[Pc_Support] Re: Staying with 32-bit: PC3200 or PC4000, 166 or 200MHz Athlon?

[Bryan J. Smith]

On Thu, 2005-08-11 at 01:58 -0400, Jason Boxman wrote:
> I have decided to stick with old, 32-bit technology for my next upgrade.
> Should I bother with getting an expensive Athlon 3200+ so I can run at
> 200MHz FSB, or get a lessly expensive 166MHz FSB Athlon and run my existing
> PC2700 RAM or upgrade to plentiful PC3200 RAM.

If you go Athlon64, it doesn't matter, you can use whatever you want --
PC1600 (DDR200) to PC3200 (DDR400).

> (Matched pair 'dual channel' packages of less expensive RAM is available often.)

Just know that Socket-462, 478 and 754 only have a _single_ DDR channel
for a 64-bit path to CPU.  They use "interleaving" and call it "dual
channel."

In fact, the only processor that has a _true_ 128-bit DDR channel to CPU
is Socket-939/940, totally glueless and direct to CPU.  Even LGA-775 and
Socket-640 use some muxed lines.

> I can pick up a MSI K7N2 Delta2 Platinum (nForce2 400 Ultra) for $68 shipped
> from ZZFly.  Obviously, the cheapest FSB200 Athlon is expensive at $108. 

$68-108???  You're talking brand new nForce4 Standard/Ultra mainboard
prices for Socket-939!

AnandTech had a good price guide here (seems to be down right now):  
  http://www.anandtech.com/guides/showdoc.aspx?i=2490  

They have a new rev of my MicroATX nForce4 Standard mainboard with GbE
on-board for $79 now.  And some of the full ATX nForce4 Ultra mainboards
are around $90 now too, $105 for a good, quality board in the AnandTech
price guide.

Brand new, Rev. E (31W PowerNow, SSE3) Athlon64 3000+ start at $136.
And you can reuse your memory, _no_ CPU-I/O slowdown.

You might be able to find some older nForce3 chipset mainboards for even
cheaper.

> The FSB166 CPUs are a bit better and PC3200 is more plentiful than PC4000. 
> I suspect things will move to DDR2 before PC4000 ever becomes widely
> available.
> Thanks.
> (fyi upgrading from ECS K7S5A running an XP 1800+ @ 133FSB w PC2700 @ 133MHz.)

Just don't know if it's worth buy old Athlon.

Heck, even the new Socket-754 Sempron 3300+ (and 3400+) are now 64-bit,
around $100 and perform comparable to an Athlon[64] 3000-3200+.


-- 
Bryan J. Smith     b.j.smith at ieee.org     http://thebs413.blogspot.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The best things in life are NOT free - which is why life is easiest if
you save all the bills until you can share them with the perfect woman