which athlon 64 X2 to buy?

[Alex]

with the recent drops of dual core athlon 64's i think it's about time i hop on the bandwagon!

i currently have a s754 athlon64 2800+ (1.8ghz) and it's great but i wanna gradually overhaul everything... i'm planning on buying my processor and mobo now and getting the ram next month when i have more cash...

i've been out of the hardware loop for a while and i can't decide between the following:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4000+ Dual Core Processor - Brisbane 2.1ghz - $79.99
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ EE Dual Core Processor - Windsor 2.2ghz - $89.99
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ Dual Core Processor - Brisbane 2.5ghz - $124.99
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Dual Core Processor - Windsor 2.6 ghz - $134.99
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+ Dual Core Processor - Windor 2.8ghz (2x1mb) - $169.99

initially i wanted the 4000+ cause it's so damn cheap but i wouldn't mind picking up the 4200+ although i don't know what the "EE" stands for.

right now i'm unsure between the 4800+ and 5000+ it really comes down to Windor vs Brisbane for me... and then there's the 5600+ which is pretty expensive but if it's worth it i could do it...

what do you guys recommend? i don't mind spending a little more to make sure it's fast and will last a couple years but I don't want to end up having to spend more than I can on a mobo + ram for the CPU

cheers!

edit: forgot to mention all prices are $CAD!!

Alex

 

[coldpower27]

Originally posted by: alex
with the recent drops of dual core athlon 64's i think it's about time i hop on the bandwagon!

i currently have a s754 athlon64 2800+ (1.8ghz) and it's great but i wanna gradually overhaul everything... i'm planning on buying my processor and mobo now and getting the ram next month when i have more cash...

i've been out of the hardware loop for a while and i can't decide between the following:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4000+ Dual Core Processor - Brisbane 2.1ghz - $79.99
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ EE Dual Core Processor - Windsor 2.2ghz - $89.99
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ Dual Core Processor - Brisbane 2.5ghz - $124.99
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Dual Core Processor - Windsor 2.6 ghz - $134.99
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+ Dual Core Processor - Windor 2.8ghz (2x1mb) - $169.99

initially i wanted the 4000+ cause it's so damn cheap but i wouldn't mind picking up the 4200+ although i don't know what the "EE" stands for.

right now i'm unsure between the 4800+ and 5000+ it really comes down to Windor vs Brisbane for me... and then there's the 5600+ which is pretty expensive but if it's worth it i could do it...

what do you guys recommend? i don't mind spending a little more to make sure it's fast and will last a couple years but I don't want to end up having to spend more than I can on a mobo + ram for the CPU

cheers!

edit: forgot to mention all prices are $CAD!!

Alex

I am curious if your going to overhaul everything why not wait for the Intel price drops in 10 days? And consider your options then?

 

[daveybrat]

i currently have a s754 athlon64 2800+ (1.8ghz) and it's great but i wanna gradually overhaul everything... i'm planning on buying my processor and mobo now and getting the ram next month when i have more cash...

Do NOT buy the processor and mobo now and wait for the ram.......just save the money you have to buy them now and buy everything at once when you have all the money ready.

Reason being.....cpu and motherboard prices will only continue to drop, not go up. So why buy a cpu and mobo now that you can't even use until you get the ram next month? while in the meantime prices only continue to drop.

 

[NXIL]

Hi,

agree with coldpower, wait on the processor and motherboard--a price war going on, ugly for AMD, good for you.

If you were going to buy anything this month: memory, 2 x 1GB DDR2 800 RAM, good quality, good name brand--they are selling it for below the cost to make it right now.

IMHO, best AM2:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16819103767

2.6 Windsor, the fastest 65W processor AMD currently makes.

http://www.amdcompare.com/us-e...aspx?opn=ADO5200IAA6CZ

2 x 1MB cache, which speeds things up about 2-5% or so over the 512KB cache versions.

EE = "energy efficient", uses less electricity to perform the same calculations as other less efficient chips--means less heat, less noise, etc.

http://www.neoseeker.com/Artic...e/Reviews/am2_x2_4200/

HTH

NXIL

 

[Alex]

thx for the replies! makes sense to wait it out i guess... i only have about $300 to spend right now and upgrading everything will cost approximately double that... cause i might as well make the move to SATA and PCI-E i've been holding out long enough...

i've always been an AMD guy and i don't see any reason to move to intel though

 

[f4phantom2500]

no, you should hold off on the mobo/cpu but buy RAM now. RAM prices are starting to creep back up, you should stock up while it's cheap.

if you can wait, i personally would hold out for penryn. if not, i'd wait for the c2d price drops. if thats too much $ for you, then i would consider amd (which is what i actually did lol). if you're willing to overclock, grab a brisbane. my 3600 is oc'ed to 2.8ghz without much tweaking, just raise the voltage to like 1.425 and change the fsb etc etc and i was good to go. my understanding is that the windsor's don't oc nearly as well as the brisbanes, and these chips max out at around 3ghz regardless of which one you get. so i personally would suggest a cheap brisbane and a good ocing motherboard.

 

[Texun]

Originally posted by: f4phantom2500
no, you should hold off on the mobo/cpu but buy RAM now. RAM prices are starting to creep back up, you should stock up while it's cheap.

That's what I am doing. I've been looking for a while and noticed RAM is gradually going back up so I made the jump last night and ordered 2x1g sticks of DDR800...

BUT, can anyone tell me if I can run 3x1g sticks in dual channel on an AM2 board? I'm still using the 32 bit XP, and would prefer not to fork over the cash for 4 gigs when the 32 bit OS can't use it.

Sorry to hijack but the "3 sticks" search option didn't return any hits. Google shows some say yes and others say no.

TIA.

 

[Alex]

Originally posted by: f4phantom2500
no, you should hold off on the mobo/cpu but buy RAM now. RAM prices are starting to creep back up, you should stock up while it's cheap.

if you can wait, i personally would hold out for penryn. if not, i'd wait for the c2d price drops. if thats too much $ for you, then i would consider amd (which is what i actually did lol). if you're willing to overclock, grab a brisbane. my 3600 is oc'ed to 2.8ghz without much tweaking, just raise the voltage to like 1.425 and change the fsb etc etc and i was good to go. my understanding is that the windsor's don't oc nearly as well as the brisbanes, and these chips max out at around 3ghz regardless of which one you get. so i personally would suggest a cheap brisbane and a good ocing motherboard.

sounds good! i guess i'll do just that then... and when i have some extra cash i'll go ahead and buy the rest of the stuff...

 

[MadRat]

Seemed like newegg had the 3.0GHz ones in stock earlier this week.

 

[nyker96]

if you OC just get bbrisbane x2 3600+ OEM for like 60 dollars and get yourself a arctic freezer pro 64 for like 20, OC that to about 3Ghz and you got a poor man's super dual core :]

 

[Silex]

Originally posted by: Texun

Originally posted by: f4phantom2500
no, you should hold off on the mobo/cpu but buy RAM now. RAM prices are starting to creep back up, you should stock up while it's cheap.

That's what I am doing. I've been looking for a while and noticed RAM is gradually going back up so I made the jump last night and ordered 2x1g sticks of DDR800...

BUT, can anyone tell me if I can run 3x1g sticks in dual channel on an AM2 board? I'm still using the 32 bit XP, and would prefer not to fork over the cash for 4 gigs when the 32 bit OS can't use it.

Sorry to hijack but the "3 sticks" search option didn't return any hits. Google shows some say yes and others say no.

TIA.

Short answer, no. Keep multiples of 2 in mind . 2 or 4, take your pick. If you can afford it, no reason not to go 4GB especially if running memory hungry Vista and it's memory allocation protocols, argh.