939 vs. AM2

[clone63]

MY budget is low on getting a new PC so I inquired about this one for 300$
Ultra 600W Power Supply
AMD Athlon 64X2 2.4GHz CPU
ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe Motherboard
4GB DDR RAM
2 x EVGA GeForce 9500GT 1GB PCIE SLI Video Cards
3 x 80GB SATA Hard Drives RAID 0

Its a 939 socket mobo, not the newer AM2/+ so I would be running 4x1GB dimms at only ddr400. Is that a significant drop in performance? It was explained that it works close to ddr2 because 2 channels are running at once.

Is the graphics performance capable of handling new games on a solid FPS, as a few have mentioned those cards are budget and easily beat by a 4670.

In general, how will this machine handle new games (ex GTA4) and midrange games (oblivion).

THANKS

 

[badge]

Socket 939 was discontinued years ago. It was replaced with socket AM2 for the very reason you mention. Socket 939 used DDR and DDR2 was becoming mainstream. AMD already had socket 754 which they kept in production for large industry budget purposes. AM2 was released to provide support for DDR2. The bandwith and data transfer rates of PC26400 800MHz. are significantly faster than PC3200 DDR400 MHz. Socket 939 is a dead end. Can not recommend. I would like to get rid of the three slow 939 system I work with everyday.

PC3200 400Mhz. = 3.2GB/second data transfer rate

PC26400 800Mhz. = 6.4GB/second data transfer rate


Although PC3200 in dual channel mode has an increased bandwith capability, it cannot reach the data transfer rates of PC26400. System RAM running at 400 MHz. is slow by today's standards. You would take a significent hit in performance fiddling around with a 939 when an AM2 is so incredibally cheap to build today. Want my A8N-SLI Deluxe? 8)

 

[misry]

A) you can't put 3 HD's in RAID 0
B) SLI 9500's? A chicken has wings but it still can't soar with eagles.

 

[ravenware]

This machine would have decent speed give the price and provided you add a 4870 but after that it has already hit its performance maximum there would be no worthy upgrades.

I have a similar system, I figure I will need to build a new system at the end of the year.

AMD Athlon 64 x2 4200+ @2.42GHz
2GB DDR400 Corsair XMS
ASUS A8N-E
Sapphire 4870 1GB
WindowsXP SP3/Win7

100FPS in HL2-EP2 (everything maxed)
30-60 in Stalker (everything maxed)
30~ in Crysis (models and textures on ultra, everything else high, 4x AA on win7)

All at 1680x1050 res.

Even after upgrading the vid card you would end up spending about $500 and you can build an faster system for about $600. (x3 720 ,4GB DDR2800, HD4830)

I recommend holding out.

 

[spanner_razor]

It's not a terrible deal, though I'm basing that on UK pricing so maybe it's less good in America. But it isn't worth getting old technology, esp where the chip supplied is the second best available for the socket so no upgrade would be feasible. It will also only support pci-e 1.0 so I would stay away unless you can sell the parts on ebay, depends on the rarity of the 939 parts in America, in the Uk you can still get a tidy profit from those parts.

 

[clone63]

A) you can't put 3 HD's in RAID 0

"RAID 0 splits data evenly across 2 or more discs..."
-Wikipedia

 

[misry]

I should have said I wouldn't recommend 3 drives as I've seen that configuration fail. Risk raises exponentially while gains are minimal using more than a matched pair of drives in RAID0.

 

[loneninja]

It seems like a decent deal, but your at a dead end with the CPU and it'll already be holding you back in newer games. GTA4 is almost unplayable on a 2.4Ghz Athlon X2.

 

[The Third Level]

I'd advise against 939....theres no upgrade path whatsoever and DDR is already dead.
Don't go with three drives in RAID unless you wanna get raped in the ass because reliability will drop like hell.

 

[Gryphyn]

I currently have a socket 939 system, and while it has been great for the last two years, I can't go any further with it because, as others here have said, it has long been discontinued. I also have the motherboard you listed, and you're going to find that with all four ram slots full it will loosen up the timings from 1T to 2T in order to handle it all, so you'll lose more performance.

You can do much better for just a few bucks more. Get a good Socket AM2+ motherboard for under $100, a Phenom II 720 X3 (AM3/AM2+ compatible) for $135, 4 Gigs of DDR2 memory for $50-75 bucks, a Radeon 4850 (or nvidia equivalent) for $100. Add a few more bucks for the rest of the stuff you need and you've got a kickin' system for not a lot of caysh.

Almost forgot, don't spend money on a raid 0. It will lessen your load times, sure, but if you're content to wait an extra 10 seconds here or there, but when on a tight budget the extra money will be much better spent on better memory/video/whatever. (I have one just for fun, so I know what I'm talking about.)

 

[Devastator_uk]

It wouldn't cost very much more to get a cheap AM2 equivalent like an X2 5200 and some DDR2, or even better a Phenom II.

 

[pete3867]

I too have a skt 939 ,with an x2 3600 @ 2.2 gigs and it has been great , it still handles almost anything , but as has been said , it makes more sense to go am2 or am2+ , I am about to spend £200 on a new mobo and chip