Socket 754 NOW! or Socket 939 Later?

[Kenazo]

Originally posted by: DAPUNISHER

Originally posted by: minofifa
I am also interested in buying an AMD based computer in the near future. One thing that i'm not sure about is, what does it mean to have 1 RAM controller insted of 2? Does this mean that i can only use one stick of DDR ram insted of two? i definately want 1024 meg of ram and i would rather pay less for two 512's insted of one 1024. Would this be possible with the 754 socket or whould i have to go with the 939?

The difference in one or two controllers is just single or dual channel. You can still put 2x512mb DDR400 in 754 but that's the limit. Otherwise you drop down to DDR333.

With 3x512 I was only able to run at pc1600 speeds! It was decent Cas2 PC3200 ram even. This was a fairly early gen Shuttle NF3-150 mobo, so I have no clue where things are at now. Apparently 3 single sided sticks won't make you drop the ram speeds so far though, but I've never had the experience.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Thanks Kenazo, I have the AN50R myself but didn't bother trying a 3rd stick because I don't need it. It's good to hear real experience with it as oppossed to just theoritical limitations covered in previews/reviews and such :beer:

 

[CraigRT]

I'd have to say hold off and wait a bit for 939, I think it will be the way to go maybe only in a few months to half a year or so prices should come down to a manageable level and make it worthwhile, especially for future upgradeability.

 

[dheffer]

754 is where its at - the next budget cpu's

 

[coolred]

Whatever you do, don't buy socket 940 unless you can get a really good deal. Socket 940 will be opteron only

Whats wrong with buying an opteron or socket 940 processor? COrrect em if I am wrong, but the lowest speed socket 939 CPU is 2.2 GHz, a 2.2Ghz opteron 148 is almost 80 bucks cheaper then the socket 9393 A64, that would most likely offset the differance in cost of having to get registered RAM. While I am not sayign he should get an opteron, I just don't understand what makes it such a bad deal. Am I missing something.

I guess you recommended socket 754 though, granted a socket 754 chip will be substanially cheaper then both socket 939 and 940, but will not last as long as a high end board, and may not live to long as even a bidget board. Granted thats what AMD said its gonna do, but whats to stop them in 6-8 months from saying "whoa it cost a lot of money to support 3-4 differant sockets, lets just start using socket 939 and 940." That would suck for everyone that bought socket 754.

Socket 939 is the beginning of the end for socket 940 & 754

In the mainstream you mean? According to AMD socket 754 will hang around for a bit as a value socket, and socket 940 will likely loutlive any other current AMD socket, as it is the server line, and supposedly the new dual core opterons will work in current boards, let alone sockets.

 

[So]

Do you still need registered RAM on the K8T800 chipset? I thought I heard something about that too...

 

[footbal07]

at this time there is no performance difference to justify the extra cost of socket 939, and if you where to dish out a ....load on a 939 cpu and mobo by the time ur ready to upgrade ur cpu there will be bigger and better mobos to go along with it. if ur looking for bang for the buck 754 is the way to go

 

[LED]

quote:

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Socket 939 is the beginning of the end for socket 940 & 754
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In the mainstream you mean? According to AMD socket 754 will hang around for a bit as a value socket, and socket 940 will likely loutlive any other current AMD socket, as it is the server line, and supposedly the new dual core opterons will work in current boards, let alone sockets.

Well it's going to be hard to beat the 939 with faster Mem timings and no need for ECC compared to the 940 and dual mem controllers with PCI X compared to the 754 and are you aware that the 3700+is the end of the road for it?... (@ least up to now) while the 939 is the best of both chips in many Opinions (mines included)...seems like the Beginning of the end in my view...

 

[Wahsapa]

Originally posted by: So

Originally posted by: ViRGE

Originally posted by: So

Originally posted by: Matthias99

Originally posted by: Markfw900
Well, I guess its a matter of symantics. The socket 754 has a 64-bit data path to memory, and 128 bit for socket 939/940. There are two memory controllers on the 939/940 chips vs one for socket 754. The dual channel for XP/P4 is different, and on the motherboard.

This is a bit like differentiating between "all wheel drive" and "four wheel drive". The Socket939/940 A64s have two memory controllers on the die, which they can use to access two different banks of RAM in parallel. While the implementation differs from the AXP/P4 "dual channel memory" (I believe these use a single 'double' controller on the northbridge), the end result is the same. It's certainly not much of a stretch to call them both "dual channel" memory configurations.

^--- agreed.

Oh, and for some reason, I thought at the K8T800 chipset implimented its own non-amd memory controller w/ dual channel. Am I crazy, or did I hear that somewhere?

You're crazy AFAIK.

Well, alright then.

could u mean Via's QDR ram controller? Via was trying to come out with 'QDR' memory for the p4, they announced it awhile back but i have seen very little news about it. it was along the lines of adding an extra controller chip on each regular ddr dimm so that only one side was accessed at a time, inessence giving a single dimm 'two channels'. its like putting another memory controller on the dimm itself but a major downfall being the new latencys involved with such a chip; but other then QDR i dont recall anything about Via and proprietary memory, especially for AMD chips.

 

[So]

Originally posted by: Wahsapa

Originally posted by: So

Originally posted by: ViRGE

Originally posted by: So

Originally posted by: Matthias99

Originally posted by: Markfw900
Well, I guess its a matter of symantics. The socket 754 has a 64-bit data path to memory, and 128 bit for socket 939/940. There are two memory controllers on the 939/940 chips vs one for socket 754. The dual channel for XP/P4 is different, and on the motherboard.

This is a bit like differentiating between "all wheel drive" and "four wheel drive". The Socket939/940 A64s have two memory controllers on the die, which they can use to access two different banks of RAM in parallel. While the implementation differs from the AXP/P4 "dual channel memory" (I believe these use a single 'double' controller on the northbridge), the end result is the same. It's certainly not much of a stretch to call them both "dual channel" memory configurations.

^--- agreed.

Oh, and for some reason, I thought at the K8T800 chipset implimented its own non-amd memory controller w/ dual channel. Am I crazy, or did I hear that somewhere?

You're crazy AFAIK.

Well, alright then.

could u mean Via's QDR ram controller? Via was trying to come out with 'QDR' memory for the p4, they announced it awhile back but i have seen very little news about it. it was along the lines of adding an extra controller chip on each regular ddr dimm so that only one side was accessed at a time, inessence giving a single dimm 'two channels'. its like putting another memory controller on the dimm itself but a major downfall being the new latencys involved with such a chip; but other then QDR i dont recall anything about Via and proprietary memory, especially for AMD chips.

No, I rmemeber QDR...that was a couple of years ago anyway...Dapunisher got it one post down from that.