Which CPU-AMD64bit 3400 S754,AMD 64 3500 Socket 939, 3.2 Prescott?

[Pete the Painter]

Hi,

Looking to upgrade from AMD 3200 Barton.

The majority will be for gaming with a little video editing work. It's going to be coupled with 6800 Ultra. Not really sure on CPU and mainboard.
My initial thought was 3.2 Prescott with Abit IC7Max, Corsair 1GB DDR XMS3200XLPT TwinX (2x512MB) CAS2 Extreme Low latency or 1 Gb Corsair TwinX, DDR, PC4000PT, Cas 3 but am open to suggestions.

My budget will allow approx £500 inc memory so what's peoples opinions?

If I go with the intel 3.2e I am thinking of overclocking and maybe going with a acetek waterchill kit for CPU, GPU etc as to give me a higher yeild than 3.2.

So as far as overclocking the intel which is the choice that you'd recommend?

Which CPU-AMD64bit 3400 Socket 754,AMD 64 3500 Socket 939, 3.2 Prescott?

Also which board amd memory to match to each.

Thanks

[Swafe]

if you can afford it, a socket 939 XP3500 is your best bet

for speed, upgrading, power, etc

[Pete the Painter]

if you can afford it, a socket 939 XP3500 is your best bet

for speed, upgrading, power, etc

Even if the P4 will be overclocked to say 3.5ghz etc?

[myth]

Even if the P4 will be overclocked to say 3.5ghz etc?

Let me awnser for the rest! AMD.... all the way!
And I'd stay away from presscot, Just look at my sig!

if you can afford it, a socket 939 XP3500 is your best bet

for speed, upgrading, power, etc

Upgrading? I keep hearing that! But I dont under stand? It suports nothing new...

Firewire B? DDR 2? PCIe? They may not help now.. But they will latter! so Intel is winning in the upgrade slot!

[BUFF]

Upgrading? I keep hearing that! But I dont under stand? It suports nothing new...

Firewire B? DDR 2? PCIe? /QUOTE]
You are correct - you really don't
It's the chipset that would support those features.
Now we AMD users are used to getting several chipset upgrades per socket change, this may well be a revolutionary concept to an Intel user....
As has been said before DDR2 at the moment brings no benefit to AMD so why support it & of course many of us want to carry over our existing RAM - they are rumoured to be looking at skipping straight to DDR3 which would have a performance benefit.
PCI-E support will be here by Xmas - long before there is actually a gfx product that has any performance benefit over AGP.

If you are willing to spend the money for a 3400+ 754 I would recommend that you don't but get a 3500+ 939.

[Pete the Painter]

Ok so it may not be upgrading but I just want to get the most from my 6800 ultra for a reasonable price.
It's goin 50/50 right now.

[BUFF]

Ok so it may not be upgrading but I just want to get the most from my 6800 ultra for a reasonable price.

You could always buy a socket 754 board & 3000+ Newcastle & overclock to 2.4GHz or so - should cost you from about £175.

[Pete the Painter]

Already got the 6800 Ultra as I needed dual DVI, just want to get the most from it at a reasonable price.
Can get
3400 - 754 - £168
3700 - 754 - £297 with 1mb of second level cache for
3500 - 939 - £202
3800 - 939 - £371 <---Bit steep
3.2 - Prescott £160.
3.4 NW £245

Then got to make decision on board and memory for each.
It's a real hard having to make to right choice.

[mike_w]

Upgrading? I keep hearing that! But I dont under stand? It suports nothing new...

I think its meant in the sense that you can upgrade the CPU later. With Socket A, and Socket 754 to some extent, you can't upgrade to a better CPU in the future, while Socket 939 will be supported for some time, allowing you to upgrade it to a better CPU.

My recommendation is: Socket 939! For the same reasons as Swafeman - its fast, powerful and will let you upgrade in the future.

[$h@d0w]

I would go 939 if as you're on an AMD now. If you were in my position (with an Intel board) I would stick it out a little as I think Intel may be releasing some more 478 processors (possibly a new EE?).

I will eventually upgrade to 939 though as that seems like the platform that is most future proofed.

[DaKid]

I can't claim to be as technical as these guys, but I just got an Athlon 64 3500+ and I got no problems with it. Hoping that when I need to upgrade again in 12-18 months I can still use the same board *crosses fingers*

[Pete the Painter]

Any ideas on 939 mobo and memory?

[BUFF]

If you go 939 there is a very good chance that your existing memory will be fine.
If you really feel the need to drop some £'s OCZ PC3700EB.

As for mobo there should be some new ones shortly but ABIT AV8 seems to be quite well regarded. MSI K8N NEO2 going by the reviews seems very good.

[$h@d0w]

I'd recommend anything Nforce 3 and the MSI K8N NEO2 has got favorable reviews. It has just come into stock at places like Komplett too.

Personally I'd wait until Asus come out with a Nforce 3 board, but I'm an Asus fan boy :-P

[DaKid]

The MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum has native SATA over the Asus A8V Deluxe and also better onboard ethernet (although I assume these features are simply to do with the chipset used rather than the manufacturer) .... for which reason I was going to get it, apart from Microdirect didn't do that board and Overclockers were singularly unhelpful when trying to order so I decided not to use them. No problems with the A8V though apart from having to remove the HSF mounting to fit my Zalman one.

[Stewart]

I was in your position, and went for the 939 socket 3500+. Plenty of grunt, nice price. Runs Doom III very well, although I suspect my GPU has a hand in that as well.

Also got an Asus A8V, quality as always from Asus, plenty of extras with the Deluxe Wireless edition.

Overall, I don't think you can go wrong with either or both.