Socket 754 or 939?

[mattchase]

For my primary computer I plan on getting socket 939 with an Athlon 64 x2, but what about my old system that I plan on putting into a cube case? It doesn't need to be high end, either of socket 754 or 939 should be an upgrade from what I currently have, so which do I get? It appears that 939 is a newer style and will be supported further into the future, and that the X2 chips only come on 939. But I also don't expect to ever put an X2 chip in the cube system, it is going to be mainly for playing music and running my webcam, and maybe one of my weather apps, but not much. I am leaning towards 754 since the box itself costs a bit less, and the processors a bit less too. I plan on getting a less expensive processor to start (like say a Sempron 64 2800 or 3000) which leaves plenty of room to upgrade in the future to a faster processor (they currently go up to Athlon 64 4000).

Also, how does an older Athlon XP's compare to the new Sempron 64s? And how about compared to the full Athlon 64's?

[JB]

Actually, I think 939 is being phased out. The 940-pin AMD chips are taking over. Not 100% sure on this. How much you wanna spend for the chips. Stay under $100?

[TonyK]

Save yourself the hassle. Just end Vance the money. I'm sure he'll find a use for it. ;)

[mattchase]

Send Vance the money? Great idea! I can let HIM build my new computer for me! ;)

939 is being phased out? Interesting, so then perhaps I will get 940 for my new computer. I was planning on spending around $1100-$1300 total for the box, and had about $300-$350 of that earmarked for the processor, which would get me an Athlon 64 x2 3800 (2.0ghz). Looks like in a socket 940 $350-ish would get me a dual core Opteron 265 (1.8ghz) or a single core Opteron 250 (2.4ghz). There are too many different processor options anymore, and I don't really know how they compare. The one difference I recognize is the cache, which I plan on getting 1mb - and the speed differences which I don't think are as meaningful as they once were.

So is the 754 going to be the more affordable AMD option and be around for awhile? I am still thinking that is what I will get for my cube system as I am less concerend about performance. My current system is an XP 2500 with 1.5gb ram and it performs well enough though not great (and that is with no less than 4 apps running almost 24/7 on it!). So for the cube system I am looking at a mostly lateral move / slight upgrade, with future upgrade potention which is why for now I was looking at a Sempron processor and down the road get an Athlon 64 in it. So yeah I was looking to stay at about $100 or so for now, and in a year or two when the 754 Athlon 64's come down in price maybe upgrade to one of those. Would a Sempron 64 3100 (1.8ghz) be comparable to my current XP 2500 or slightly better? I would expect it to be better given that it is 64 bit and has a higher bus speed, even though it has less cache (I think) and an equal processor speed.

And in a sign that my timing is right, my secondary HD just stopped functioning correctly this morning. I haven't done any troubleshooting yet, but am hoping it is an IDE issue on the mobo and not a lost TOC, the drive is there but shows as not being formated. I suspect the mobo because I have also been having progressively worse USB issues that started some time ago. Not to big of a deal, I did a full backup a couple of weeks ago and haven't put too much new stuff on that drive, and have some good recovery software should I need to go that route.

[JB]

Well you could probably go with a 754, but I think you will have more choices with 940 pin mobos. However, all you really need is one motherboard which should last years, so either way, you should be fine.

FYI, Intel is supposedly going to slash their Pentium D 950 (Dual Core) chips by 50% around April 23, 2006. This could mean you may get a hell of a deal from AMD when they lower their prices--assuming they well and I'm pretty sure they will.

[Talvan]

Matt, one thing to consider abotu the Semperons is that they run on the hot side straight out of the box. I would highley recommend against any over clocking with those, and highley recommend you getting extra case fans if you decide to get that one. Other than that, if you dont plan on upgrading your webcam/mp3 server and all it is going to do is basically sit there, go for the 754. I believe you can get an Athlon chip for that socket also. Hope this helps.

[mattchase]

Thanks John, you've confirmed exactly what I had planned to do. I bought a 754 mobo and a Sempron 3100, and yes the mobo will support an Athlon 64 chip which leaves room for me to upgrade in the future. I don't plan on overclocking, I have done that a couple of times with mixed results, and would rather have a longer lasting more reliable computer. The case may cause some heat issues, I got one of those small cubes (though not really, it is 8"h x 8"w but is about 12" long), I don't know how much room for extra fans it will have but if there is any, I will put them in.

In the short term I actually will be using this as my main computer, I am going to wait a month or so (if I can handle that) and see if prices drop on processors before I start building my big new computer. I have everything picked out, just want to see if JB is right about the price drops. But once I get my new computer this one will mostly just be sitting running those few programs, and I will probably use it for websurfing or video / slideshows from time to time.

And it's on the truck! I should have everything this afternoon...then the fun part begins; trying to trick my current OS installation to to work on the new mobo / processor without having to reinstall or call Microsoft for a new code! Yeah, I know...good luck! ;)

[Talvan]

Matt, as for the extra fans, well you can always mount them on the side(not on the mobo side that is useless) and top expetially if you cut the holes your self, and you seem like a do-it-your-self-er. Smaller cases arent neccisarilly bad, expetially if you have a few fans. It will actually have increased air movement because of less volume in the case, even though the air flow(CFM) is still the same. For those that are reading this and might not readily understand let me simplyfy the concept a little for you. lets say you have a 20" box fan. This fan will moce the same cubic feet per minute(CFM) whether it is in a 4'x6' bathroom or a 15'x20' living room, but the bathroom will feel more like a windtunnell than the slight breeze you would feel in the living room.

One other thing to keep in mind about case fans is to install them so the air flow moves in the same direction, kind of like a twin prop plane with a prop in front and one in back. The front prop pulls and the rear prop pushes. Also the power supply(P/S) fan needs to be taken into consideration. You dont want all your other fans forcing air into the P/S at the same time that the P/S fan is trying to force air into it, all that will do is make the P/S fan work twice as hard and there for wear it out quicker. Hope this helped explain it a little more.

[Vance]

ahem....

Send me money, and I'll just head down to Wal-Mart and buy you a system off the shelf, as that's about all I know about them.

Talked with one of our IT guys sometime back, and he said it's cheaper now to just go out and buy a system off the rack.

[mattchase]

Got the case, no extra room for fans. No extra room whatsoever, my PCI card doesn't just fit, it JUST fits! It actually touches the HDD / CD cage but only slightly so should be fine. On the airflow front, it does have exhaust vents on either side, along with fans (including CPU heatsink / fan) designed just for the smaller case size.

Vance, you can get them cheaper buying off the shelf ready to go, but you often get what you pay for too! I figure it's going to cost me about $1300 to build my new system, and while it won't have the absolute newest / fastest components in it it will still be darn good. And most importantly I will know all the parts are good brand and fairly high quality.