CRAIGFIN

I'm trying to research motherboard formats for my next PC build and need advice.
I gather that currently the Socket 939 is the daddy, and that Socket A is rapidly becoming a dead duck. Where does the Socket 754 and Socket 478 come into the equation? For my next build, I would like to use a AMD Athlon 64 CPU. I take it that this rules out a Socket 478 as they appear to be for Pentium / Celeron CPU's. This leaves a Socket 754 motherboard, are they any good?

I'm after a Micro ATX form factor, so my choice appears to be a Socket 939 or 754, so which would you go for?

Cheers,

Craig.

bioforger

iTrader: (1)

Go for socket 939. Skt 754 was the 1st incarnation for amd64 boards, which is now pretty much defunct. The only bonus is you can get cracking performance using a 754 board with say an amd64 3400+ on a budget.

It doesnt matter what skt board u go for, it will be superceeded eventually by newer formats. I.e M2 Skt boards will be out next year.

GaryScoobNCBR

deffo go for the socket 939 with the new venice chips from amd.

Buy 3000 or 3200 then if you want later on they overclock well

Your also correct that socket 478 is for Intel Chips.

DrEvil

As said, go 939 for AMD64 and AMD X2 support.

If you are not an overclocker take a look at the AMD 3700 (939) or AMD 4000 for great performance without breaking the bank (IMHO). Or if on a budget AMD3500.

Make sure the graphics slot is PCI-E, depending on what you want to spend on a GPU... heres some suggestions.

£100 - X800GT
£200 - 6800GT/X800XL
£300 - 7800GT
£300+ - 7800GTX (BFG or XFX or leadtek).

1Gb of RAM or 2Gb if you want to play the latest games with all the eye candy.

As for motherboards, no idea for MicroATX.. I tend to stick with Asus, overlclockers like DFi boards it seems.

Graz

Am I right in saying that the socket 939 AMDs have a built in dual channel DDR memory controller?

In which case remember you have to buy a pair of matched memory sticks to get the most out of it.

jaytc2003

iTrader: (1)

SKT 939 is the way at the moment, depending on budget team this up with a new x2 processor (dual core) The 3800 x2 overs good standard performance and overclocks quite well.

Defo go PCI-E as well, but again depending on budget how about 2 x 6600GT running in SLI mode this will give slightly better performance than a single 6800GT for roughly the same price.

The Skt 939's AMD do have a built in memory controller and therefore it is recommended to use dual channel bought in matched pairs.

EddScott

I have a DFI Lanparty 939 motherboard with an AMDA64 3500. Theres 1GB of dual channel memory (2 matched sticks). Asus 6600GT PCI-E.

Plays Half Life 2 on 1024X768 with AAX2 and everything else on max "prettybits" without hesitation.

Its not OC'd yet purely becuase its never struggled with the games I've played on it.

Only thing I would buy again would be to change the motherboard to SLI compatible. With SLI you can run 2 PCI-E graphics cards.

I would say to futureproof your spec get an SLI board.

jowl

I have a Socket 754 and an Athlon64 2800 CPU - and performance is very good.

However, if I was buying now, i'd go for S939 and a Venice CPU without question.

CRAIGFIN

Wow!! What a response.

Thanks for the info, Socket 939 it is.

Cheers,

Craig

DrEvil

Or if you like ATi cards get a Crossfire board.

personally I'm sticking with getting one new top end GFX card every year, because at the resolution I run, SLI isn't worth the £££ (ie less than 1600x1200).

I've got an SLI board thou, mainly because of the features on the board (8x SATA, 2x ethernet, 10x USB etc..). Horses for courses.

CRAIGFIN

Hijacking my own thread......

What does Venice. Winchester and San Diego mean reference to the AMD Athlon 64 bit range of CPU's? What does one give you over the others?

Craig.

_Meridian_

iTrader: (1)

We don't overclock because it improves performance (although it does), we overclock because we can...


Winchester is the early 130nm core AMD64 core design - avoid (they're getting rare anyway). The only real difference between Venice and San Diego is L2 cache size (512 and 1024KB respectively). All the evidence suggests it makes no difference. The name refers to the design of the CPU circuitry and is the code-name used in design.

M

(AMD XP3700+ San Diego at 2700MHz)

CRAIGFIN

Cheers M

jowl

I was under the impression Venice also runs a little cooler...though that might not have been in comparison with San Diego.

bigsinky

my 3200 A64+ winnie is running @2.64ghz for £150 quid

GaryScoobNCBR

yep go with the venice, they run pretty darn cool and are ideal for small cases.