Upgrading to socket 939

[IamDonSharp]

Hi, I'm new to the boards and pretty new to doing my own builds and upgrades. What I'm going to be doing soon is upgrading from my current socket 754 athlon64 3200+ to something along the 939 socket, most likely athlon64 also because I'm on a pretty tight budget. So here's the big QUESTION!!!! What would be a nice upgrade that I probably won't be overclocking(yet) that will give me a nice little performance boost but not break the bank? Or should I just stick with socket 754? I'm looking to spend around $200 usd, but I am willing to give or take a bit. Also I was looking at cpu's on newegg and saw that an athlon64 3500+ is a 10 dollar difference than a 3700+. What would be the difference in performance with those?

thank you in advance, hopefully I'll learn a few things posting here

Sharp

 

[Bobthelost]

Including the motherboard you're not going to get a massive speed boost going to 939 on that budget. I'd think about overclocking first or buying a faster 754 chip.

Also make sure you've got at least 1GB+ of RAM.

 

[eyestorage]

Is that $200 total (mobo/cpu/ram), or for the CPU alone?

The difference between the 3500+ (Venice) and the 3700+ (San Diego) is that the 3700+ San Diego is, more than likely, going to overclock better. I would spend the extra $10 for the *security* on the OC, or atleast on the trade/resale value alone.

 

[sangyup81]

$200 is too little to get a significant boost changing platforms from 754 to 939.

Can you post your current rig right now? A memory increase might give you the boost you need

 

[RallyMaster]

I would go with an Opteron 146 in that range. It's 212 at newegg and overclocks very well. However, with a motherboard, you'll break the bank (at least 325 for mobo + CPU). In your case, it'll be wise to wait for AM-2.

 

[IamDonSharp]

200 was just for the cpu alone. I was looking at the 3700+ but didn't know if i should stick with 754. Right now I have a athlon64 3200+ 754 running at stock, 2gb of corsair valueram, gigabyte ga-k8u motherboard, umm. . . 200gb WD hdd, and a bfg geforce 6800gs agp. That's about it for specs, unless you need to know anything else? Like I said any suggestions will help

sharp

 

[eyestorage]

I actually bought an Opty 148 from m*n*rch for $221 shipped after using a coupon code last week...also got an Epox 9npa+ Ultra mobo for about $97 ($318 total). To be honest, if I were you and my budget was tight, I would just try my best to save-up the money for awhile and see how the performances are on the new AM-2's. If they aren't all that much of an improvement, then upgrade to a 939 socket (prices probably will drop like a rock because of the AM-2 intro)...if they are as good as they say...then you have the moolah for it. Scrounge-up all the dough you have...be a penny-pincher

 

[IamDonSharp]

Will am2 mobo's support agp? Cause I have a pretty nice agp card that I don't want to get rid of soon.

 

[kmrivers]

Originally posted by: IamDonSharp
Will am2 mobo's support agp? Cause I have a pretty nice agp card that I don't want to get rid of soon.

more then likely no. unless they want to take a step backwards.

 

[akugami]

I'd stick with the current system you have at the moment. There really isn't a compelling reason for you to upgrade. I'd wait till maybe the end of the year after the Socket AM2 prices drop to what the Socket 939 prices are now and pick up a complete system makeover. As others said, I'd look into overclocking your current CPU and leave it at that. Especially since you're satifsfied with your current video card. I figure if the AM2 mobos and cpu's are out in June like they say and after the initial back to school rush is over, the prices should drop for these computer parts so that'd be the ideal time for you to upgrade. Somewhere around Nov. Just think of it as your XMas gift to yourself.

 

[ronnystrauss]

venices overclock better than sandiegos

 

[IamDonSharp]

Thanks for the help everybody, I just clocked my cpu to 2.4ghz and its running pretty cool (haven't tried to benchmark yet) so far. I don't know about this stock cooler, but with my cheapy mobo it's impossible to drop the fan rpm so It's always running at full speed , but I think I'm gonna take some of that $200 budget I was talking about and grab a new hsf for the clocking. And ******, if anything happens to my cpu it's not like 754's are alot of money.

donsharp

 

[ronnystrauss]

thats not a very good overclock i dont think. idk know how well those do though. my amd athlon 64 30o0+ 939 venice ( its a 120 cpu now i think) got to 2.5 ghz on the stock cooler. for 200 dollars though you can get a water cooling kit. and do some major stuff

 

[Vinnybcfc]

Originally posted by: IamDonSharp
Will am2 mobo's support agp? Cause I have a pretty nice agp card that I don't want to get rid of soon.

only 1 (with an AM2 expansion card) and I think it is the only proper (not agp over pci) 939 board which is the ASRock 939Dual-SATA2

 

[furballi]

I have a Sempron 3100 (socket 754) and an A64 3000 (socket 939). Both CPUs are rated at 1.8GHz stock. To achieve a similar level of CPU performance as the A64 3000/939 rig, I need to increase the CPU core speed of the Sempron by approximately 150MHz. There is very little to gain by upgrading to a 939 board.

The Sempron 3100 has no problem hitting 2.25GHz (as fast as an A64 3200). Mine is overclocked to 2.43GHz (tad faster than a stock A64 3500).

The most effective method of increasing the speed of your rig is to bump the physical RAM to 1GB, and overclock your current CPU. Bump Vcore up to 1.5 and determine the failure point. Now back-off the CPU core speed by 100MHz. Get a better video card if you're a gamer. At this speed, the CPU is not the limiting factor with modern games.