athlon xp or athlon 64?

[himself]

i didnt find any thread concerned about this, so i made a new one.
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im currently saving my money in order to buy a new pc. my first thought was to buy an athlon xp 3000+ with the ASUS A7N8X-E deluxe mainboard. but after i've heard that athlon 64 are just slightly more expensive and have a better performance, im thinking about buying an athlon 64.

the actual problem is, that i'll need a new mainboard for that 64'er cpu.. what would you hardware-geeks do? i dont want any extra-costs that are too high just in order to get a slightly better cpu.

i need some advices. thanks in advance!

 

[sharp]

I would go for a socket 754 mobo with an Athlon 64 cpu (ofcourse it must be socket 754 compatible)

 

[Ansur]

Indeed, go for a 64 bit CPU. You'll have to wait a little while longer for the Windows XP 64 bit version since it has been delayed, but just see it as an investment in the future

There are already 64bit Linux editions, those might be worth trying out in the meantime.

 

[charybdis]

I know that the 754 socket requires that the ram runs in single channel mode. Does anyone have any benchmarks or articles that show how much of performance is lost from the ram not running in dual channel mode?

 

[ewilson248]

This really depends on how much you want to spend and how long you want this box to last before you have to do this again.

If you think long term, and you have the funds, it would be better to get into socket 754 or 939 now if you can, and bail out on socket 462.
The jump from 462 to 754/939 is a BIG deal in so many ways I cant list them here.

right now on pricewatch:
a 754 combo with an A64 3000+ is $247
a 939 combo with an A64 3500+ is $572

not bad really when you think about how much speed we are talking about!

 

[Azrael.]

Go with the 64. I love mine...

 

[himself]

my athlon64 system would look like this:

Mainboard: ATX S754 Asus K8V SE Deluxe
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Box Newcastle
RAM: DDR PC400 1024MB TwinMOS Twister Dualkit
FAN: 4x NB UltraSilentFan-S2 Blue Bulk
GFX: 256MB Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro Full-RTL
HDD: S-ATA 160GB Samsung SP1614C 8MB

the main memory would be cl2.. but i could save money if i use 2.5 (its slower). every penny counts!

thats some hard decision. but i guess you folks are right, an athlon64 is an investment for the future.

²ewilson248: well, this is the last 'gaming-machine' i want to buy for the next... 5-7 years i guess. i wont have that much time for games anyways in the future, so i want to have fun with hl2 & co. i think i could reach the 1200€ mark, thats enough for my system you can see up there.

 

[NJD2003]

Go with the A64 and do not get a 9800Pro 256mb.

 

[himself]

why not? i'd appreciate some kind of explanation

 

[ewilson248]

think what his point was: this particlar video card you have listed is about $300 and is one full generation old. It would be better to look at the new cards instead, either the 6800/6800GT or the x800/x600. if you cant go over 300 at all, I think a 6800 128mb would be better overall buy than a high end 256Mb 9800pro, less memory but
WAY more horsepower!

 

[himself]

thanks for your advices, was very helpful.

 

[JimmehH]

Cough, XP64 evaluation download, cough.

I hear the drivers are a little dodgy but it should be all right as long as you dual boot so you don't end up wrecking everything.

 

[Vigilante]

Get an MSI k8N neo platinum mobo for the athlon 64..it rules =)

 

[DJ_Cheeba]

AMD just cut prices across the board and I just got and Athlon 64 3000+ for $175 + shipping from newegg.com ! ! ! WOOT
:sniper:----------------*:x*------------>

 

[dscowboy]

Currently the nForce3 250 boards are preferrable over the VIA boards for Athlon 64. They come with better onboard features and their PCI lock hasn't been as flakey as VIAs if you want to overclock at some point in the future.

If you intend to keep the board for awhile and do a processor upgrade in the future, AMD will be making 939s for awhile. 754 will be phased out.

 

[oldagerocker]

Ive already bought my 32bit 3200+, but with the 64, is there enough support or compatibility, i heard the only 64bit cpu that ran 32bit programs was the expensive FX53... and i was worried. someone please calm my fears

 

[umop]

Ive already bought my 32bit 3200+, but with the 64, is there enough support or compatibility, i heard the only 64bit cpu that ran 32bit programs was the expensive FX53... and i was worried. someone please calm my fears

All Athlon64's are backwards compatible with 32-bit progams/applications

 

[Asus]

Socket 754 has single channel memory.
Socket 939 and 940 have dual channel memory.
Here is a review that shows the performance differences between the platforms with a similarly clocked CPU. You can get the Socket 754 CPUs for less which is a really good value and performance.

Any Athlon 64 will beat even the Athlon XP 3200+.