I need help with the Athlon 64's

GenuineInfinity

Junior Member
May 25, 2003
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I need help regarding the AMD Athlon 64 chips. I hear things bout the FX series, the regular Athlon 64 series etc etc.

is the original athlon 64 chip socket 754?

what about this new socket 939 or 940 i hear?

can you tell me the advantages or differences of these please?

Right now i'm lookin at the AMD Athlon 64 3200+. Its the Socket 754 one. Is it even upgradeable? and if so, to what speed? and is the HyperTransport at 64bit or 128bit because i keep hearing things that the FX is 128bit i think? and the athlon 64 is the 64bit one.

I'm not a hardcore enthusiast and will be mainly doing regular stuff on this computer as well as some games too but nothing too major.

The motheboard i'm lookin at is the Asus K8V Deluxe SE.

So if any of you could help, please tell me all the differences between the chips i listed above and upgradeability and all that stuff. I don't understand all the technical specifications so please keep it fairly simple and at most semi-technical. thanks alot.
 

Runner20

Senior member
May 31, 2004
478
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AMD just made things a lot more confusing.

Ok, so here goes. I'll try my best to help you out.

Yes the original Athlon 64 was for 754 mobos.

The 940 pin motherboards/processors came out at the same time as 754, so they are not new like you said.

The new 939 socket motherboards are capable to taking upcoming Athlon 64's as well as the FX's, provided they have 939 pin. There are only three processors that are about to come out - Athlon 64 3500 and 3800 and FX-53. There is another FX-53, but thats for the 940 socket. Things are confusing, aint they?

These new mobo's won't be out for a while, maybe up to a month.

AMD says it will continue to make 754 processors and support the line, so yes, it is upgradeble. The 940 socket will be phased out.

Hope this helps.
 

TheBDB

Diamond Member
Jan 26, 2002
3,176
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The socket 754 procs won't go past 3700+ (or maye 3800+), it will be used for the low-end line. That isn't important unless you want to upgrade the CPU without getting a new MB.
 

GenuineInfinity

Junior Member
May 25, 2003
16
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I've been reading up on some articles.

All I know is that the version of the Athlon 64 3200+ i will be getting is the Socket 754 version. And it doesn't have dual channel support.

Ok, let me explain my situation a little bit more.

I currently have this system:

- Intel P4 3.0Ghz with 800Mhz FSB and HT (I think its the C revision)
- 1Gb of DDR400 Ram (2 x 512mb in dual channel mode)
- Genuine intel D865GBF mobo
- Radeon 9600 Pro
- 2 Maxtor 40s on Raid 0.


The system above is my basic configuration currently. I have the option of either keeping that system or taking the new athlon 64 system which i am about to get.

- AMD Athlon 64 3200+ (socket 754)
- 1Gb of DDR400 ram (I guess i will just get 1 stick since dual channel aient' supported)
- ASUS K8V Deluxe SE motherboard

I will also be taking out the Radeon 9600 Pro and 2 Maxtors on Raid and putting them into this system. This is assuming that I will be taking the AMD system and giving my brother my Intel system. But i haven't decided yet so i need you guys to advise me on what to do.

Again i am not a hardcore enthusiast and won't be overclocking and chances are at the rate of which computer power is advancing, i don't think i will be upgrading any time soon. probably not for another 2 or 3 years anyways.
I will be playing soem games but generally not alot, but mainly school work such as using programs like Visual Basic, C++, MATLAB (with simulink), MS OFFICE, Adobe Acrobat.

So what do you guys think? which system is faster? the AMD one or the Intel One?

both will most likely have identical configurations except for the actual CPU, mobo and the dual vs. single channel difference in ram.
 

n0cmonkey

Elite Member
Jun 10, 2001
42,936
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I think besides some niche cases (movie encoding?) they'll be fairly comparable. Personally, I'd want the AMD64, but there are plenty of people that would prefer the Intel.
 

Zebo

Elite Member
Jul 29, 2001
39,398
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Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
I think besides some niche cases (movie encoding?) they'll be fairly comparable. Personally, I'd want the AMD64, but there are plenty of people that would prefer the Intel.

Depends which movie encoding program one uses. I've never understood why people say Intel is faster at encoding. Using DVD2AVI DivX encoder AMD 64 owns but using the mpeg variant Intel edges the 64 link.

Anyway according to all the benchmarks I've seen the 3200+ 64 will win out over your 3C. I seriously doubt you will notice though. We are talking 5-10% here. Some people say 64 feels smoother and faster but I can't quantify such relations.