anyone recommend a fast mother brd AMD

[wiz]

To be used for gaming, hopefully with some future proofing/ feature rich ( I know... I don't want much). May go amd64!

 

[Sinzer]

You have to make a choice Athlon 64 is a different socket to normal Athlon chips.

So if you want a mobo to replace your current one (I assume you have a normal Athlon) then look at Asus or Abit. Asus A7N8X is a great board.

If you want to replace your whole set up (go Athlon 64) then I would wait a while, the boards are still being developed and it will be a little while before they are perfected like the Nforce2 chipset.

I must admit though, I have always been an Athlon boy, but I will most probably go Pentium next major upgrade.

 

[Garrett]

Originally posted by Sinzer
I must admit though, I have always been an Athlon boy, but I will most probably go Pentium next major upgrade.

Tut tut.

I have a 1600 XP AMD but it is due for a upgrade later this year but may go for a 2600XP or something round there as a stop gap till the get the 64 sorted out.

 

[KraGorn]

IMHO 64-bit processors right now are just for willy-waving .. gaming doesn't need what few unique abilities they have and so much of the motherboard technology is still work-in-progress as far as I can see.

I agree with Sinzer, the ASUS A7N8X is a great board, well debugged and supporting anything you'll need now and for the foreseeable future .. meaning this year and probably next .

There's no such thing as 'future proofing', especially in the 64-bit world where things are still very much in a state of flux with both Intel and AMD.

My suggestion: a 3000+ XP on the A7N8X for gaming, a 2400+ for anything else including HCPO applications.

 

[Ben Franklin]

Yeah, deffo go for an Abit card. I've got an Abit IC7-Max3 for my P4 and its superb.

 

[cskates]

The 64bit-ness of the Athlon 64/Opteron isn't useful for most people currently, but they are still very fast processors for 32bit apps. The Athlon 64s are faster (and cheaper) than any normal P4.

As far as future proofing goes...in the coming months Intel will be bringing out the Prescott processors, AMD will be moving to socket 939 for the Athlon 64, and PCI Express and BTX will be arriving for motherboards. There's always going to be something just around the corner so you may as well just buy and stop reading forums like these for a few months

 

[wiz]

Thanks guys as ever down to earth advice and no "BS"!!!

 

[HMHB]

The reviews I've been reading of Prescott seem to indicate that it should not be touched !
It uses quite a few more watts, has done nothing about heat generation and was slower in most game benchmarks than the current crop. The only thing it seems to have going for it is that it will allow Intel to produce chips cheaper than currently.

 

[KraGorn]

Originally posted by cskates
AMD will be moving to socket 939 for the Athlon 64

That's a good example of the non-future-proofing of the 64-bit world right now .. remember P4s went through at least 1 pinout change which obsoleted all the mobos that went before.

 

[HMHB]

Plus PCI Express will be here in a couple of months ....

 

[DDDavo]

Yep all these guys are right. The 64 bit processor is rudendant at the moment, as applications are generally 32 bit so don't make use of it. They are likely to change the pin/socket array so...

And as for AMD and Intel, i have had to say i vote for AMD (i'm using an Intel at the mo!)

 

[KraGorn]

There's no doubt in my mind that the AMD 64-bit route makes more sense in the transition perioid, their chips run 32-bit stuff a lot better than Intel's software emulation and there'll be a load of 32-bit apps. around for a long time to come.

 

[Miyazaki]

I'm gonna wait for 'Longhorn' before I got 64bit.

 

[backtothefuture]

Consider the Abit NFS7 v2.0 (its a nforce 2 motherboard) ... pair it up with a barton 2500 and in most cases you can surpass XP3200 speeds!
(after clocking it)

 

[Erpland]

apart from games (where we are used to having to upgrade anyway) what exactly will 64bit applications offer the average desktop home user over the Windows OS and windows apps we use today?

 

[wiz]

Maybe I should have waited ...M$ have a prerelease version of their 64 bit OS for download..ho hum!!!

 

[wiz]

Bought a Asus A7N8X-E deluke motherbrd in the end. Also bought a Zalman heat sink.

PC Probe tells me that the CPU temp is 105F is this right??

Mods: Sorry if this is going off topic delte or move if you see fit!

 

[wiz]

Opps forgot to say I'm running a AMD 3200+

 

[Pulsar]

Wiz,

I don't think that temp is that bad. I think that 105 f is about 45 c, and I think AMD can run above 65-70 c all day long.

Just keep you eye on it though.

Cheers

Rob

 

[cskates]

Have to disagree:

Originally posted by gandley
Amd are due to change there pin structure as stated.

but there will not be one change but 2 there will be the 939 which will support the likes of the FX53 and high end opteron(formerly the socket 940, which is the one to have at mo).
The ordinary amd 64 chips(and lower performers than the P4s) will use a different pin set up. i cant remember what it is but at present its socket 754 so will move to socket 753.

this is to allow the use of non registerd ram(non ECC stuff)

The Athlon 64 can use normal DDR RAM, only the Opteron and Athlon 64 FX (socket 940) need registered RAM.

AFAIK the Athlon 64 and FX line will move to socket 939, the Athlon XP will move to socket 754 (ie. lower cost Athlon 64s) and the Opterons will remain with socket 940.

Originally posted by gandley
dont get mixed up in thinking the regular AMD 64 chips are speed demons, there not. if you want to compete with the P4s your going to need the FX range.

You've obviously never seen an Athlon 64 nor any benchmarks

 

[gandley]

i i use the P4 EE and only the 51 FX gives it a good run for its money, a 3200 athlon 64 is a fair bit behind in bench marks, also its a lot easier to overclock a P4 with more gain.

dont get me wrong i thinking of building a second system around a 53FX chip as intel will be a little of pace for a year.

My current overclock is to 3600mhz with an air cooler, and at this speed the chip is an absolute flyer.

 

[james.miller]

lol. thats truely funny.

gandley don't dish out advice without actually knowing what it is you are talking about. You just look 'a plank if you do that

The a64's are very fast. faster than any intel products right now (level with the EE's), and actually FASTER clock-for-clock than FX's because they have better memory management. (no dual channel + no EEC ram = lower latencies). Let's not even talk about the price of the cpu's

 

[gandley]

except dual channel is alot faster, hence why the 51fx is the flagship chip, maybe you should learn what is accurate

the 51fx is a real beauty of a chip, socket 940 boards are the only real contenders at present (esp as regards feature set.)

 

[gandley]

actually ill take back what i said as regards athlon 64 3200
as its neck and neck with the 51FX. the extra clock speed evens out performance. so i was wrong there.
51fx runs at 2000mhz and the 3200mhz is 2200mhz

just a shame there only single channel ddr(athlon64)


LOL i need to get up to date again quik smartish, been spending to much time building my home cinema, and negleted my true love

forget what i said is its not accurate

Price is never an issue for high end chips.

 

[james.miller]

Originally posted by gandley
Price is never an issue for high end chips.

it is when a64's are outperforming p4 EE's at over twice the price.

Forget about dual channel. Just as it was for the athlon's and bartons, DC isnt needed on an a64/fx. The a64's single channel interface is already fast due to lower latencies, so what benifit's exactly would dual channel bring?