AMD Chip questions

[Weasel]

Been research and playing with parts for a new system. Trying to figure out if the AM2 socket type is worth going to or not. Seems like it would be if you ran DDR2800 but that stuff is sorta $$$ right now. Do the AM2's run with DDR675 or similar thats a bit more reasonable? I can always upgrade later. Right now I have a super old Athlon 800mhz so either way 939 or AM2 is going to be brand new, seems AM2 is the new line of chips? Looking at the X2 line of chips, and which motherboards are the good ones? Asus I know are decent, what about the rest as there quite a few avalible.

[87manche]

I prefer MSI mainboards with Asus a close second.
an AM2 should run with any ddr2 memory.
The performance difference is not that much, prelim reports say about 5%, the chipsets and core revisions must be made to take advantage of the 30% more memory bandwidth. I would go AM2 because it has a more solid HSF mounting system, and DDR2 will come down in price shortly.

[mdl]

I prefer MSI mainboards with Asus a close second.
an AM2 should run with any ddr2 memory.
The performance difference is not that much, prelim reports say about 5%, the chipsets and core revisions must be made to take advantage of the 30% more memory bandwidth. I would go AM2 because it has a more solid HSF mounting system, and DDR2 will come down in price shortly.

You honestly prefer MSI? Their one of the cheapest manufacturers out there.. :passgas:

I reccomend Abit or Asus. Woulden't run anything else except an intel board which isn't applicable here.

but x2 everything else you said.

[87manche]

You honestly prefer MSI? Their one of the cheapest manufacturers out there.. :passgas:

I reccomend Abit or Asus. Woulden't run anything else except an intel board which isn't applicable here.

but x2 everything else you said.
yes.
Asus seems to be hit or miss, if it's not DOA it will run forever, but they seem to have a high rate of DOA boards.
MSI gives us a 3 year warranty as OEMs, and we've just done really well with them. Strayed for a few months when availability was an issue, ended up replacing a few gigabyte boards a few months later.
just use what works

[jeepdude10000]

ok just go and buy Gigabyte, there's nothing better.



Ok now everyone can ridicule me, go ahead i know u want to.

but i have never had a problem with gigabyte!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Weasel]

Thanks, seems like although the performance gains with AM2 arn't all that much now it opens the door for ease of expansion later with newer products coming down the pipeline. Whats DOA on the boards?

[87manche]

dead on arrival.
Pull the board out, plug it all in and nothing.

[RichP]

Really it boils down to how much you want to spend. I just did a $5,000 media center PC for a customer/neighbor using an intel core-duo 3.2ghz with either 4 or 8 gig of ram and a nvidia 7800 and happauge tuners. The 8 sata drives were the killer pricewise.
Asus also makes a nice mini-atx with surround sound, optic ouputs, etc, only downside is there are only two PCI expansion slots but it's a mini after all.
I used this board and so far it's working out great on an ECU reprogramming system.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131545
All the intel RETAIL processors come with a 3 year warranty too. Pretty much the OEM stuff only has a DOA or 90day warranty...

On the AMD side I like this one
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131022
takes the amd 64/FX, has plenty of USB expansion, has nice sata and eide and the chipset is cooled. Consider using a modular powersupply for this one, sure keeps extra cableing to a minimum. Processor I would go with is this for a start.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103735

Good luck and have fun...

[Weasel]

thats the exact chip I was looking at, AMDX2 64 3800+. Could go with the 4200+ for another 60 bucks I think I'll hold back and spend it on something else.

[Weasel]

looking around I see that Monarch Computers will asseble and test the chip, motherboard and memory for you if you buy it as a package. Also will install cooling and grease if you want. Any other places that will do this?

[aroncull]

if you want to be able to ever upgrade the chip later {retail} then go AM2.
If you dont think you will then wait a month and get in on the falling prices of the 939 chips. they are ending production on them shortly if they already havnt.

Aaron

BTW MSI sucks, had 2 boards die..
Asus all the way never had a failure.