What is the best processor for Socket 939?

[mike2lis]

I have decided to upgrade my socket 939 processor from single core to dual core. I can't decide among the following processors.
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ / 2.4Ghz
AMD Athlon 64 FX-60 OEM / 2.6Ghz
AMD Opteron 180 / 2.4Ghz

Is the server processor (Opteron) any good for gaming? Would I notice any advantage (ex. gaming)? Please help me to decide!

 

[dasickninja]

If you are looking at an advantage in gaming you are much better off getting the 4800+ X2 and using the money to get a good graphics card and RAM.

 

[YO_KID37]

The Opteron 180 Over clocked to 2.8Ghz - 3.0Ghz range

The Opteron 180 is a FX-60 without Unlocked Multiplyer, and clocked slightly slower because it's meant to be cool and Reliable for 24/7/365 Operation.

 

[mike2lis]

I do not plan to overclock, just normal use. I have small factor Shuttle SN95g5 v 2.0 and I am not sure you can over clock it. How much memory does a person need for gaming? Average Gaming.

 

[YO_KID37]

Well a FX-60 Would run Very hot on your board. If the Opteron 180 is around the same price or atleast within range of the X2 4800 then go with the Opteron. Recomended memory would be a Good 1Gb of fast Dual-Channel DDR

 

[Blacken]

Adding (assuming) WinXP with background proggies and the game itself.
CSS, Doom3, Fear style, 1gb imo. BF2, Oblivion 1.5gb+. 512 runs rather short these days.

 

[sirheck]

just go with what ever is cheapest.

they are all close in performance.

 

[caamsa]

What type of system do you have? Please give us some specs.

Thanks,

 

[YO_KID37]

What type of system do you have? Please give us some specs.

Thanks,

I have small factor Shuttle SN95g5 v 2.0

http://global.shuttle.com/Product/Barebone/SN95G5%20V3.asp

It's a V3 on the Link but you get the idea.

 

[4Ryan6]

I have decided to upgrade my socket 939 processor from single core to dual core. I can't decide among the following processors.
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ / 2.4Ghz
AMD Athlon 64 FX-60 OEM / 2.6Ghz
AMD Opteron 180 / 2.4Ghz

Is the server processor (Opteron) any good for gaming? Would I notice any advantage (ex. gaming)? Please help me to decide!

Well for gaming and you have a 939M/B maybe you shouldn't go dual core just yet since theres such good prices now for the fastest single core CPU on the planet the FX57, in many games the FX57 outperforms the dualies, I see benchie braggers posting their 3D Mark Scores coming in lower than mine, so what are they really bragging about, I'm still trying to figure that out.

I'm an owner of an FX60 and an FX57, the 57 was my gaming rig, I got the 60 for Christmas and its great for multi apps, however if you're going to play a game you surely won't be playing back a DVD at the same time and unless the game is written to take advantage of the second core, its pretty much useless, except for possibly running background apps.

Some games even get really funky on a dual core, like FarCry one of my favorite games, so I pulled the 60 out of my gaming rig and gave it to my wife and slapped the 57 back in the machine, funkiness is gone and gamings great.

You'll hear all kind of suggestions here, but if you intend to play your games fullscreen and really don't want any side effects at all get yourself an FX57, the multiplier is unlocked you can easily run 3ghz with a 15x multi on air cooling, I know you said you weren't going to OC at all but you can without touching the FSB.

Anyhow if i didn't already have an FX57 I'd get one myself, but its your money.

Once we really start getting software and games written for dual cores, then that will be great, but its just trickling in, maybe Vista will change things faster, but do you want to wait or play whats available now???

 

[sirheck]

4ryan6 is correct.

i have a similar set-up.
singlecore and dualcore s939. and see no difference in gaming.
same gpu in each computer.

but if you want to keep your s939 (and it is not a dead end like some may say)
then go for a dual core.

 

[sailer]

Being an owner of a FX60, I'd say you'd probably do best by buying the X2 4800+. Then, like Dasickninja said, spend the money sved on a good graphics card.

 

[caamsa]

Thanks for the link....was wondering what single core 939 he has? And what type of video card. I have a single core 939 and mine is kickin so I was just wondering what he has and why does he feel the need to upgrade.

 

[mike2lis]

Thank you for all the replies. I sure did not expect that. I think I will buy the X2 4800+ since it runs cooler.

Question from before. I got Shuttle SN95G5 v2.0, AMD 64 3500+, 1 gb (2 x 512MB of dual ddr 3200), and ATI All-in-Wonder X800 AGP 8x.

I am going to upgrage:

RAM to 2 GB of A-Data Dual Channel 2048MB PC3200 DDR 400MHz (2 x 1024MB) --- $229 CAD

CPU to AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ 2MB Cache 2000MHz FSB Socket 939 --- $292 CAD

Video card to ATI Sapphire Radeon X1950 Pro 512MB GDDR3 AGP w/ Dual DVI, TV-Out --- $319.95

Hope to keep it for another 2 years.

 

[sirheck]

Thank you for all the replies. I sure did not expect that. I think I will buy the X2 4800+ since it runs cooler.

Question from before. I got Shuttle SN95G5 v2.0, AMD 64 3500+, 1 gb (2 x 512MB of dual ddr 3200), and ATI All-in-Wonder X800 AGP 8x.

I am going to upgrage:

RAM to 2 GB of A-Data Dual Channel 2048MB PC3200 DDR 400MHz (2 x 1024MB) --- $229 CAD

CPU to AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ 2MB Cache 2000MHz FSB Socket 939 --- $292 CAD

Video card to ATI Sapphire Radeon X1950 Pro 512MB GDDR3 AGP w/ Dual DVI, TV-Out --- $319.95

Hope to keep it for another 2 years.

should work fine.
happy computing.

 

[Rall]

I will be upgrading my socket 939 3800 X2 to a 185 Opteron, and my 7900 GTX to a 8800 GTX. I plan on using this computer for at least two years. I plan on overclocking the new processor to a 2.8 or 3.0 if I can. I think if you go with a same kind of set up as me you will do fine. Just remember a year from now people will be saying that the conroe needs to be replaced by something new because it is absolete or too slow. At one time or another we need to decide to stay with one computer and get our money out of the it.

If you go to newegg you can get a Opteron 185 for 335.00 and the FX-60 cost 460.00

 

[caamsa]

Good luck. Too bad your stuck with the AGP slot.

Uless you are a heavy gamer I would hang on to your system for another year and then build a completely new system based upon your needs at that time.

 

[Datman]

HIS X1950 Pro IceQ3 Turbo Dual DL-DVI 512MB/256MB AGP

This is the card I'm checking out myself.

 

[Noya]

I will be upgrading my socket 939 3800 X2 to a 185 Opteron, and my 7900 GTX to a 8800 GTX. I plan on using this computer for at least two years. I plan on overclocking the new processor to a 2.8 or 3.0 if I can. At one time or another we need to decide to stay with one computer and get our money out of the it.

Not to sound like a dick, but did you even read your post?

A 2.0ghz X2 to a 2.4ghz Opteron for $335?

Why not just OC your X2 to 2.4ghz? Is a little more cache and maybe 400mhz worth $335?

Swapping a 7900 GTX, which is basically the Nvidia under the cutting edge 8800 GTX in benchies seems expensive with mid-grade DX10 cards right around the corner.

 

[m25]

Thank you for all the replies. I sure did not expect that. I think I will buy the X2 4800+ since it runs cooler.

Question from before. I got Shuttle SN95G5 v2.0, AMD 64 3500+, 1 gb (2 x 512MB of dual ddr 3200), and ATI All-in-Wonder X800 AGP 8x.

I am going to upgrage:

RAM to 2 GB of A-Data Dual Channel 2048MB PC3200 DDR 400MHz (2 x 1024MB) --- $229 CAD

CPU to AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ 2MB Cache 2000MHz FSB Socket 939 --- $292 CAD

Video card to ATI Sapphire Radeon X1950 Pro 512MB GDDR3 AGP w/ Dual DVI, TV-Out --- $319.95

Hope to keep it for another 2 years.

HEEEEEEEEEEY, are you insane or what; you only need the money of a motherboard or subtract tehm from the RAM (getting only 1024MB) and get a better performing Core2 or AM2 system with PCI-E video card!!! And AM2 CPUs are much cheaper than S939 counterparts.
And after 2 years you will still have an upgrade path.

 

[Rall]

I will be upgrading my socket 939 3800 X2 to a 185 Opteron, and my 7900 GTX to a 8800 GTX. I plan on using this computer for at least two years. I plan on overclocking the new processor to a 2.8 or 3.0 if I can. At one time or another we need to decide to stay with one computer and get our money out of the it.

Not to sound like a dick, but did you even read your post?

A 2.0ghz X2 to a 2.4ghz Opteron for $335?

Why not just OC your X2 to 2.4ghz? Is a little more cache and maybe 400mhz worth $335?

Swapping a 7900 GTX, which is basically the Nvidia under the cutting edge 8800 GTX in benchies seems expensive with mid-grade DX10 cards right around the corner.

No your not a dick LOL. I will be using this PC for the next two years so I need to suck every little boost I can get out of it.

 

[clue69less]

If you are looking at an advantage in gaming you are much better off getting the 4800+ X2 and using the money to get a good graphics card and RAM.

Or even go for an Opty 165 and save more money. The typical 165 will overclock to 4800+ and beyond with some good DDR400 or 500 and will run cooler than the 4800+.

 

[david_uk]

I'm surprised as well that he has made that decision, would be interested to know the reasons for it, perhaps it is emotional attachment to an old rig! I myself have just upgraded from a socket 939 amd 3500+ single core to a 4800+ dual core, which cost me £200 although the computer place also felt the need to replace the sound card, motherboard (still a crappy asus a8n-vm) and hard drive (fully formatted), all under warranty. I just got it back yesterday and it feels like a new computer lol. However I only upgraded processor because I already had 2gb of ram and pci-express. Certainly now I would never consider spending as much money as the other guy on upgrading an old rig. New pc's have never been so cheap and they are set to get cheaper still. They are becoming almost like throw-away commodities.

 

[4Ryan6]

I'm surprised as well that he has made that decision, would be interested to know the reasons for it, perhaps it is emotional attachment to an old rig! I myself have just upgraded from a socket 939 amd 3500+ single core to a 4800+ dual core, which cost me £200 although the computer place also felt the need to replace the sound card, motherboard (still a crappy asus a8n-vm) and hard drive (fully formatted), all under warranty. I just got it back yesterday and it feels like a new computer lol. However I only upgraded processor because I already had 2gb of ram and pci-express. Certainly now I would never consider spending as much money as the other guy on upgrading an old rig. New pc's have never been so cheap and they are set to get cheaper still. They are becoming almost like throw-away commodities.

And a good point for upgrading a 939 platform!

Any high end 939 will do anything available today and even tomorrow it seems until software developers catch up with the hardware advancements, I was looking at a newly released PC game spec reccomendations the other day, don't recall which one it was, but it said it didn't even support the WinXP Pro SP2 64bit OP/SYS ??????

At this late in the game shouldn't software released today be covering already released and marketed WinXP OP/SYSs, not to mention future OP/SYS releases!

In this race to have the fastest machine, most up to date dual core monster, no one seems to be concerned theres basically not hardly any supporting software, at least not any of the present games I'm running, that my single core FX57 runs better than my dual core FX60!

Unfortunately when you tell people that they seem to miss the part that there is a majority of existing software that the single core outperforms the dual core, and the little added problems they're having are directly related to the software not being able to take advantage of the second core!

Dual Core shines in multi tasking but some games do not, now certainly dual core is the future!!!!!!

But not today!!!

Go Figure! :roll:

However don't listen to me!

What the hell do I know anyway! :lol:

 

[4Ryan6]

What is the best processor for Socket 939?


THE BEST is ALWAYS the BEST, that is the question? Right!

For todays available Gaming software the best Socket 939 processor is the single core FX57, absolutely hands down no problems in any game and running SLI configurations.

For multitasking the best Socket 939 processor is the dual core FX60, however as good as the FX60 is, it is a problem child running SLI in FarCry and some other games, single PCI-E graphics seem OK, but in SLI the FX60 runs into trouble.

Now these stetements have been tested on my own personal equipment, same M/B, same RAM, same P/S, same Video Cards 7800GTXs , just changing processors from the FX57 to FX60, but I really don't see that anyone here wouldn't get the same results period.

Now if anyone else here has been able to compare the results between the FX57 and the FX60 relating to SLI configurations or crossfire problems in gaming please post what you discovered.