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Where have all the S939 X2s gone?!?

D

deadken

Diamond Member
A while back my friend had a tight budget and wanted to upgrade his PC. We settled on a Socket 939 Asus Mobo with a 3400+ CPU. I had figured that by the time he was ready to spend some more money, we could get him a X2 CPU.

Today while talking about general PC stuff, he seems to be getting ready to upgrade. I did a quick look for a Socket 939 X2 CPU, but can't find much of anything around! I have done a search in the For Sale section, but couldn't get any results for a '939' search. Newegg doesn't carry any more 939 CPU's. Froogle, etc.., all seem to have no stock when I was looking at the 'reasonably priced' ones.

Did we miss out on the 'dumping' of CPUs when everyone went to DDR2? Are there any good places to find a dual core socket 939 cpu? Is it just a matter of keeping our eyes open or starting a WTB thread?

I am really not to ready to go and spend this guys money yet. I just was surprised that the 939 stuff dried up so fast. I have to admit, when we were putting together his PC, DDR2 was new and VERY expensive. Perhaps getting 4GBs of DDR2 for less then $30 has caused a mass exodus and I returned home to find that everyone else has left....

Any thoughts?
 
S939 is long gone dude. You missing the boat.

Last best hope, is to search FS/FT forum for someone selling an X2 or Opteron 165-180.
 
AMD stopped producing those CPU's a looooong time ago (in tech world time). AMD switched to AM2 couple years ago, when they did that they stopped producing s939 processors. Your best bet is Ebay, but you're going to pay a premium for a lower performing product as they're not made anymore, so what's out there is all that there is.
 
Cool, thanks... I kinda figured that he missed out. I bought a 'old car' just over a year ago and I have been 'playing' with that. I rarely play with PCs much anymore. I still game, but I have not been keeping up.

I guess I well start with a WTB thread. If not, perhaps it is time for him to do an entire rebuild again.

-Thanks.
 
there are a few in FS/FT and they can still be found out there, but the longer you wait the harder it will be to get one for a reasonable price.
 
If he doesn't mind the idea of overclocking, and has a pretty good system otherwise, you can buy a Opteron 165/3800+ x2 and they'll typically overclock to decent levels (2.7+ for the 165 is very normal, 2.5+ for the 3800+ is very normal). But it really isn't worth it to sink much money into a s939 system, I'd only consider buying a low end processor with the idea of overclocking.
 
Originally posted by: SlowSpyder
If he doesn't mind the idea of overclocking, and has a pretty good system otherwise, you can buy a Opteron 165/3800+ x2 and they'll typically overclock to decent levels (2.7+ for the 165 is very normal, 2.5+ for the 3800+ is very normal). But it really isn't worth it to sink much money into a s939 system, I'd only consider buying a low end processor with the idea of overclocking.
Click to expand...

I had the opposite experience with mine. My Opteron 165 would only OC to 2.53Ghz, and an X2 3800+ would go to 2.65Ghz, without a vcore increase. Probably could have pushed it a bit more, but didn't need to. It was in a friend's machine.
 
Originally posted by: VirtualLarry
Originally posted by: SlowSpyder
If he doesn't mind the idea of overclocking, and has a pretty good system otherwise, you can buy a Opteron 165/3800+ x2 and they'll typically overclock to decent levels (2.7+ for the 165 is very normal, 2.5+ for the 3800+ is very normal). But it really isn't worth it to sink much money into a s939 system, I'd only consider buying a low end processor with the idea of overclocking.
Click to expand...

I had the opposite experience with mine. My Opteron 165 would only OC to 2.53Ghz, and an X2 3800+ would go to 2.65Ghz, without a vcore increase. Probably could have pushed it a bit more, but didn't need to. It was in a friend's machine.
Click to expand...

I'm just talking about typical experiences. I think a 3800+ will typically hit 2.5+ GHz (often quite higher) and an Opteron 165 should be good for ~2.7Ghz generally. With overclocking nothing is gauranteed one way or another.
 
Thanks for the information. At this point I'd think that going from a 3400+ to any dual core should be substantial enough given a reasonable price. I don't know what to expect from pricing, but I am gonna guess that around $50 would be his price point. I thought that it was a bit odd that I saw a few S754's in the For Sale section, but I couldn't find one socket 939, let alone an X2. At the moment the most demanding thing he does is probably some BF2. Perhaps we will get Orange Box or L4D eventually, but I can't see it happening soon.

Does anyone know what I should tell him to expect in terms of pricing? I'd guess that a 3800X2 would be the most budget, but I don't know what is the 'lowest' Opteron out there. Am I right to think that all X2's have 512 Cache while all Opterons have 1MB Cache?

-Thanks again for the information guys, Ken
 
NO EBAY LINKS

There you go. Ranging in BIN price from $80 and up (bare chips). Might be able to pick off an auction cheaper if you're patient.

Otherwise, honestly, it's time for a cheapo rebuild.

e5200 $80
P43/P45 motherboard $80-120
4GB DDR2 $40
500W PSU $25-50

So probably a little over $200 to about $300 depending on the exact components you pick out. If you want specific recs ask here or in general hardware.
 
Originally posted by: Denithor
NO EBAY LINKS

There you go. Ranging in BIN price from $80 and up (bare chips). Might be able to pick off an auction cheaper if you're patient.

Otherwise, honestly, it's time for a cheapo rebuild.

e5200 $80
P43/P45 motherboard $80-120
4GB DDR2 $40
500W PSU $25-50

So probably a little over $200 to about $300 depending on the exact components you pick out. If you want specific recs ask here or in general hardware.
Click to expand...

This. An E5200 will beat the living daylights out of a 939 X2.
 
Thank you for the information. I completely understand your reasoning for a rebuild, but I sincerely doubt that his budget will allow for it. I'll most likely see him on Tuesday and I'll make a few suggestions. I guess that I really missed the boat on this one since a 4200+X2 was $65 at one point. Oh well, we'll be patient and get him one eventually.

Thanks for all of the information and suggestions guys. I appreciate it. I kinda miss following the constantly changing tech info. But not so much that I wanna stop playing with my car and start reading a million threads and articles again. Thanks for helping get the information I need rather quickly.

-Ken
 
Op if you go with a good AM2+ motherboard, you'll have a nice upgrade path to the Phenom 2.

Even with intel you have a good upgrade path to the C2Q.

It's a nice time to rebuild. Memory is cheap and they say it's going up in price soon by alot.
 
I just upgraded to an Intel rig last week from an AMD X2 4400+. The chip has 2 x 1MB L2 cache like the Opterons.

No sales outside of FS/FT.
You must comply with FT/FT rules if you post a thread there which includes making your profile and email address visible.
Anandtech Moderator
Gillbot
 
Originally posted by: covert24
yup. Obsolete my dude...

Ebay is your best bet.
Click to expand...

Obsolete? Hardly. Out of production? Yes.

The people who have S939 processors are hanging on to them, and for good reason.
 
In no way obsolete. Runs like a tank, more than adequate for XP or Vista. Older? Yes. Slower than C2D? Yes. Obsolete? Definitely open to argument. I love my 4800+ X2 and will not part with it.
 
It's actually really hard to get a hold of these CPUs now, including on FS/FT.

AMD really messed up with this platform. There was such an unmet demand for high-end dual-core processors that went squandered away on socket AM2. Such a waste. At the very least they could have created a version of their new chips with a different memory controller. It probably would have taken one of their engineers all of a day to do it.

This is why AMD is doing so poorly. They are not well run. Not to be arrogant, but I think I would make a better CEO than the management they have had.
 
WHAT PART OF the above warning do you people not understand? Enjoy your three day vacation.
No sales outside of FS/FT.
You must comply with FT/FT rules if you post a thread there which includes making your profile and email address visible.
Anandtech Moderator
Gillbot
 
Originally posted by: deadken
Thank you for the information. I completely understand your reasoning for a rebuild, but I sincerely doubt that his budget will allow for it. I'll most likely see him on Tuesday and I'll make a few suggestions. I guess that I really missed the boat on this one since a 4200+X2 was $65 at one point. Oh well, we'll be patient and get him one eventually.

Thanks for all of the information and suggestions guys. I appreciate it. I kinda miss following the constantly changing tech info. But not so much that I wanna stop playing with my car and start reading a million threads and articles again. Thanks for helping get the information I need rather quickly.

-Ken
Click to expand...

There's a For Sale for a Opteron 170 at HardForum for $70 bucks or so (assuming it's still available). Check it out there, that's a CPU he may be able to afford. It's Dual Core so it'll be nice to whatever he has right now.
 
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