amd64; worth going the extra?

[shiato storm]

komplett have some reasonably good deals on at the mo which I want to take advantage of - only thing is, is it worth going that bit further for amd64?
I could get an epox mobo, sempron 2500+ with 1gb ram kit for £178
or
an MSI k8n neo platinum, amd 64 3000+ with 512mb ram kit for £210...
thats about +£30 difference for a bigger processor but 1/2 the ram, just not so sure all of a sudden. cause I want 1gb ram and that would cost another £50 on top - pushing to £260-ish, does that seem reasonable? worth it?

[SmileyUK]

easily worth going the extra..in fact you would be mad not to

[shiato storm]

so the above mentioned MSI board is ok then? I'm getting it to replace a dodgy asus thats about as stable as a spider on a floor littered with ball bearings i.e. not very. so I don't want a board thats going to mess me around loads again...

[mattjgalloway]

From what I can tell, AMD64 rocks the socks off any x86 processor currently for the desktop market!

For a start you are actually thinking about getting the Sempron?! For a start if you are gonna stick with 32-bit then at least get an Athlon. Semprons have half the L1 cache and are just not as good.

As for the AMD64 - if you're going to be running Windows then standard Windows XP won't utilise the 64-bit-ness of it because it's only 32-bit. There is a 64-bit version but it's only for Intel CPUs I beleive (could be wrong there!). Although you will still notice a huge improvement over a Sempron because the AMD64 also has some nice new features like on-die DDR controller.

[shiato storm]

so how do I get hold of the 64 windows xp then? assuming its reasonably hard to come by at the mo as 64 is relatively new

[nichomach]

OK, just to clear up, in terms of released products, there is a 64-bit version of Windows Server. This is for the Itanium only. In beta currently, there is a 64-bit version of Windows XP; this is designed to work with 64-bit AMD processors and with the newer P4s and Xeons that feature EM64T support. 1) It's a beta, and 2) at the moment you won't get better performance out of it than the 32-bit version (indeed rather the opposite). That said, the Athlon64's performance under a 32-bit OS is worth paying for in its own right; if you still want to give 64-bit a go, here's the link for the public beta. Hope that helps.

[mattjgalloway]

Yeh,

Sorry I wasn't clear. I didn't know that it was for Athlon64 aswell - but hey, you learn something new everyday!

I use Linux anyway and AMD64 support on the distro I use (Gentoo) is really good. Personally I think that desktop 64-bit usage won't come big on the Windows family. Linux is already big on 64-bit and even has nVidia drivers for it which are being developed by nVidia themselves.

[MD]

you want the Neo2 board, AFAIK someone here had problems with the dual channel on the standard neo.

I just bought my neo 2 board on tuesda, still aint got a bloomin chip to put it all together yet lol

m@

[Rod911]

you want the Neo2 board, AFAIK someone here had problems with the dual channel on the standard neo.

I just bought my neo 2 board on tuesda, still aint got a bloomin chip to put it all together yet lol

m@

It's a socket 754 system so no dual channel.

What about this instead:
Sempron 3100+ - £77.00
TwinMOS PC3200 DDR-DIMM 512MB CL2.5 - £47.00
Abit KV8 Pro-3rd Eye Mainboard S754 K8T800PRO - £64.55
TOTAL: £188.55

I know the Abit mb only has two memory slots, which might not be good for you, but it is a good oc'ing mb. It even has a working PCI/AGP lock like the NF3 boards. When you have enough money, you can get yourself another 512MB stick. With the 3100+, it's only a 166HTT cpu. More likely than not, if you run the thing at 200HTT, you've got 2.2Ghz there. If you can manage to run the RAM higher than its' rated speed, then everything then is just a bonus.

Take a look at how well X-bit labs managed to oc their 3100+.

EDIT: Only downside to this setup, no 64-bit extensions. However, when a 64-bit Windows come out of beta, prices for A64 S754 CPUs should already be much lower than what they are now and you can upgrade then.

[speedy_s]

It's a socket 754 system so no dual channel.

What about this instead:
Sempron 3100+ - £77.00
TwinMOS PC3200 DDR-DIMM 512MB CL2.5 - £47.00
Abit KV8 Pro-3rd Eye Mainboard S754 K8T800PRO - £64.55
TOTAL: £188.55

what site ?

[RDL]

I would still go with the A64, although the 3100 Sempron is the only good one, and overclocks like hell. But it still isn't the gamers choice.

Also, try and get a socket 939 A64, as it will give you a better upgrade plan.

[shiato storm]

my guess is thats from komplett - have some good looking deals there - where I was looking originally.

edit: i was also going for an nforce board as they have integrated sound = one less thing to worry about...

[Rod911]

what site ?

Since shiato storm originally got the pricing from komplett, I did the same and got it from there.

shiato storm: all mb these days have integrated sound. Despite the AV8 as not having an NF chipset, it still has integrated sound.

[speedy_s]

thanks

[MD]

It's a socket 754 system so no dual channel.

What about this instead:
Sempron 3100+ - £77.00
TwinMOS PC3200 DDR-DIMM 512MB CL2.5 - £47.00
Abit KV8 Pro-3rd Eye Mainboard S754 K8T800PRO - £64.55
TOTAL: £188.55

I know the Abit mb only has two memory slots, which might not be good for you, but it is a good oc'ing mb. It even has a working PCI/AGP lock like the NF3 boards. When you have enough money, you can get yourself another 512MB stick. With the 3100+, it's only a 166HTT cpu. More likely than not, if you run the thing at 200HTT, you've got 2.2Ghz there. If you can manage to run the RAM higher than its' rated speed, then everything then is just a bonus.

Take a look at how well X-bit labs managed to oc their 3100+.

EDIT: Only downside to this setup, no 64-bit extensions. However, when a 64-bit Windows come out of beta, prices for A64 S754 CPUs should already be much lower than what they are now and you can upgrade then.

Actually you will find the Neo K8n was a 754, this is a 939 socket Dual channel board, the exact model is MSI K8N Neo 2-54G platinum Edition.

m@

[Darren555]

If I was buying now I would get a Socket 939 mobo as the CPUs have come down in price & you can also get a more overclockable Winchester chip.
If you do decide to go the 754 route though, get a DFI LanParty UT nF3 250Gb mobo as it is without doubt the best socket 754 mobo out there & the board layout is superb. I had a dodgy MSI board which I had to RMA & swapped it for the DFI so have built pcs around both boards & the DFI is definately the daddy.