Athlon 64 3700 - different steppings for 939?

[The Mutha]

I'm building a new pc and am inclined towards the Athlon 64 3700. The one my local "smuggler" here in Brazil sells is the 939, 800Mhz kind.

Is this the best Athlong 64 3700 or only one there is, or are there other "cores/steppings" for that processor model.

The processor market has gone insane, and there are far too many variations of everything to keep up without having to read Anandtech everyday all your life!

 

[coolpurplefan]

As far as I know, there is only the San Diego 3700+ which I read overclocks pretty well.

However, since I`m a fan of single cores, I like the socket 754 3700+ 2.4 GHz with 1MB L2 cache. But now it`s harder to find at a good price. Other than that, there is the socket 939 single core 3800+ and 4000+.

My s754 3700+ will end up being used as a second machine once quad cores come out. I like UT2004 so I don`t know if I even have to rush to upgrade to Conroe yet. UT2007 might be very demanding. However, I don`t even know if I`ll like the gameplay anyway.

 

[the cobbler]

"800mhz kind" would be not a San Diego S939, but instead a Clawhammer core S754, same as the one coolpurplefan has. They run hotter and don't overclock nearly as well as the S939 chips do.

it is built on the older 1600mhz HT/ 130nm SOI process

these still sell in the US for ~320USD. Which seems like an awful lot of money when you can get an AM2/X2 3800+ dual core for ~$290USD. save $30 on a CPU that will mop the floor with the 3700+ Clawhammer, imho.

 

[Ika]

Originally posted by: the cobbler
"800mhz kind" would be not a San Diego S939, but instead a Clawhammer core S754, same as the one coolpurplefan has. They run hotter and don't overclock nearly as well as the S939 chips do.

it is built on the older 1600mhz HT/ 130nm SOI process

these still sell in the US for ~320USD. Which seems like an awful lot of money when you can get an AM2/X2 3800+ dual core for ~$290USD. save $30 on a CPU that will mop the floor with the 3700+ Clawhammer, imho.

he's in brazil; you can't use US retail prices to compare.

 

[the cobbler]

Originally posted by: guoziming

Originally posted by: the cobbler
"800mhz kind" would be not a San Diego S939, but instead a Clawhammer core S754, same as the one coolpurplefan has. They run hotter and don't overclock nearly as well as the S939 chips do.

it is built on the older 1600mhz HT/ 130nm SOI process

these still sell in the US for ~320USD. Which seems like an awful lot of money when you can get an AM2/X2 3800+ dual core for ~$290USD. save $30 on a CPU that will mop the floor with the 3700+ Clawhammer, imho.

he's in brazil; you can't use US retail prices to compare.

well I'm not particularly familiar with Brazilian currency conversion or the South American CPU market, so that's the best baseline I can give?

 

[coolpurplefan]

Originally posted by: the cobbler
"800mhz kind" would be not a San Diego S939, but instead a Clawhammer core S754, same as the one coolpurplefan has. They run hotter and don't overclock nearly as well as the S939 chips do.

it is built on the older 1600mhz HT/ 130nm SOI process

these still sell in the US for ~320USD. Which seems like an awful lot of money when you can get an AM2/X2 3800+ dual core for ~$290USD. save $30 on a CPU that will mop the floor with the 3700+ Clawhammer, imho.

Either s939 or s754 3700+ will easilly beat an X2 3800+ on games that are not multi-threaded. I believe Quake 4 is one of the only games out there that is. And you can use pricegrabber to find out how cheap the single core 3700+ s939 or single core 3800+ really are.

 

[the cobbler]

Originally posted by: coolpurplefan

Originally posted by: the cobbler
"800mhz kind" would be not a San Diego S939, but instead a Clawhammer core S754, same as the one coolpurplefan has. They run hotter and don't overclock nearly as well as the S939 chips do.

it is built on the older 1600mhz HT/ 130nm SOI process

these still sell in the US for ~320USD. Which seems like an awful lot of money when you can get an AM2/X2 3800+ dual core for ~$290USD. save $30 on a CPU that will mop the floor with the 3700+ Clawhammer, imho.

Either s939 or s754 3700+ will easilly beat an X2 3800+ on games that are not multi-threaded. I believe Quake 4 is one of the only games out there that is. And you can use pricegrabber to find out how cheap the single core 3700+ s939 or single core 3800+ really are.

while this is technically true, if he has any inkling whatsoever of even potentially overclocking in the future, it itsn't even any sort of contest. X2 3800+ and 3700+ San Diego are the best clockers that AMD has ever produced outside the Opties. Plus, you are forgetting that the Clawhammer runs single channel vs. dual.

imho SanDiego/Manchester/Toledo>>Venice E3>>Venice E6>> Winchester >>Clawhammer

 

[The Mutha]

OK, let me try to get it straight then, so you are saying there are two kinds of Athlon 64 3700. One for the 939 socket, and one for the 754 socket corrent?

Also, if I'm not mistaken, the 939 version is better at overclocking than the 754?


I can get a 939 Athloln 64 3700 for R$ 540 and a 939 Athlon 64 3800 for R$ 640. Which one is the best deal?

Thanks for all yer help dudes.

 

[the cobbler]

yes, there are two
S754 Clawhammer core 130nm single channel 1600mhz HTT
S939 San Diego core 90nm dual channel 2000mhz HTT


imho, the X2 3800+ would be my choice simply because it's dual-core. But you can't go wrong with the 3700+ San Diego either. Higher clock speed @ stock, but single core.

imho3700+= better for games right now, 3800+ better for games a year from now

 

[coolpurplefan]

yeah, the socket 939 3700+ would be a better deal since the 3800+ single core will only outperform the 3700+ by a few frames per second (like a lot less than 5% difference). I would not pay $100 more for maybe 3% difference.

But, I did pay about $50 more for CAS2 RAM instead of CAS2.5 RAM. I like OCZ Platinum RAM.