On Tue, 25 Oct 2005 18:29:58 GMT, no@spam.invalid (tluxon) wrote:

>Based on what I read in the xbit review on the socket 939 Sempron64,
>I'm pretty sure I'd prefer a socket 939 board over a
>soon-to-be-phased-out socket 754.


>What are the reputable chipsets and how should I decide between them
>if I have any choice?

Both are OK. The two main rivals I guess would be VIA and NVIDIA
nforce4 for 939 and Nforce3 generally for 754. There are some other
chipsets too but I like to stick to nforce by nvidia generally but I
wouldnt mind getting a VIA .

VIA was getting really big a while ago and there was talk that they
might really make a move in the INTEL world and dominate the AMD
world, But then Nvidia came in really strong and VIA was tagged as
being buggy after some problems with a VIA chipset years ago. I had
MBs with VIA chipsets for several systems until I switched to nvidia.
Nvidia frankly had bugs too but I prefer Nvidia cause they are super
popular and you can get drivers/support easily for their chipsets.
Thats not to say you cant for VIA. They are still popular.

I tend to avoid the far less popular chipsets.

>Also, the AMD A64 3200+ Venice CPU
>(http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103535)
>is some $40 less than the AMD A64 3200+ Winchester CPU
>(http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103502).
> Looking at the product specifications on Newegg I couldn't tell what
>differentiates them other than the price. Can anyone help?

The Winchester is the older core . They came out with a Venice core
later which is replacing the winchester. Its not a big deal like the
754 vs 939. The win and venice are both 939s and the specs are very
close. Its just that the venice supposedly has a better memory
controller and some other improvements I think which supposedly lets
them overclock better. When the 939s came out they got a rep of being
able to OC really well , along with the Sempron 3100 754 socket. The
earlier 754 sockets didnt have that rep - as great Ocers. However I
mentioned one more recent 754 that posters claim can be OCed very well
that OEM mobile version. Anyway , there was lots of hype about how
great they OCed but some said it was good but exaggerated as the mem
controller on the chip had some problems and other factors that
llimited the OC max lower than the hype claimed. It was still very
good but not as high as some reviews claimed some posters said. Well
AMD came out with these Venice cores with SSE3 , improved mem
controller etc which improved max OCeability.

So obviously the venice should sell higher I would think since they
are phasing the Winchester out. So it could be some bizarre pricing
anamoly which you see sometimes especially when they are phasing a
product out. Or its possible someone knows something I dont know like
some weird claim the wincesters being phased out have some special
advantages so are being bid up by hot demand. I havent heard anything
though. But there are these rumors on things. For instance the X2 dual
core 3800s AMDs cheapest dual core. They are supposed to be Manchester
cores a new core for the dual which reduces cache etc to lower cost.
However some said some of the early ones were Toledo cores the more
expensive core used on the higher end chips. Some places were pointing
this out and selling them a bit higher because of their alleged higher
OCeability and I guess cache if it was enabled.

>
>On the other hand, if I could find one of these new socket 939
>Sempron64s, I think I'd buy it in a heartbeat. Anybody have an idea
>where these will first become available outside of the OEMs?

How long can you wait? If Xbit is right then the 3100 939s should be
out very soon --- I would think they would want them out for Xmas
sales.

If you can get an old Northwood cheap and MB sure might as well. If
its going to cost more then I think not. Cause there are lots of cheap
options with the AMDs especially with Nov coming up. Remember Nov
Black Friday and Xmas are the two best months for sales usually.