Are we likely to see any more socket A chips from AMD

[coolred]

I am currently stuck with a tough decision, as are many others. I need to build a new rig within the next few months. I am pretty sure I want it to be AMD based, unless Intel goes on a crazy price dropping bonanza. So my choices are this as I see it. Socket A, Socket 754, Socket 939.

Socket 939, is probablly the safest bet for future stability, but its not even avaible yet and when it is theres no telling how long it will take for the demand to be met and prices to fall.

Socket 754 is available now, but may not have much of a 64 bit life left. From what I hear AMD plans to take it up to 4000+ with 64 bit CPU's, then it will be given the role of supporting AMD's Paris cored CPU's.

Socket A is avaible now, tried and tested, and cheap. But it hasn't seen a new processor in what like year, are we likely to see any more? I like the features of Nvidias 400Gb boards that we shoudl start seeing soon, and I like the price of the socket A stuff. But I don't like the idea of spending a coupel hundred bucks on a one time upgrade.

 

[joe2004]

754 has no life left? News to me. Wait until you see prices/performance of 939 for that judgement.

 

[coolred]

but may not have much of a 64 bit life left

I didn't say it didn't have any life left. Performance of socket 939 should be on par with 754 and while I agree at first the supply will likely be low and prices high, eventually that will even out. About that time AMD will switch the Athlon to socket 754 and start making all of its 64 bit CPU's(non Opteron) ont he 939 socket. At least thats the way it appears to me, i could be wrong.


I do have one question though, what is running in your current rig?

 

[joe2004]

I do have one question though, what is running in your current rig?

I have a little computer lab over here. The last one I built has 64-3400+ in it. It is the champ in my "lab."
I have two more 64-3200+, both nearly as fast. Two more mobile Bartons, and a bunch of older ones, all the way down to K6-400, still working fine with Windows 98 SE!

 

[Soulkeeper]

yeah wouldn't that be cool if amd took the bartons and shrunk them to .09u and ran them at 3ghz
that would kill any celeron to come out for a few years

i guess it is possible amd could revamp the athlon xp offerings in an attempt to streamline production, make them cheaper, etc

but new core changes and new speed grades seem highly unlikely since the socket A cpu's are essentially replaced on AMD's "highend" list

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Paris, the skt754 32bit derivative of the A64 will make skt754 the budget line as they phase sktA out. I don't believe you'll see anymore sktA CPU clockspeed increases. That's why I see Via's release of a new sktA chipset as more of a prestige strategy to win back some "mind share" as a performance leader, than as a serious attempt to profit hugely off of it. Given the option, I believe most will opt to go skt754 with a Paris knowing down the road than can throw in up to a 3700+ A64 on the same board later. I'm very curious if the Paris will be able to perform as well as Barton in Scientific calculations, encoding, and the like, or if gaming will be it's only strength when compared?

 

[Shimmishim]

Originally posted by: DAPUNISHER
Paris, the skt754 32bit derivative of the A64 will make skt754 the budget line as they phase sktA out. I don't believe you'll see anymore sktA CPU clockspeed increases. That's why I see Via's release of a new sktA chipset as more of a prestige strategy to win back some "mind share" as a performance leader, than as a serious attempt to profit hugely off of it. Given the option, I believe most will opt to go skt754 with a Paris knowing down the road than can throw in up to a 3700+ A64 on the same board later. I'm very curious if the Paris will be able to perform as well as Barton in Scientific calculations, encoding, and the like, or if gaming will be it's only strength when compared?

beat me to it...

socket a will disappear slowly and you'll see socket 754 be the budget line for amd while 939 will be the midrange stuff and socket 940/fx series will be the mother of them all...

 

[coolred]

So that leaves me back at waiting for socket 939. I am not to sure I want to spend money on a 64 bit setup right now knowing I will likely only get 1 CPU upgrade out of it over the next year or 2.

 

[SickBeast]

wow...i thought this thread was about socket-a and everyone's talking about the a64 as usual...

anyhow, i have read in numerous places that AMD will soon be releasing new lower voltage athlon xp mobile chips (1.25v or so). i'm pretty sure they've nearly hit the ceiling on 0.13 microns tho. my guess is that the new chips will do the same speeds (2600mhz or so) at lower voltages.

a 0.09 shrink is doubtable, since the socket-a platform is "dead", especially now that nobody is making a pci-express chipset for it. too bad.

 

[Avalon]

1.25v mobiles would be an OC'ers wet dream

 

[Mik3y]

when amd brings their xp's to socket 754, will we see a large jump in performance from the current socket A's? for example, socket A 3200+ vs socket 754 3200+. also, will existing socket 754 motherboards support the future xp's?

 

[mechBgon]

My perspective: I've got a K8V Deluxe, I want a K8N-E Deluxe. When the K8N-E Deluxe comes out, I buy one, and then sell the K8V Deluxe. It's not like I married it or something

And when the SK8N-E Deluxe (speculative name for Socket939 nF3 250Gb board) arrives, I buy one with a S939 CPU if it looks that fantastic that I can't resist it, and sell off my A64 3000+ and K8N-E Deluxe. Or more likely, the 3000+ and the K8N-E Deluxe go into my home system, displacing an A7N8X Deluxe and a 2500+, which get sold off or given away.

edit: above concept applies to more than just A64's, btw

So I'm not really shopping for a long upgrade path. If I were, the name of the game would be Socket940 and Opteron.

 

[Soulkeeper]

if AMD strunk the barton to .09 and maybe gave it another layer, increased the L1 cache bandwidth or something then it would kill dothan

 

[coolred]

I am really starting to hate computers. At least right now, there is just too much going on and to much to consider when trying to decide what and when you upgrade.