Common question: 754 or 939

[eskellie8]

I just found a deal at newegg. They have a bundle with an athlon 64 3400 (939), MSI K8T NEO2-FIR, and a stick of geil memory for 417$. Normaly all this stuff would cost 467$. I was also looking at socket 754, the msi k8n neo platinum and an athlon 64 3400. Because of the deal that newegg has laid out (if I took the geil memory out for a sec) there is 22 bucks seperating these packs. But, is the via chipset goona be good for gaming? Will the 939 system beat the 754 system pretty good? Because if its only like 5% speed difference I could put the cash into a game or more storage. I also should add that overclocking does not interest me. Thanks

 

[Duvie]

NO the 939 will not beat the 754 pretty good!! Being neglible mostly....Definitely toss the geil ram...I dont think it is that good based on my findings...


The only worthwhile about the 939 sckt is that maybe in a few months you could put a much better A64 90nm chip...I think the 754 is basically dead ended....only diff...if you upgrade alot this may not mean shite!!!

 

[NarcoticHobo]

Originally posted by: eskellie8
I just found a deal at newegg. They have a bundle with an athlon 64 3400 (939), MSI K8T NEO2-FIR, and a stick of geil memory for 417$. Normaly all this stuff would cost 467$. I was also looking at socket 754, the msi k8n neo platinum and an athlon 64 3400. Because of the deal that newegg has laid out (if I took the geil memory out for a sec) there is 22 bucks seperating these packs. But, is the via chipset goona be good for gaming? Will the 939 system beat the 754 system pretty good? Because if its only like 5% speed difference I could put the cash into a game or more storage. I also should add that overclocking does not interest me. Thanks

939 is faster, but it is around like 5%. The main thing is future upgradeability.

If you decide you want to upgrade in 2 years, with 939 you save $200 and get a new processor. With 754 you either save $300 and get a new motherboard and a new processor, or just get a sempron

 

[Mogh]

I just went through that painstaking decision between the two and ordered the socket 754 Asus K8N-E w/3400+

I figured the perfomance between the two is pretty close therefore not worth the extra bucks for the 939. The 3400+ is 2.4ghz while the 3500+ is 2.2ghz but from what I understand the 3500 makes up for this shortfall with the dual memory channel.

Some people say get the 939 for upgradability. But I usually do not pop a new CPU in an old mobo and usually replace the CPU/motherboard and memory when it comes time for that anyway. If the 3700+ socket 754 is cheap a year from now I may pop that in if anything before upgrading 2 years from now.

 

[Bateluer]

I'd go with s939. As it was said, its roughly 5 to 10% faster, depending on the use. With s754's dead ended upgrade path, its not a viable performance platform IMO. Its undeniably the best budget platform though, combined with a low A64 or a Sempron, and will only improve in that regard as more Semprons are released.

Future A64s will all be s939s, and rumor has it the dual core A64s will be dop in compatible with s939 boards. There's also rumors about s941/2/3 for dual core, but those are just unfounded rumors. AMD's last official statement was s939 would be the platform for the dual cores.

 

[kpb]

Personally I went for a 754 system. The benchmarks I've seen have put a fairly small difference between 754 and 939 systems if everything else is the same. As far as the upgradability goes I don't really see either as being upgradable for me. I've always ended up upgrading cpu, motherboard and memory together as a package. New chipests with new features for the new motherboards. Faster/newer types of memory. New sockets for cpus. It all means unless you upgrade frequently you'll likely end up replacing it all anyway. Not sure socket 754 is gonna go away any time soon. Altho it does look like it's going to be come thier "value" socket for the semperons over the next year. Odds are amd will go ddr2 before I upgrade again and I expect that to be a socket change if nothing else than just to prevent confusion. Even if they didn't change socket's you'd still need a new MB for ddr2 memory instead of ddr. Not to mention I'm sure my next board will be PCI express etc.

 

[eskellie8]

I dont think Id ever consider upgrading. So in that case the socket 754 board is the way to go I guess. And if the geil memory is no good then that cancels that 939 deal right ofdf the bat. Mogh, can that system have handle pretty much anything you throw at it?

 

[Duvie]

Originally posted by: eskellie8
I dont think Id ever consider upgrading. So in that case the socket 754 board is the way to go I guess. And if the geil memory is no good then that cancels that 939 deal right ofdf the bat. Mogh, can that system have handle pretty much anything you throw at it?

You run them at stcok speed then yeah they will do...It is asking very much more out of them may be the problem and a problem with this particular msi boards

 

[Edward Lee]

I went with a S754. I don't care about upgrading every 6-12 months. My next upgrade will probably be at least 3 years from now. Technology is already progressed so far the time it takes for systems to become obsolete is getting longer and longer. Manufactures have squeezed just about everything out of processors and memory they are turning to upgrading interfaces and creating dual core processors. My old P4 1.8 system lasted 2 years and is still a viable system now.

 

[Crassus]

Although I also thought about S939 but unless you get one with PCIe x16 you may not even be able to use next-gen video, so it's not future-proof at all.

 

[Mogh]

Originally posted by: eskellie8
I dont think Id ever consider upgrading. So in that case the socket 754 board is the way to go I guess. And if the geil memory is no good then that cancels that 939 deal right ofdf the bat. Mogh, can that system have handle pretty much anything you throw at it?

Like I was saying I just went through this painstaking decision and placed my order. (I will soon find out) I based this order from what I on read/stats for games that I play on articles from Anandtech, tomshardware and xbitlabs, etc.

I was comparing the price of the 3400+ to 3500+ 90nm, $220 vs $300/availability. If it was just price I would have just spent the extra $80.00. But then I say why spend extra $80 for 3500 2.2ghz when I can get a 2.4ghz 3400. For UT2003 based engine games the FPS stats I saw where about the same.

Then I read about people having problems with 939 boards being so new and I was like screw it I will go with something that has been out for awhile.

Almost a coin toss for me.

 

[Duvie]

Always the growing pains with the new platforms......

The 939 is pretty solid in my opinion...not 754 solid but pretty solid...most of the issues are known and fixed with bios updates....

 

[uOpt]

If you want a 2.4 GHz CPU the 754 is much cheaper. There are very few applications where dual-channel memory makes a difference.