When to upgrade -- Socket 939, PCI Express, DDR-II

[Gerbil333]

I've had my A7N8X Deluxe 2.0 and Barton 2500+ for 7 months and I'm ready to upgrade. Now doesn't seem like a very good time to upgrade though. I'm going to at least wait for socket 939/AMD's upcoming A64's w/dual channel memory support and see how these two chips perform:

Athlon 64 3700+, 2.40GHz, 512KB L2, 939-pin
Athlon 64 4000+, 2.60GHz, 512KB L2, 939-pin

It looks like PCI Express won't be out until September, which will be about half a year after the release of socket 939 boards. I haven't heard much about DDR-II. Does anyone know when that's due? I made the mistake of going with SDR memory instead of DDR when I got my very first Athlon 1ghz Thunderbird a few years ago...I'd hate to get a DDR board and have DDR-II come out the very next month.

Also, the Athlon 64 and FX are both going to be transitioned to the socket 939 platform, correct? Even though the FX is currently way out of my price range, I'd be nice to have the option.

One more thing: What's the standard RAM speed for these chips? They have no FSB, so I'm sorta baffled...200mhz/400mhz DDR (guessing by the .2ghz increments)? If so, and DDR-II won't be out for a while, then my TWINX3200LLPT should do.

 

[Crashman]

If you REALLY want to wait until all the problems and prices are stable, you'll be waiting another year!

 

[Gerbil333]

Yea, but I'm not that patient. I'll be a guinea pig.

 

[CJP]

I think Via might be releasing a pci express Athon 64 chipset well before AMD is supposed to (someone correct me if I'm wrong). If pci expresss and ddr2 are important to you, Intel is supposed to support them with the Grantsdale chipset before Amd. Though you'd have to give up 64 bit with the new Prescott Intel cpu.

 

[mrgoblin]

Originally posted by: Gerbil333
Yea, but I'm not that patient. I'll be a guinea pig.

In a year well be talking about sata 300 and multicores. Theres always something better coming. Just get what you want now that fits your budget. I suggest waiting until sock 939 comes out and grab a 3700+ for cheap.

 

[BoomAM]

Originally posted by: Gerbil333
Yea, but I'm not that patient. I'll be a guinea pig.

Same here.
i`d tierd of waiting.
Im buying a A64 3200 on feb 5th wether the new stuffs out or not. Even if it gets superceaded real fast, with little to no upgrade options, then who cares, it`ll be at least a year till the A64 3200 even breaks a sweat in anything.

 

[Rectalfier]

Originally posted by: Gerbil333
Yea, but I'm not that patient. I'll be a guinea pig.

I thought you were a Gerbil. Moving up in the world eh?

 

[Markfw]

Originally posted by: Gerbil333
Yea, but I'm not that patient. I'll be a guinea pig.

OK, then don;t wait. Get an Athlon64 3000+ now.

 

[BoomAM]

Originally posted by: Rectalfier

Originally posted by: Gerbil333
Yea, but I'm not that patient. I'll be a guinea pig.

I thought you were a Gerbil. Moving up in the world eh?

ROFLOL.

 

[Gerbil333]

Originally posted by: mrgoblin

In a year well be talking about sata 300 and multicores. Theres always something better coming. Just get what you want now that fits your budget. I suggest waiting until sock 939 comes out and grab a 3700+ for cheap.

I don't see the current offerings as enough of a performance jump to justify a mobo & CPU swap. Yea, I know technology moves on and on, but it's always a better idea to wait for major changes such as PCI express, DDR-II, and a socket that should stick around for a while...