Re: An AMD64 or my (or your) dreams - what to buy?
On Wed, Jun 30, 2004 at 01:24:45PM -0500, Chris Cheney wrote:
> On Wed, Jun 30, 2004 at 02:58:09PM -0300, Peter Cordes wrote:
> > On Wed, Jun 30, 2004 at 03:48:51AM -0500, Chris Cheney wrote:
> > > I would suggest getting one of the new Socket 939 motherboards for
> > > upgradability reasons since they are replacing Socket 754. Currently it
> > > appears only the 3500+ and 3800+ use 939 so it may be out of your price
> > > range, the 3500+ is ~ $500 and 3800+ ~ $700. A low end 2800+ (S754)
> > > is only around $180 so it depends on your budget. :)
> >
> > While we're talking about sockets, what's the difference between an
> > Athlon64 FX and an Opteron 1xx? Isn't an FX just an Opteron with the sync
> > HT links disabled? Or do they actually have a smaller die that doesn't
> > include the extra HT links at all? And they are pin compat, right? You
> > could use an Opteron in an Athlon64FX mobo, and vice-versa, right?
>
> Older Athlon64 FX were S940 like Opteron, so they use the same
> motherboards, at least afaik.
Yeah, I knew they used the same socket, and also had the impression that
they're compatible with the same mobos. What I really don't know (but am
wondering about) is what the difference between an Opteron 1xx and an
Athlon64 FX is. Is the silicon inside them identical?
And nobody answered my other question, about whether a socket 939 mobo
bought tomorrow will be useful with a CPU and RAM bought two or three
years from now. If you don't need an I/O monster, the current HT link speed
is adequate. The sticking point is whether the CPU<->RAM traces are up to
running at faster speeds. (and that DDRII might change everything, but
assume they make faster Athlon64s with DDR 2*266MHz RAM.) If it's not going
to be useful, there's not much need to worry about being able to upgrade the
CPU, so the cheaper socket 754 should be fine, and give you pretty much the
same value.
--
#define X(x,y) x##y
Peter Cordes ; e-mail: X(peter@cor , des.ca)
"The gods confound the man who first found out how to distinguish the hours!
Confound him, too, who in this place set up a sundial, to cut and hack
my day so wretchedly into small pieces!" -- Plautus, 200 BC
Reply to: