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new htpc: s939 or am2?

C

chansigrilian

Senior member
all links lead to newegg unless otherwise noted.

here are the similiarities:

case: antec fusion microatx media center
power supply: 430w, included with case
video card: evga nvidia geforce 7600gt pci-e
sound: built in, digital audio out to surround amplifier
memory: 2gb dual channel, see below for differences

here are the differences:

socket 939
mainboard: biostar tforce 6100-939
cpu: athlon64 4000+ san diego 2.4ghz
memory: 2gb (2x1gb) ddr400 pc3200 patriot extreme 2-3-2-5

socket am2
mainboard: gigabyte ga-m51gm-s2g
cpu: athlon64 3200+ orleans 2.0ghz
memory: 2gb (4x512mb) ddr2 667 pc5400 geil ultra 3-4-4-8 <-- link to geil's site

i've got everything except case, mainboard and cpu already here, whichever way i jump my old socket a(462) system and memory will be going to finance it.

i'm pretty set on that case, altho i would certainly consider other options.

i don't think i missed anything, if i did please let me know 🙂 thanks folks, any feedback is appreciated.
 
nope. my main rig is a 4200+ x2. this is strictly a htpc machine on somewhat of a budget 🙂

also, i only buy amd since i have stock in that company... been a longtime shareholder :thumbsup:
 
I'd have to say, no matter what, stay away from S939. It's dead. Any money you invest into that is a waste. Nothing new is really coming out for the 939, they stopped making them so supply is going down, price probably up; DDR Ram is useless in anything new (price up too). With AM2 roughly the same price, there's no reason not to get it. I just got a 939 last Christmas, and I don't plan on putting even an extra stick of Ram in because the second I really upgrade (processor), it's money in the trash.

Also, for the AM2, any chance you can go higher? I have a 3200+, it's still ok, but it was in its prime more than 2 years ago. Find a cheap X2 or like secretanchitman said, can you get a Core?
 
I have that Biostar in a couple of systems and am happy with it. An X2 3800+ runs near-silent and cool with on it using a Zalamn 7000-alcu.

That said, the new 65mm 35 watt AM2s sound appealing if they become available soon enough.
 
well, i agree about the s939, hence the rig i built a couple of weeks back is a pretty nasty am2 x2 4200+. however... how intense does a htpc really need to be? my old socket a has been doing duty since i upgraded but i really want a htpc case for it so i figured i'd upgrade the system. i can't see the need for a dual core in it at this point. i also only purchase amd for the reason posted above. the am2 does have a better upgrade path going forward if i wanted to go dual core at some point, that is true, however i'm not sure how soon that may be. it would seem the s939 system would be the better (read: faster) system at the moment... and for less.

at the moment the s939 is actually the slightly more affordable upgrade, hence i was leaning towards it. the s939 should also be able to hold up for at least a few years as a htpc. my main rig isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

i looked for the 65w am2 due to desire for a quiet solution but didn't see em on newegg at the moment 🙁 they were there a few weeks back tho 😕 that would be ideal.

btw thanks dave, that is encouraging :thumbsup:
 
Make sure that eVGA is going to meet your quietness requirements.

I just replaced the stock cooler on my 7900 GT as it was driving me insane ramping up and down. Not quiet in either mode.

My fault because I didn't do my homework. I replaced the cooler with a Zalman VF900 and didn't do my homework on it either. The only way for me to control the speed is off the included FanMate controller. No fan headers available on my motherboard. All used up.
 
Originally posted by: boomerang
Make sure that eVGA is going to meet your quietness requirements.

I just replaced the stock cooler on my 7900 GT as it was driving me insane ramping up and down. Not quiet in either mode.

My fault because I didn't do my homework. I replaced the cooler with a Zalman VF900 and didn't do my homework on it either. The only way for me to control the speed is off the included FanMate controller. No fan headers available on my motherboard. All used up.
Click to expand...

i hear ya.

i have a vf700 on it right now, it's quiet enough 🙂 the stock cooler when it ramped up was obnoxious, i couldn't handle it. the zalman cooled it by a mimimum of 10 degrees and dropped it probably 20 decibels :laugh:

the case is also designed for very good cooling, so that should help as well 😉
 
I would select the AM2 setup for two reasons. One I like the motherboard better, and two, it allows for an upgrade path. The 939 is dead. Why pour money into something that you can't upgrade?
 
Do you actually intend on upgrading the CPU/RAM/MB, and not all three together? If not, there's nothing wrong with 939.

939 versus AM2 versus C2D

Performance
They will be identical at least 75% of the time. When crunching a big task, C2D is the easy winner. AM2 barely beats 939, and only with DDR2-800 or better. The more efficient AM2's are nice, but they cost a premium, and the waste is much closer to 939 than C2D.

Price
C2D + DDR2 + S775 MB is the most expensive option. Next is AM2 + DDR2. 939 should be slightly less pricey on the chip, MB and RAM. Since AM2 needs DDR2-800 or better to match the performance of 939/DDR, you're stuck buying the most expensive "normal" RAM. As long as that is a given, the only logical choice is to purchase the superior C2D.

My conclusion:
Any platform will perform well for you. Either go with 939 and save money, or C2D and get higher performance. With especially poor bang-for-the-buck, AM2 is the worst of both worlds.
If you're bent for AMD, go with a dual-core 939, ATI 939 mobo, and a passive ATI vid card.
 
i currently have 2gb of both pc3200 and pc2 5400, both fairly extreme versions.

i will be purchasing the cpu and mainboard regardless which way i go.

i am solely looking at an amd solution due to my owning stock in amd for something like the past 10 years 😛

i was primarily looking at purchasing new components but a used s939 dual core would not be out of the question.

i am also leaning towards a s939 solution, altho the many folks here suggesting am2 is the wave of the future is interesting, particularly since i already have the ram to go that route.

anybody else?
 
you might want to consider geting a X2 3800+ for an HTPC, since some video decoding is to intense for a single core to deal with. Especially if you ever plan to watch any x.264 encoded high def movies..
 
people are right - going socket 939 is useless since it has no upgrade potential. i would suggest an EE (energy efficient) AM2, possibly even an EE X2 AM2 processor if you can get one.

you probably will have a better time viewing HD movies with an X2, since you have an additional core to work with, as krotchy said.
 
If you're on a tight budget and it's really just for your HTPC why not just pick up a used Barton Mobo+CPU for cheap?

I run a barton mobile 2500+ in mine and it's far more powerful than I actually need. (I just have 256mb of ram in it, an old geforce 4 video card, a Hauppage PVR150 TV card, and MythTV)

Or, you could even step down to an older Thunderbird or Classic Athlon, though if you do that, you may want to get a TV card with a hardware decoder (PVR350) ...
 
the only problem with going with an opty is the ram needed... i have standard desktop ram atm.

after some research i think i may watercool this system, including the gpu.

i currently run a 3200+, 2gb of pc3200 and a 6800gt. i game on this rig occasionally as well as use it as a htpc 🙂
 
Originally posted by: chansigrilianalso, i only buy amd since i have stock in that company... been a longtime shareholder :thumbsup:
Click to expand...

i remember checking AMD stock the day markets opened after 9-11.

the whole company had a market cap. of about $2 Billion. (this was about at the beginning of the Athlon 64 run).

the price then was $3 a share; last time i looked it was about $18.
 
There are Opterons that run in desktop boards and use desktop RAM.

Did you look at the Abit board I linked to? It's much better then either of your choices in your original post.
 
i just took a peek at it. what makes it significantly better? same chipset, i'll be disabling onboard video of course. i'm looking for the 2x ide and 1x firewire, saw it had both of those.

i must say :thumbsup: on that video card tho, i run a 7600gt in my standard desktop, about to sli it and it's a decent card. not going to upgrade further until dx10 is needed tho.

i didn't know you could run optys with desktop ram, interesting. that may make my choice much easier 😉
 
the opterons in question would be the skt939 opterons. the main advantage of them for the desktop market was that you could o/c them, usually quite a bit higher than the regular skt939s, plus they had 1MB of cache like the san diego cores. i ran a opteron 144 @ 2.5GHz stock V which was prime95 stable for 12+hrs no issues whatsoever. other than the o/c that they could handle they were the same in other apects (for the most part), and may last a bit longer (theoretically as they should be binned to be better cpus than a standard diego core since they are/were made to be in 24/7/365 mission critical equipment.

last, what exactly are you going to do with the htpc? sd or hdtv? how many tuners?

another issue is that the 939s are starting to get harder to come by, thus you can save a bit since you have the ram and use a slower/cheaper am2 cpu if it will handle what you need it to do.

also, liquid cooling isn't necessary and if you are doing it for lowering the sound most still have radiators that utilize fans, except i think zalman makes a setup that is entirely passive with the exception of the pump.
 
Well the Abit board has DVI on-board, I hadn't factored in the fact you'll be using discrete graphics. Still the Abit has better chipset cooling, fan control for the CPU as well as a "system fan" header, and overall looks like a very solid board design and component wise (I noticed its full of Rubycon caps).
 
the htpc will be used as a dvd player, media center pc, occasional gaming pc, sd dvr and vcr tape recorder.

i doubt i'm going to be using it as a hd dvr due to both the space requirements of hd media and the fact i have digital cable and do not use ota hd signals.

i was looking at liquid cooling primarily due to noise, i am familiar with it and have a couple of friends who use it. i have found no need for it as of yet for myself, although i will say that their setups tend to run quiet a bit quiter than my gaming rig. my current htpc setup is a bit noisy due to the stock evga 6800gt cooler... but that was a topic for another thread and part of the reason i'm looking at upgrading the whole shebang 🙂

thanks for the info on the optys, i definitely need to do a little more research on my s939 options, that may open up another possible angle, although most folks here would definitely seem to be leaning in the am2 direction. i must say that i do love my (am2) gaming rig :thumbsup:
 
I guess the main question is whether yoou want to do HD decoding, which really differentiates if you get a basic or advanced machine. For example, I've read for H.264 real time decoding min system specs are a 3-GHz duallie and a 256MB PCI/e card (though it depends on bit rate, people report success with lesser systems and less demanding files). Selecting quiet components is important, but fundamental is selecting components that will do what you want. A basic HTPC design is a 2.4-GHz equivalent with 512MB RAM. Do you want to rip DVD to the HDDs? Well, peripherals aside, I'd really recommend a good MoBo and card with HD acceleration. If you're serious about HTPC, you'll regret having to toss and upgrade later.
 
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