AMD Socket AM2

[gatso]

So. I've just taken delivery of a lovely (huge) Antec P180 case which I now want to fill with lovely goodies.  A quick browse of the web shows that the latest and greatest from AMD is socket AM2, 940 pins and supporting DDR2 memory.  Whatever that is.

So, anyone got one yet and is it worth it bang/buck vs socket 939 at the moment?

Gatso

[eagl]

AMD went against their own roadmap and is cancelling socket 939 instead of 754, so 939 is pretty much dead.  They said there won't be any faster cpus for 939 than there are today.

AM2 is AMD's next platform.  Overall it isn't much faster than 939 right now, but supposedly any new cpus in the Athlon 64 line will be made for AM2, not 939.

I'm a bit peeved by it actually, and with conroe kicking butt in the benchmarks I'd actually suggest waiting and getting a conroe based setup.

Or maybe get the cheapest AM2 cpu and mobo you can, match it with a good vid card and memory, and just replace the mobo and cpu with intel stuff when conroe is available.

I think AMD lost both the speed and loyalty battle this round.

[Kev367th]

Wait till later this year before going AM2.

When the new rev g ones are released they will have some of the improvements that will be found in the K8L's.

Around the same time "Torrenza" motherboards should become available.
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2768&p=2
One advantage of "Torrenza" it will run with only a single CPU installed, so you can buy one with the board, then add another later.

Add to that the AMD price drops later this month it is really a bad time to buy anything.

Conroe - Yup in the benchies I've seen it beats even the FX-62, bear in mind -
a) Yet to see anything but engineering samples of Conroes used for benchies.
b) Not seen the AM2 FX-62 using top end memory with tight timings yet.
c) Comparing old tech (current K8) to new tech (Conroe).
d) K8L (new architecture) due out Q1 2007.
Even with (a) and (b) I still expect Conroe to beat the FX-62 when it becomes available, just by a smaller margin.

Suppose it depends how long you can wait.

Me I'm waiting till start of 2007, when choice will be -
1) Conroe
2) "Torrenza" with 2 x dual core AM2 rev g core (total 4 cores)
3) "Torrenza" with single K8L rev h core (total 4 cores)

Funny bit - AMD avoided calling the new architecture (K8L) the K9 for obvious reasons, yet the rev h core it has has been nicknamed "hound".

[68DevilM]

Originally posted by eagl
AMD went against their own roadmap and is cancelling socket 939 instead of 754, so 939 is pretty much dead.  They said there won't be any faster cpus for 939 than there are today.

AM2 is AMD's next platform.  Overall it isn't much faster than 939 right now, but supposedly any new cpus in the Athlon 64 line will be made for AM2, not 939.

I'm a bit peeved by it actually, and with conroe kicking butt in the benchmarks I'd actually suggest waiting and getting a conroe based setup.

Or maybe get the cheapest AM2 cpu and mobo you can, match it with a good vid card and memory, and just replace the mobo and cpu with intel stuff when conroe is available.

I think AMD lost both the speed and loyalty battle this round.

lol...are you sheting me.......ha ha......glad i went with that 754 pin after all.......

[68DevilM]

Originally posted by Kev367th
Wait till later this year before going AM2.

When the new rev g ones are released they will have some of the improvements that will be found in the K8L's.

Around the same time "Torrenza" motherboards should become available.
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2768&p=2
One advantage of "Torrenza" it will run with only a single CPU installed, so you can buy one with the board, then add another later.

Add to that the AMD price drops later this month it is really a bad time to buy anything.

Conroe - Yup in the benchies I've seen it beats even the FX-62, bear in mind -
a) Yet to see anything but engineering samples of Conroes used for benchies.
b) Not seen the AM2 FX-62 using top end memory with tight timings yet.
c) Comparing old tech (current K8) to new tech (Conroe).
d) K8L (new architecture) due out Q1 2007.
Even with (a) and (b) I still expect Conroe to beat the FX-62 when it becomes available, just by a smaller margin.

Suppose it depends how long you can wait.

Me I'm waiting till start of 2007, when choice will be -
1) Conroe
2) "Torrenza" with 2 x dual core AM2 rev g core (total 4 cores)
3) "Torrenza" with single K8L rev h core (total 4 cores)

Funny bit - AMD avoided calling the new architecture (K8L) the K9 for obvious reasons, yet the rev h core it has has been nicknamed "hound".

kev u need to leave my 262 alone next time....ya big meanie

[eagl]

Yea 68devil, who'd have guessed that AMD would kill off a perfectly good platform and keep around their crippled, lobotomized, bastard stepchild version.

Grumpy?  Me?  Harumph.

[68DevilM]

i know egle, but you know how it goes in the computer world as much as i , give it six months and the fastest system availble now will be obsolite

[eagl]

Well, AM2 has nothing over Intel's newest line of cpus so the only thing that could possibly have kept me with AMD for my next cpu purchase would have been for them to keep producing faster socket 939 cpus.  I'm not going to upgrade my entire platform just for the privledge of running a cpu that is slower than their competitors...

I think it's a big tactical mistake but what do I know...  All I know is that they could have kept me as a customer but decided they'd rather sell legacy "value" cpus than legacy "performance" cpus with their corresponding higher markups.  Fine with me, I'll just wait it out.  Not that I trust Intel to do anything different, but Conroe beats A64 hands down, across the board and if AMD is forcing me to buy a new mobo, then I'll quite happily switch to whoever is fastest at the time of purchase.

And I've had my current rig for more than a year now and it's still pretty fast...  Not blinding fast but still more than fast enough.  A64 3700, 2 gig memory, and 6800GT (AGP).  None of it was bleeding edge when I bought it, and there are still upgrades that I could get to snag another year or so of useful life from it.  But if I have to get a new mobo just to upgrade the cpu, then brand loyalty means nothing.

[Kev367th]

Ditto Eagle, here's the problem -

Although Conroe will be 'launched' (cough) late this month, most do not expect it to be available to joe public until September at the earliest.

A few months after that the rev g AM2 core becomes available along with the "Torrenza" platform.

Which will start a new whats faster -
Single dual core Conroe - or 2 x dual core AM2 (equivalent cost of single Conroe)
Bearing in mind AH2 will use all cores available, and most new games are multi-thread.

Then Q1 2007 the K8L becomes available.

Best to wait until Q1 next year if your rig at the moment is serving you well because changes are afoot.


68DevilM - Well stop flying it in front of 4x20mm cannons and you'll be fine .

[68DevilM]

Originally posted by Kev367th
68DevilM - Well stop flying it in front of 4x20mm cannons and you'll be fine

lol did you see me rip my stupid wing of when i saw you behind me

[Balsy]

939 sockets are DEAD??? I thought as of 6 months ago they were AMDS platform of choice for the future??????????????

fug me silly

[Kev367th]

Originally posted by 68DevilM
lol did you see me rip my stupid wing of when i saw you behind me

I thought you lost both tips.
So decided best to put you out of your misery , was a mercy killing.
You were one of four 262s I got this tour, so hopefully helps you feel better.
Did quite good against perkies -
262 - 4
Tempest - 6
Chog - 13

Balsy - The switch to AM2 was invetible, 939 simply doesnt have enough pins for DDR2 or 3.
Looking on the bright side - the switch from DDR2 to DDR3 would only require a new CPU for AM2 as the DIMM slots are the same.
Additionally AM2 can enable the coherent link pin allowing the use of dual dual core setups (i.e. 4 cores) without the need for the more expensive error checking memory.
Also "Torrenza" and rev g cores are going to feature a bump in HTT speed.

[38ruk]

Originally posted by Balsy
939 sockets are DEAD??? I thought as of 6 months ago they were AMDS platform of choice for the future??????????????

fug me silly

I was also unhappy about this. I started with a Socket 754 3400+ but decided to go to my current 939 system based on the Amd roadmap of phasing out the 754 64's, and their commitment to the future of the 939    ( pcie was also a consideration) .  This really leads me to the same deadend that the 754 was headed towards.

All of this is just going to make it easier to jump to a Conroe  platform, ive been an amd guy for quite some time ( my last intel was a 466 celeron ), looks like it's going to be time for a change .

[gatso]

mmm. Makes it all a bit tricky doesn't it.  This is going to replace my laptop as my primary machine and I've hung on long enough really.  My old P4 3.0, 1Gb, 9600M and 17" screen will then take over light duties and I won't worry too much if it blows up... again.

Games wise, I don't get much free time any more but it needs to hold its own when I do.  Primary job is video editting from my camcorder. Being able to set that up in the background and then do a spot of surfing or work in the foreground is the big reason for the upgrade. (Games are a bonus )  Rendering 2 hours of camcorder footage on my laptop recently I thought it was going to melt it got so hot.

So, looks like we're going with...

New stuff
Antec NeoHE 500W PSU
AMD AM2 X2 4200+
Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe Wireless
2x 1Gb Corsair TwinX PC6400 CAS 4-4-4-12
Saphire X1900Xt 512Mb
2 new SATA drives for RAID or a single 10,000rpm drive

Old stuff
Antec P180 case
300Gb SATA
IDE 250Gb
IDE 80Gb
DVD burner

Comes to around £1000 if I buy all the bits from sensible places.  500W enough for the power supply?  Anyone have preferences on RAID or 10,000 RPM?

Cheers

Gatso

[gatso]

Find it all on newegg and it comes to $1658 - about £100 cheaper than I can find it all over here going for the cheapest deals from multiple companies. I hate America

Gatso