Is it still wort it to buy socket 754 platforms?

[PlAtUs]

I found the folowing combo at a very low price. Should I buy them or should I buy 939?

Gigabyte K8NS 754
Athlon 64 3000+ Socket 754

This local store is claiming that the processor is a Winchester Core.
Is this true? If I m not mistaken, Winchester is only 939.

10x in advance for your replies.

 

[tallman45]

Both are excellant, fast, stable products. I just built a similar setup

Gigabyte K8NS 754 $75
Athlon 64 2800+ Socket 754 $120

Not much can beat this for under $200

Your 3000+ is a notch faster (for $146) so it should even better

A comparable 939 system would need a 3200+ A64 to match the speed of the 3000+ (754).

 

[PlAtUs]

Yeah its a very good value for money setup.
But the thing is, that I wanted to overclock my system, and I ve read that the 939 s are good overclockers.
Will I be able to achieve a decent overclock with this processor? (since it is a 130nm)
Or should I go 939 so as to be able to overclock more?

 

[tallman45]

The 939 offer a better OC potential. plus runs cooler. They also have the dual channel benefit, a small benefit but still a benefit.

Depends on what you need it for. The 2800+ rig I built for my 12yr old offers him more that enough power now and when he needs and upgrade in a yr or so I can drop in a 3400+.

His system is using an old Ti4200 and it runs really well so before a cpu boost a new GPU will be next

 

[PlAtUs]

10x
I think I ll spend the extra money on a better video card since the budget for the cpu and mobo was a litltle higher.
Can you post me a list of all the socket 754 processors please

 

[RussianSensation]

I thought the 90nm Winchester core was only for socket 939? I remember that S754 only had old Clawhammer with 1mb cache core and Newcastle with 512mb cache core (but higher clock speed to compensate).

To answer your question:

1) when you usually upgrade do you buy a new motherboard + cpu or just the cpu?

If you upgrade cpus 2 or more times during the span of one motherboard => S939, otherwise S754 is fine

2) If you play games, then when you pair up this rig with a card, pretty much expect that next time you replace you have to buy a whole new motherboard, cpu and videocard (in pcie). If you go with socket 939, you can get 6600GT PCIe right now and you have a larger upgrade path for videocard and cpu in the future without having to throw a motherboard.

3) if options 1 and 2 end up being too expensive today, as such their costs might exceed the cost of a socket 939 motherboard for you over an equivalent setup you wanna get. Now, imagine you were going to upgrade in 1 year on S754. You get a new cpu, new 939 mobo + new pcie videocard - Option 1. Or in 1 year you get a new cpu, and new pci videocard on socket 939 - Option 2. If Option 2 - Option 1 > cost of 939 motherboard, then you will have gained little by going with socket 939. Also if you have an AGP videocard you want to use, getting socket 939 right now might be a bad choice as well.

4) Socket 939 should overclock better.

I would primarily look at points 1-3 and make your decision based on that, because overclocking is never guaranteed.

 

[clarkey01]

the best bang for buck CPU is with the S745.

The newcastle 3400+ runs at 2.4 Ghz( same speed as the 4000+, FX53), only is single channel but thats nothing and has 512k Cache. I am considering this set up for myself, but with only 90 nm revision E athlon 64's coming to S939 aswell as dual core, Im kinda stuck with what to do.

 

[otispunkmeyer]

i think they were bringin the winchester or at least the 90-nm parts to skt754, so they could be right

 

[classy]

In all honesty if your a bargain type person, I would suggest spending the extra $100 or so now for a 939 setup because the long term benefits far out weigh the extra cost right now. A good NF4 board and 3000+ cpu should be able to be had for about $325-350, I guess somewhere in that vicinity. But its faster, has more features, you'll have a load of faster cpus available for upgrading that could easily extend that platform to 3 years or so easily. Concentrate on a good motherboard.

 

[Aenslead]

Yeah, I agree. S754 is best bag for the buck.

I saw over at some french site a comparassion price/performance between S754 and 939 and S754 got two thumbs up. Unless on synthetic, dual channel memory does little to nothing performance wise.

I have a S754 a64 2800+; sweet thing, I tell you. I'd suggest that, should you spend right now and are tight on a budget, you get that combo. Sweet thing, I tell you.

 

[Jaimie]

Originally posted by: PlAtUs
Yeah its a very good value for money setup.
But the thing is, that I wanted to overclock my system, and I ve read that the 939 s are good overclockers.
Will I be able to achieve a decent overclock with this processor? (since it is a 130nm)
Or should I go 939 so as to be able to overclock more?

I have an AMD 2800+ on a Soltek SL-K8AN2E-GR, and it is able to overclock extremely well. I am currently running it at 2.43Ghz from 1.8Ghz Stock. That is a 35% Overclock. Based on my experience, I think Socket 754 is still a great platform, and a good option if you need to use an AGP card.