Best Athlon 64 FX mobo

[davemac]

Hey folks, I'm planning on building a new system soon and was hoping to get some advice. I think I'll be going with a 939 64 fx mobo. What are some good recomendations? I've searched online quite a bit but my there's so much out there and I'm still just learning the differences, if someone could at least point me in the right direction it would be very much appreciated.

 

[badge]

ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe is the king of the hill of socket 939 performance enhanced MB's. ABIT, DFI and MSI also released NF4 special edition PCIE 16 x 16 SLI editions. Socket 939 was discontinued several years ago. You would be lucky to find ANY new 939 units for sale, much less an A8N32-SLi Deluxe. HTH.

http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?modelmenu=1&model=744&l1=3&l2=15&l3=226

Here are a few 'new' socket 939 MBs available:

http://www.geeks.com/products_sc.asp?cat=473

 

[col-p-todd]

the 939 socket is out of date, even if you have a 939 socket cpu you would be still better off just getting a new cpu and mobo. am2+ is what AMD is offering at the moment and intel 775 and recently the 1366 (still very pricey) so you might want to look into those sockets along with a new cpu.

 

[badge]

Agree w/col-p-todd. If it's any consolation, Nvidia has a new Geforce NF4 chipset release that includes chipsets for Vista 32 and 64. A nw system is in order, but the 939 DC are still all right multitasking systems with a Vista installation.

 

[Nik_I]

the only question i have, is why go with such incredibly old technology when you can get newer, faster stuff for less money?

 

[badge]

OP probably has the FX60 processor sitting there. It's a DC and works preety well with VISTA as a multitasking machine. That's about it though. OP is limited to DDR with memory transfer rates of 400MHz or so (PC3200). That's why 939 was so short lived. DDR2 was out and AM2 was launched to support DD2.

 

[davemac]

Well I was trying to decide between 939 or AM2 socket but because I'm on a budget I thought 939 would be the better choice but if you're saying that a good AM2 board/cpu could be had for a similar price I starting to reconsider. What are your thoughts on quality AM2 boards?

 

[cjl]

Anything that has been discontinued for that long tends to be more expensive than the modern equivalent in performance. Go with AM2

 

[davemac]

I was looking around on Ebay and found a few good deals.

 

[MrCommunistGen]

When it comes to used parts my experience is that: eBay + "good deals" = disaster. AM2/AM2+ will be far faster and far cheaper than S939. Not that it's of any particular help, but I have an A8N32-SLI Deluxe... I got it a few months ago as a hand me down from a friend who owed me for all the computer help I've given him over the years. See my specs for more details. It runs Vista well enough, but its not as nice as a new AM2 based system.

-mcg

 

[davemac]

I'm wondering if I should bother going dual core or not, aren't most apps these days still single core based?

 

[badge]

Well, 'heavy' multitasking on an old single core chip is epic failure when dual core processors are so accessible. I have many old single core CPUs up and running from a Pentium III 450 MHz. (yes MHz.) to an AMD Athlon 3200 socket A to an AMD FX55 and so on. Nothing beats a good DC for getting a hand on cursing the machine for being so slow ar MultiTing. 8)

 

[ZOldDude]

Just wait untill early next year and get everything brand new,fast,cheap.
This years end sales are in the sh!ter and next years prices will be bargain basement.

The -all new- Phenom II's (45nm) will also be out in Jan '09 and come out of the box @ 3Ghz with an unlocked multi and have been shown to do 4Ghz on air with 100% stock volts @ only 32C/90F.
Your pick of DDR2 or DDR3 versions.
Google the tests.

 

[davemac]

Any advice on some of the better X2 AM2 boards?

 

[tcsenter]

Sure, there are killer options at $60, $80, $100, $120, or higher, but there is no sense recommending a $120 board if your budget is $60. What budget are you working with?

 

[davemac]

I would definitely consider $120 to be affordable. I'd like to build a complete system for around $500 - $600 and maybe keep my existing case/powersupply if possible. I'm currently running a Gigabyte 7n400 pro2 with Sempron 2600, not sure if the power supply would be compatible but I thought I'd look into it. Also starting to wonder if AMD is the right choice or if I should be checking out some Intel boards.

 

[doomsdaydave11]

whats your budget?

These days you can get an AMD 5000 and good 780G mobo for about $120, which is amazing considering I remember when the 5000 alone was about $500....

 

[radium69]

Why doesn't he just build a P35/P45 combo with an Intel E7200 ? and 2x2 gb ram? That shouldn't be too expensive ? and faster anyway?

 

[tcsenter]

I would definitely consider $120 to be affordable. I'd like to build a complete system for around $500 - $600 and maybe keep my existing case/powersupply if possible...Also starting to wonder if AMD is the right choice or if I should be checking out some Intel boards.

AMD is currently offering the better value and future upgrade paths on a moderate budget. Up-coming Socket AM3 processors will be compatible with Socket AM2+ motherboards, at least motherboards that will receive BIOS support for AM3 (not all of them will). Most or all motherboard vendors now are indicating AM2+ motherboards that will be supporting AM3 processors (with future BIOS).

Between $90 ~ $110, there are several full-featured AMD 790X/GX or NVIDIA GF8200/8300 boards to choose from. I've been doing this a long time and I've never been more impressed by how much $100 is buying right now in a motherboard. For that matter, I'm impressed by how much $80 is buying right now.

You can build Intel LGA775 C2D/C2Q system for $500 ~ $600 but Intel is winding down LGA775. LGA775 will have no new product releases outside of mid-range and value segments. Even those are certain to be respins or revised steppings of current 45nm offerings. Core i7 is your only path to future Intel processor releases and it will cost you a lot more than $500 ~ $600.

Just be sure to check manufacturer CPU support lists for TDP limits, if the TDP limit is not conspicuously disclosed. There are three main TDP segmentations for current AM2+ and forth-coming AM3 processors; 95W, 125W, and 140W.

Some boards support up to 95W max or 125W max, but online resellers routinely fail to disclose the TDP limit in their online catalogs (including Newegg), even though the manufacturer website discloses it. e.g. ECS GF8200A Black Series is limited to 95W MAX TDP and ECS website discloses this, but resellers rarely convey this important bit of info.

If the TDP limit is not clearly disclosed, you can make reasonable inference from the CPU support lists provided on manufacturer websites. If there are no 125W models listed, its a safe bet its not supported. Same for 140W TDP models.

 

[davemac]

Ok, so I've been looking around and I'm thinking of going with a GA-MA790GP-DS4H mobo and a Phenom x4 processor (not sure exactly which one yet). I wondering if my Antec truepower 380 power supply will work with this, I've googled quite a bit but not able to find too much, anyone have any idea about this?

 

[tcsenter]

The Antec PSU should be fine for relatively basic setup using that hardware. Depends on what else you intend to run for graphics card, how many hard drives, optical drives, add-in cards, et. al.

 

[davemac]

Trying to figure out what video card I'm gonna be going with now. Was thinking that the "SAPPHIRE 100255L Radeon HD 4670 512MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire" would be suitable because it's Crossfire compatible and will take full advantage of the motherboard. As I was researching I found that my monitor (Viewsonic va912b, 19" LCD) isn't HDCP compliant which sucks cause I really don't feel like I would need to buy a new monitor otherwise (and still won't if the card actually works with it, I don't mind slighly downgraded video perf.)

I was wondering if anyone might have a better suggestion for a good but low price video card?