.

 

[Burbot]

Never. DDR2 requires a new CPU socket. Socket 939 will not have DDR2.

 

[gobucks]

AMD basically told everyone about socket 939 right after the A64 was lauched, and said it would be the long-term A64 platform. 754 was destined for lower end chips from the get-go. Yeah, it sucks that 939 wasn't ready by the time the A64 launched, but it's not everyone didn't know it was coming.

And yes, if AMD releases DDR2 (or 3) support it will need a new socket. Rumors of "Socket 900" and "Socket 1207" have been floating around for a while. Of course, it could always be waiting for FB-DIMMs, likely in the form of DDR3, before it makes the transition, but who know. Regardless, DDR2 is still a long way off, won't make much of a difference in your current hammer platform anyways, and probably should have no bearing on your computer buying decision right now. If you wait for it, you'll be waiting a long time, and if you buy an intel system simply because you HAVE to have DDR2, then you will end up spending more money for lower performance and less features.

 

[Zivic]

Thanks all for the info

 

[bob661]

Thanks gobucks.

 

[bdoople]

So it seems to me like 939 is the way to go huh? I was looking at 754 but it seems 939 will be better for long term, but I could be wrong.


Edit: My last board was a Soyo Dragon Ultra black with the VIA chipset and it was horrible. I am now afraid of going back to VIA, (but it looks like all 939 are VIA chipsets) so do any of you have problems with the K8T800 chipsets?

 

[WildFrisco]

Originally posted by: bdoople
Edit: My last board was a Soyo Dragon Ultra black with the VIA chipset and it was horrible. I am now afraid of going back to VIA, (but it looks like all 939 are VIA chipsets) so do any of you have problems with the K8T800 chipsets?

Soyo bioses aren't the greatest, even with the notoriety they've received with the Dragon line of boards. Other lesser known companies like Shuttle, Epox, Aopen, etc have much better bios development. Out of curiosity, which VIA chipset was that Soyo using? KT880? I had a friend that gave up on his KT333 Dragon Ultra Platinum Edition and handed it to me. Turns out the boot problems were from the latest 2 or 3 bios versions and Athlon XP processor support. The workaround was to use the 3rd or 4th newest bios (kxbp2aa6). How silly is that?

 

[Demo24]

here this helps: http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=20749

well when 1207 gets here you will have to have DDR2

oh and one last note. DDR2 would work on socket 939. They arent doing it because of confusion and its a good thing they arent

 

[bdoople]

Originally posted by: WildFrisco

Originally posted by: bdoople
Edit: My last board was a Soyo Dragon Ultra black with the VIA chipset and it was horrible. I am now afraid of going back to VIA, (but it looks like all 939 are VIA chipsets) so do any of you have problems with the K8T800 chipsets?

Soyo bioses aren't the greatest, even with the notoriety they've received with the Dragon line of boards. Other lesser known companies like Shuttle, Epox, Aopen, etc have much better bios development. Out of curiosity, which VIA chipset was that Soyo using? KT880? I had a friend that gave up on his KT333 Dragon Ultra Platinum Edition and handed it to me. Turns out the boot problems were from the latest 2 or 3 bios versions and Athlon XP processor support. The workaround was to use the 3rd or 4th newest bios (kxbp2aa6). How silly is that?

KT400. I have it in my closet in the box of the wonderful motherboard that replaced it, my Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe.