Last, highest end for 939?

[ITPaladin]

Without regular income I fall behind on the upgrade curve.
What is the last upgrade I can do for my 939 over an Opteron 146?

 

[catalysts17az]

i still have my 939 system running. i have a DFI expert board with a Denmark 180 which can be picked up on ebay for about $200 at the buy it now request (i suggest you do that).

Denmark are dual core s939 opterons

165 = 1.8Ghz
170 = 2.0
175 = 2.2
180 = 2.4
185 = 2.6

I belive they topped out at 2.6, but i have a nice safe OC of 300Mhz bringing my 180 up to 2.7 with a Zalman on top of it. going to a dual core setup will buy you some time but yes my system is getting a little long in the tooth...... now that the i7 chip are out i may move up to an AM2+ system when the 45nm chips come out in Feb or go with a 775 system. my point is that prices should come down a bit more now that the i7 is out.

good luck, thats my .02 cents.

 

[LOUISSSSS]

FX-60 was the fastest s939 CPU i believe. what a great socket. i had a 4800+ X2 Toledo and it was great. its still running after 5 years

 

[roid450]

The Denmark 185 served me well. I ran my GTX card with the old mobo, AMD, and DDR400 2 gb and it was fine. But the enw upgraded was much nicer.

The FX-60 are very expensive for how old they are on ebay still. priced over 100$. they are only2.6 ghz form what I see. The FX-62 is 2.8 ghz

 

[ihyagp]

opteron 185 or fx!60.. they're pretty much the same chip. 2.6GHz dual w/ 1mb cache per core. they're not bad chips and can hang just fine with am2 dualies. good luck finding one at a good price though.

 

[MarcVenice]

I'd go for a x2 3800+ and OC it to 2.5-2.6ghz ... Those cpu's shouldn't cost more then $50-75 ...

 

[Denithor]

Originally posted by: catalysts17az
i still have my 939 system running. i have a DFI expert board with a Denmark 180 which can be picked up on ebay for about $200 at the buy it now request (i suggest you do that).

Are you F*ing kidding me? $200 into an already obsolete s939 system? WTF?

Originally posted by: MarcVenice
I'd go for a x2 3800+ and OC it to 2.5-2.6ghz ... Those cpu's shouldn't cost more then $50-75 ...

Much better suggestion, if you're on a really tight budget. Stick with the lower end of that range and use the Microsoft Cashback program (see hot deals forum for details) to push the cost down even lower.


Just consider one thing before you buy anything: for about $150 you can upgrade to a much faster AM2 system with more memory or around $175 for an even faster C2D system. Both of these systems will consume much less power than an old s939 setup which will save you money on your power bill over the next several years.

AMD AM2 - $156
X2 4850e (2.5GHz, 45W) $57
Foxconn A7VMX-K $54
G.Skill 2x2GB DDR2-800 $45

Intel C2D - $178
e5200 (2.5GHz - 2MB cache) $83
Foxconn M7PMX-S $50
G.Skill 2x2GB DDR2-800 $45

EDIT: These items all have free shipping and there are no mail in rebates so the prices listed are the total cost.

 

[ITPaladin]

I dont overclock as I am not good with doing that. I gave up trying.

 

[dahuang1]

+1 for Denithor

I'm running an opty 170 @ 2.75, but my 8800GT is not able to open it's wings judging by the 3dmark06 scores 10k vs. 16k-20k for the quad cores - so I'm trying to research upgrading to q6600 or i7 or ?? since my ram and board will have to change too.

 

[OCGuy]

Good call Denithor.

 

[MarcVenice]

Originally posted by: dahuang1
+1 for Denithor

I'm running an opty 170 @ 2.75, but my 8800GT is not able to open it's wings judging by the 3dmark06 scores 10k vs. 16k-20k for the quad cores - so I'm trying to research upgrading to q6600 or i7 or ?? since my ram and board will have to change too.

I'd have to politely disagree. Not a few days ago a guy showed his 3.0ghz opteron with a gtx280 running Far Cry 2 flawlessy, 30fps min. Your 8800gt is fine. The best way for you to spend your money is either an sli board, a e8400 and another 8800gt, or a non SLI board, a e8400 and a gtx260 216.

@ Denithor, jup, he could even lower the upgrade price by selling his old stuff and dropping to 2gb, which still is just fine for pretty much anything, if he's on a rly tight budget

 

[Tanclearas]

Originally posted by: LOUISSSSS
FX-60 was the fastest s939 CPU i believe. what a great socket. i had a 4800+ X2 Toledo and it was great. its still running after 5 years

5 years? The 4800+ X2 wasn't available until 2H 2005, barely over 3 years ago. The FX-60 was less than 3. In fact, it's been less than 5 years since s939 itself was introduced.

 

[themisfit610]

*facepalm

Don't put more money in a socket 939 system... Seriously.

If anything get a cheap AM2 board, chip and DDR2 RAM. It's all SO cheap now.

I mean... if you can get a 3800 X2 for less than $50, fine. But no more than that!

~MiSfit

 

[n7]

+ 3 Denithor.

 

[shocku]

Originally posted by: ITPaladin
Without regular income I fall behind on the upgrade curve.
What is the last upgrade I can do for my 939 over an Opteron 146?

Might as well put your money into something new[er] like others have said. Go for a Core 2 Duo system if you can. It will be much faster than what you have now, and you don't even have to spend a lot for the best C2D. You'll be able to upgrade to a very fast and cheap CPU later.

At this point, you'll pay way too much for any 939 CPU, even if it's not the fastest one ever made. Then what? Those chips aren't getting any cheaper and you're not getting any richer But if you're willing to overpay, I have a dual Opteron that'll do you +2.8 GHz I can spare

 

[RedShirt]

Denithor is correct. Instead of putting money into an out-dated system, I'd get a new processor, RAM, and board.

If you end up going the AMD route, I'd suggest a Asus M3A78-CM

It's more expensive than the FoxConn, but it's confirmed to support the new AM3 processors. These processors are rumored to perform as well as Intel's Core 2 Quads. So you could get a cheap Athlon X2 now and know you can throw in a faster Phenom 2 later.

The FoxConn may support AM3's as well, but I couldn't find any documentation stating so.

 

[cusideabelincoln]

Well he has a single core processor right now running at 2.0GHz. He would notice a good improvement if he even went with the more affordable 3800+ approach and not overclocking. Looks like he could get one for about $80. A core system upgrade would be the smarter approach for future upgrades, but it would certainly be more expensive.

 

[hans007]

you'd be a lot better off buying a new motherboard ram and chip.


my brother was running an athlon x2 4200+ with 1gb ram. I actually just sold his motherboard and chip on ebay for $130 or so. bought him a new am2 board, 5200+ , fan and 2gb ram for $120. plus now his board can support am2 cpus, for a future cheap phenom.

so yeah get an am2. might be a hassle, but if you are goin gto go on ebay anyway... its the same cost. the 4200+ x2 i sold was $100 alone. and i sold a 3800+ x2 on ebay for $85 about 3 weeks ago also. 939 stuff is too expensive.

 

[JPB]

Look around here for prices. Sometimes you get lucky

Pricewatch CPU list

 

[poohbear]

Originally posted by: catalysts17az
i still have my 939 system running. i have a DFI expert board with a Denmark 180 which can be picked up on ebay for about $200 at the buy it now request (i suggest you do that).

If that's true, which i highly doubt it, its highway robbery. For $200 u can get a C2D 8500 which would run circles around an opteron 180. I'd recommend you got w/ a 165 opteron, u can prolly find em used for $30- $40 (can't imagine anyone paying more for these, they're ancient!), and overclock em to atleast 2600mhz. 2800mhz if u have good gear. Check my sig, it still serves me well but 2gb ram is getting a bit long in the tooth especially w/ vista64.

 

[ITPaladin]

Is this combo a good deal?

It doesn't have the 1mb cache the opteron single has.

I recently upgraded from x800 to HD3870 and to my dismay people in EQ II tell me that the game is more CPU dependant than GPU, as places like Kunark really lags me and other people down to 10-20 FPS range.

I haven't logged into LoTRO yet to see the difference the GPU has or has not made yet.

 

[ther00kie16]

It's an ok deal but since you already have a video card, go for something cheaper and go without or with slower integrated graphics if necessary. You should be able to get a 780/740 mb for $50 and then get a $50 x2 5000 and overclock that to 3ghz.
Honestly though... you should try for a cheap e2200 or e7200/e7300 setup either at newegg or at your local Fry's. Fry's was selling e7200 for $80 and that will destroy any x2, especially when overclocked.

 

[poohbear]

Originally posted by: Denithor

Just consider one thing before you buy anything: for about $150 you can upgrade to a much faster AM2 system with more memory or around $175 for an even faster C2D system. Both of these systems will consume much less power than an old s939 setup which will save you money on your power bill over the next several years.

lol how much more will the op save over the next several years going from s939-am2? $20-$30 a year?

 

[ITPaladin]

People keep saying overclock but I said I don't know how to do it. I have tried and never get anywhere near the numbers people say they can easily get an Opteron 146 to.

 

[ochadd]

ITpaladin, sent you a PM. If interested in a used peice.