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

[Bryan J. Smith]

Jason Boxman <jasonb at edseek.com> wrote:
> Where is everyone buying their Athlon 64s that I am not
> looking?  They're starting at $150!

But after you figure mainboard and you're debating memory,
you're already up to spending $80 more.  It's far better to
go for the Socket-939 Athlon64 3000+ or even 3200+ on a newer
Socket-939 nForce4 mainboard for the _same_price_.

Furthermore, you can get a nForce3 Socket-754 mainboard for
$50 these days.  The Socket-754 Sempron 2800+ is under $80. 
$130 bucks right there, $80 cheaper, and the _same_price_ as
a nForce4 Socket-462 and Athlon.  Because AMD had to match
Intel adding EM64T to the Celeron, the Sempron for Socket-754
_now_ has a 64-bit upgrade option (the new 3300+/3400+ are
64-bit).

> And, my old PSU is probably insufficient, so that's another
> $150 for a quality PSU.

Not so.  All Sempron and all new 90mm Winchester/Venice
(Rev.D/E) Athlon64's use the same or _less_ power than the
last generation of Athlons.

Most of the $50 nForce3 Socket-754 mainboards are ATX1.0.
So no power supply upgrade required.  You can also continue
to use your AGP cards, and the slots on the nForce3 are
_definitely_ AGP3.0/8x and 0.8V capable.

And even if you go Socket-939, as long as you don't get an
ultra-power-sucking PCIe card, you don't need ATX2.0.  In
fact, the only reason you need ATX2.0 is because PCIe
provides the same 50-100W that AGP"Pro" used to on
workstation boards.

If your video card don't suck the juice, then you don't need
it as long as you're putting in an Athlon64 90mm 3000+, 3200+
or 3500+.

> Now I'm spending about $450 instead of $180.  Oops.

I said it last year, unless you can get a _killer_ deal on a
Socket-462 mainboard -- do _not_ buy a new Socket-462.

Go Socket-754 instead for the _same_price.

Or consider Socket-939 for the future, especially since some
mainboards are ATX1.0 tolerant.

> If I was sure it was worth it,

It has *0* to do with 64-bit.  It has to do with the fact
that memory and I/O kicks ass on Socket-754 and, even more
so, 939.

Then add in the fact that Sempron/Athlon64 do SSE2 and the
new Rev.E Venice cores do SSE3, while even the latest rev.
Athlon XP-"M" only does SSE.

Now consider the fact that Athlon XP is _dead_, AMD _stopped_
producing them months ago.  All you have is Sempron, and the
only way to 64-bit is the new Sempron on Socket-754 _only_ --
no Socket-462 option planned.

> I might take the plunge, but if the least expensive A64
> stuff now isn't that good

That's changed since the Sempron 3300+/3400+ were introduced.
 And even the Sempron 2800+ bests the Athlon XP2800+ in many
applications.

> and you really need to spend even a bit more than $450,
> that's way out of my range.

$100-150 gets you Socket-754, and you can even recycle your
memory.



-- 
Bryan J. Smith                | Sent from Yahoo Mail
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