Athlon 64

[doanster]

so i m new to the athlon 64 scene... can someone give me a breakdown of all the Athlon 64's available and the specs?? Venice? Winchester? so confused..... I am thinking of building a cheap system with a cheaper socket 754 mobo, but not sure, probably not.

 

[Hacp]

Socket 754 is defenetly an option, especially if you like to overclock. A great overclocker is the sempron 2800+. This little ah heck has half the cache of the AMD 64 newcastles, but can generally overclock better because of lower temperatures. If you aren't into overclocking, then the 3400+ is the best processor on the market for you. Its pretty cheap, at around 210 dollars, and will provide good performance at stock speeds. For overclocking, Semprons are the chips to get. For stock, get the newcastles.

Also, Venice and Winchester are basically the same chip, but Venices overclock better because they can take on the extreme temperatures better. They are only availible for socket 939 motherboards though.

 

[doanster]

hmm... I looked at some benches at extremetech and the sempron seems to be not too bad compared to the 64.. and the sempron kicks the Celeron D's arse... but still the socket 754 athlon 64's are pretty cheap now so I won't go for the sempron.

but to my main question: wat are the key differences between the different cores? all the code names are confusing the heck outta me.

thanks for helping me out ppl!

 

[Furen]

Wow, you're really asking for a lot... well, here goes nothing.


130nm chips:

Clawhammer: The initial AMD64 core. 1MB cache.

Newcastle: The "successor" to clawhammer. 512K cache. It was adopted by AMD because the die size is smaller ~25% than a comparable clawhammer, which helped yield-wise. They generally overclock better than clawhammers since they run slightly cooler.

Paris: Sempron (that's all I have to say).

The 130nm chips are mostly based on the C core revision (I think)

90nm Chips (s939):

Winchester: The first 90nm shrink. It had a better memory controller than C revision cores but was mostly just a die shrink. Runs a hell of a lot cooler than any 130nm chip but isnt the greatest overclocker out there. 512K cache.

Venice: The current E stepping core. It runs cool, overclocks pretty well, has an improved memory controller, SSE3, Dual Stress Layer. 512K cache.

San Diego: Same as Venice, but with 1MB cache. Generally better overclockers.

Manchester: Dual-core. 512K cache per core. Includes SOME X2 3800s, 4200s and 4600s. E4 stepping, I think.

Toledo: Dual-Core. 1MB cache per core. Includes 4400s and 4800s. Some cache-disabled toledos end up being 3800s, 4200s and 4600s. E6 stepping.

90nm Semprons (s754)

Palermo: Some are D stepping, some are E stepping. E stepping Palermos have SSE3 and an improved memory controller. D stepping Palermos are the winchester equivalents. Either 128K or 256K cache.

Mobile 90nm (s754)

Newark: Mobile Athlon 64. 1MB cache. 63W TDP (I think). Very good overclockers according to what I've heard. Should be an E revision core.

Lancaster: Turion 64. Either 1MB or 512K cache. Either 35W or 25W TDP. I know very little about them and what I know may be wrong. They should be E revision cores. I've heard that they're actually made to be mobile, they're not just binned for lower power consumption. Because of this they're not great overclockers. They do run pretty cool and all, but they're not stable at high clock speeds.

Please be aware that when I say "cache" I mean L2 cache. All these CPUs have 64K instruction + 64K data L1 caches.

As you should know (shame on you if you dont) socket 754 K8s have a single-channel DDR controller on die, while socket 939 K8s have a dual-channel DDR controller.

 

[Shimmishim]

there are supposed to be socket 939 semprons with 64-bit support... they are supposed to be pretty good as well.

the best 754 chip IMHO are the turions (mobile 64 chips)... reports of hitting 3.0 ghz on air have been reported but they are pretty pricey

 

[rise]

in addition to what furen and shim said. doesn't cover everything but its handy.

 

[coomar]

overview of a64 chips

 

[brikis98]

just know that if you go w/ socket 754, you won't be able to upgrade your CPU much in the future. that is, all new/future AMD CPUs will run on socket 939 (including all the dual cores), at least until AMD switches to yet another socket.

754 is cheaper, but i don't think its worth saving a little bit of money in exchange for being stuck in a dead end. and, 939 is hardly expensive. consider this:

- MSI Neo4-f Nforce4, socket 939 with PCI Express x16: ~$80
- AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Vence core socket 939: $~115 (OEM)

Throw in an HSF (socket 939 compatable go as cheap as $11 on newegg, and good ones are $20-$30) and for around $220 you have a very solid system (the 1.8Ghz 3000+ Venice can OC to 2.7Ghz pretty easily) which can be upgraded later with the latest CPUs, even dual cores.

IMO, its the best bang for the buck in every respect.

 

[coomar]

939 is better value, its only a little more than socket 754, the 3000+ with a decent mobo is the best value, anandtech did a overview of nf4 board

 

[doanster]

Awesome, thanks!
Looks like I'll hafta follow brikis98's suggestion... fits my budget nicely.

Furen: how long did it take you to come up with all that? lol (it was very helpful btw)

 

[doanster]

Hey just wondering, but how does the single-channel memory controller on the s754 Athlon 64 compare to dual-channel memory controller of the intel 875P mobo chipset?

 

[vtohthree]

"San Diego: Same as Venice, but with 1MB cache. Generally better overclockers. "

Quoted by Furen.


I just did a search for this on this thread, nothing came out. So I was just about to make a new thread before stumbling on this one. I've been keeping my eyes on the San Diego for the longest time, I was planning on purchasing the 3700+ but I wanted to know how well they overclocked and if I could get it to fare up against an 4000+ or FX-53 without water cooling or going crazy in that department.

 

[Amplifier]

Buy a Venice 3000+ cpu on socket 939. Thank me later.

 

[Novercalis]

wow ty for that info.

i guess im going to be looking for Toledo...
what are the price ranges of Toledo and best MOBO to go with it?

now I have to decide Video Card to go with that mobo + proc