Tom's Hardware > Forum > CPU & Components > CPUs > athlon 64 - should i wait
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JJStorm   05-14-2004 at 09:36:45 AM

Hi,

Is It a good time to buy n new athlon 64?

The two models i am condidering is an AMD® Athlon™ 64 3000+ 64-bit L1 64K, L2 512K cache or an AMD® Athlon™ 64 3200+ 64-bit, L1 64K, L2 512K cache.

My current spec is xp 2000+, 4800 Ti, 256 DDR (266), SB Live . Want to start updating but not too sure where to start since i am on a budget. I mostly use my PC for Programing (40%) and Games (60%).

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

TIA,
JJ

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pitsi   05-14-2004 at 12:01:01 PM
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Looking at your configuration, then your CPU should be the first thing to upgrade. The problem is that by upgrading your CPU, you will also need a new motherboard and memory. Buying a mobile Athlon XP with the intention of overclocking it and getting great value for your money, is also not an option since you are also going to need new memory and probably, a new motherboard as well (this depends of course on what you have now).

Some here may suggest you wait until the new A64s based on Socket 939 are released, later this month. I don't know if that's a really good idea though since you are on a budget and those things are not going to be cheap!

So, as you can probably assume by now, my suggestion is to choose one of the currrent A64s available today. Both CPUs you listed there are excellent performers, so you can't go wrong no matter which you choose. If I had to make a choice among those two, then I would go for the 3000+. With all the money saved I would be able to get more RAM, 1GB perhaps?

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JJStorm   05-14-2004 at 12:50:21 PM
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Thanks, that helps alot. Any mother board you would suggest? I am thinking of looking what asus has to offer.

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endyen   05-14-2004 at 12:51:35 PM
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The 3200+ version has 1 meg of line 2 cache. This may not be as significant now as later (when windows 64 actually works).
If you overclock, wait for the asus K8N with the Nforce3 250 chipset. If not, any of the current chipsets are quite good.

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TheRod   05-14-2004 at 02:31:27 PM
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As usual ASUS will probably cost more than other MB. Abit, MSI, DFI and Gigabyte all offers very good motherboard too, and they are often a bit cheaper.

If I were you, I would only buy a Athlon 64 2800+ and keed to money to upgrade later to 3400+/3700+ when they will be cheaper. The difference in performance between 2800+ and 3000+ is not very significant. The 2800+ is abotu 20% cheaper and less than 10% slower. In fact, In many games you will not see any difference and in other apps, it will depend if they benefits from cache or cpu speed.

If you get Socket754 and don't plan to overclock, VIA based K8T800 based board are usually good. If you can wait and plan to overclock, your first choice should be nForce3 250 and second choice VIA K8T800 PRO. In previews of the K8T800 PRO they don't overclock as much as nForce3 250 and they both have PCI/AGP lock.

--
Lookin' to fill that <font color=blue>GOD</font color=blue> shape hole!

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scottchen   05-14-2004 at 08:31:32 PM
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The extra cache on the 3200+ does a lot during overclock, don't ask me why, but all the benchmarks says so.

<A HREF="http://forums.extremeoverclocking.com/myrig.php?do=view&id=17301" target="_new">My PC</A>

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Snaggle   05-15-2004 at 07:17:08 AM
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I agree;but think he should wait for socket 939 only so the current 64s drop a little in price.

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JJStorm   05-17-2004 at 08:26:34 AM
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Thanx for all of the responses. I think i'll save a bit more for the next 2 to 4 months and post back again to see what i can pick from you guy's minds.

Planning on saving arround $800 for MB, CPU & mem. Looking forward to see what everyone recons you could get with that amount or whether i'm gonna need more.

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TheRod   05-17-2004 at 02:23:15 PM
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Quote :

Planning on saving arround $800 for MB, CPU & mem.


Will probably be more than enough, for that price you might even get very good GPU.

And it's a good idea to save and buy at the end of the summer. There will be plenty of new stuff available from AMD and Intel. We might even have some surprise from ATI/nVidia, there is some rumours that ATI started cheating with their X800, I wish it's not true. And if this become reality, nVidia will probably kick the ATI's ass. And if not, both company will have good products for the mass by the end of the summer.

--
Lookin' to fill that <font color=blue>GOD</font color=blue> shape hole!

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