Dual Channel vs. Single Channel

[amneziac85]

754 mobos run in single channel while the 939's run in dual.

If i have 2 sticks memory, how much slower would the 754's be then the 939's? If i plan on playing doom 3 and HL2, should I even worry about it?

 

[bosox188]

How much memory do you have?

 

[DJ_Cheeba]

It wont make much of a so much difference that you will notice in those games. Dont sweat over it :sniper:--------*:x*------->

 

[amneziac85]

planning on buying one or two sticks of 1GB

 

[blahblahblah]

Socket 754 processors have a larger L2 cache, but doesn't support have a dual channel memory controller.

Socket 939 processors have a smaller L2 cache, but they make that up with a dual channel memory controller.

Socket 939 processors are a tad faster than their Socket 754 counterparts. However, the difference is very very small. You probably will not notice a difference between the two platforms unless you spend the time doing comparitive benchmarking.

 

[amneziac85]

Gotcha, Im leaning onto 754 because shuttle is now making the mini boxes with em. The only thing maybe holding me back is PCI express. I want this box to be a good gaming rig for the next 2 years, and I know that by then PCI express might be making a big difference.

 

[bosox188]

Gotcha, Im leaning onto 754 because shuttle is now making the mini boxes with em. The only thing maybe holding me back is PCI express. I want this box to be a good gaming rig for the next 2 years, and I know that by then PCI express might be making a big difference.

If you get a 6800 it'll last you two years, and they're AGP. Then when you upgrade in 2 years PCI-E prices will have gone down and it'll be a good time to upgrade. The only reason I'm not recommending an X800 in this case is because they don't support sm3 and really you should have a card that supports sm3 if you want it to last 2 years. A 6800GT or Ultra is good.

 

[blahblahblah]

Gotcha, Im leaning onto 754 because shuttle is now making the mini boxes with em. The only thing maybe holding me back is PCI express. I want this box to be a good gaming rig for the next 2 years, and I know that by then PCI express might be making a big difference.

PCI express is over-rated. Really it is. In 2 years there maybe a reason to upgrade to PCI Express, but there isn't a reason right now. PCI Express doesn't do anything special right now.

I also forgot to mention that Socekt 754 is cheaper than Socket 939 right now. And there will be no new A64 processors for Socekt 754. However, 99% of the time when you upgrade your processor, you usually get a new motherboard.

As for a video card, the choice is yours. People will argue all day till they are blue in the face which is better, but there is no clear winner yet. Since you are getting a shuttle box, check out the X800 pro. It is the most power efficient of the high end cards. The 6800 GT is looking to be slightly faster than the X8000 Pro at this moment.

You will want to really make sure your power supply in these shuttle boxes can handle the processor and video card you choose. You don't want to get one and then realize that your computer spontanteously restarts when playing HL2 because you don't have enough power.

 

[Asus]

The only performance difference between Socket 754 and Socket 939 is the difference in the performance rating that you pay for.

PCI Express might make a big difference by that time...for those cards that are new at that time. I wouldn't wait.

Don't make SM3.0 a requirement. Base it off performance in the games you play or other features.

GF3's and 4's only supported DX8 (PS1.1). Then why didn't people buy the 8500 which supported DX8.1 (PS1.4)? Also it allowed a few light operations in one pass unlike the GF. That didn't stop anyone from buying the card that performed better in the games they play. That's a much bigger difference than DX9.0b and DX9.0c. lol

 

[bosox188]

Yeah either one is good, I just thought the 6800 would be better for lasting 2 years.

 

[deep8832]

what's the difference between dual channel and single channel? Is it how you place memory in your computer in pairs or something?

 

[Asus]

Dual channel is actually 2 memory controllers that can use 2 memory sticks individually which is more efficent. The memory itself is not dual channel but if you have 2 sticks of memory, you can take advantage of a dual channel memory controller.

DDR400 has a max. transfer rate of 3.2GB/sec. When taking advantage of a dual channel memory controller, it can reach 6.4GB/sec transfer rate.

The performance difference really varies between the applications and single channel memory generally does not suffer nearly as much on Athlon as much as Pentium 4 systems.

 

[amneziac85]

Well im gonna be waiting a couple months, I want to see everything that NVIDIA and ATI has up their sleeve. I remember the 9800 pro didnt come out with the rest of the lineup, so everyone who could afford it, went out, bought the 9700 then a better card, the 9800 dropped. So in a few months Ill know for sure.

All in all, the NVIDIAS are looking good because of the PS3, but Ill wait a bit and see what happens in the next few.

 

[[Matt]]

PCI express is over-rated. Really it is. In 2 years there maybe a reason to upgrade to PCI Express, but there isn't a reason right now. PCI Express doesn't do anything special right now.

2 vid cards running at the same time??? :E

 

[TheRook]

2 vid cards running at the same time??? :E

Bingo give this boy a Cookie!

thats why im waiting to upgrade i want a socket 939 board with dual 16x pci slots for when SLI takes off and ill have 2 6800gts running in it (can anyone say 16-18k 3dMark03?) it will be very expensive but i only need to buy one straight away... then i can just get another at a later date and boom... 75% performance boost... LURVLEY!

Andy

When upgrading there is no point in getting something that wont be future proof... they wont really release many faster cpus for socket 754 but with socket 939 you can upgrade your cpu in the future... which makes it worth spending that extra £50? Well i think so... but id suggest waiting a while...

 

[bosox188]

Bosox gives [Matt] a poisoned cookie. That'd cost a lot to have 2 6800 ultras.