Puzzled Tech newbie??

Nanfeishen

Nanfeishen

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Got a K8nxp-sli mb, socket 939, and am thinking of going up to Athlon 64 dual core, been looking at the Amd 64x4200 (budget only allows this), and been looking at prices , here is what i dont understand --
The cpu in question as 939 , costs in the region of R2400
http://comparison.onlineshopping.co.za/amd/amd_athlon_x2_4200_403_403.htm
The same cpu as Am2 costs less than half at R1026
http://comparison.onlineshopping.co.za/amd/amd_athlon_x2_4200_am2_1548_1548.htm

could someone please explain this to me, is one better quality? or better pin configuration? i dont get it.
 
Nanfeishen said:
Got a K8nxp-sli mb, socket 939, and am thinking of going up to Athlon 64 dual core, been looking at the Amd 64x4200 (budget only allows this), and been looking at prices , here is what i dont understand --
The cpu in question as 939 , costs in the region of R2400
http://comparison.onlineshopping.co.za/amd/amd_athlon_x2_4200_403_403.htm
The same cpu as Am2 costs less than half at R1026
http://comparison.onlineshopping.co.za/amd/amd_athlon_x2_4200_am2_1548_1548.htm

could someone please explain this to me, is one better quality? or better pin configuration? i dont get it.
Click to expand...

Explanation is easy, any 939 4200+s you see is basically old stock, they just dont manufacture 939 anymore. So the pricecuts dont affect them at all. All manufacturing is now AM2.

Can you please list the amount of memory you currently have? And is your current system PCIe or AGP? I will look up this post when I get back from Centurion, I'm sure we can get you a whole new motherboard and Ram and a nice CPU for that R2400...
 
Surely older stock in that case should be cheaper?

Am on 1gig ram Pci slots, specs:

AMD Athlon64 socket 939 based processors
Chipset NVIDIA nForce4 SLI MCP
FSB 200MHz
BIOS Phoenix AwardBIOS
Memory 4 184-pin DDR DIMMS, up to 4GB
Expansion slots 2 x PCI-Express x16 slot, 2 x PCI-Express x1 slot, 2 x PCI slots
Onboard IDE 2 x ATA 133 ports; 4 x SATA ports; 4 x SATA II ports
USB 2.0 4 rear panel / 3 headers supporting 2 ports each (10 ports total)
IEEE 1394 2 headers supporting 3 ports (2 full sized ports, 1 mini port)
Audio 8-Channel Realtek codec with S/PDIF RCA based input / output ports
NIC 1 x NVIDIA Gigabit Ethernet controller, 1 x Marvell Yukon Gigabit Ethernet controller, 1 x GIGABYTE 802.11g wireless PCI adapter card

BUT, the Mb came as a bundle pack with a Gigabyte GV-3D1 Dual GeForce 6600GT video card, designed specifically for the M/B.
http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1749

Therfore to replace the M/B, i would need to replace the V/card as well, and it is a rather good card.
Sticky problem money wise to replace V/card as well.
 
Last edited:
Nanfeishen said:
Am on 1gig ram Pci slots, specs:

AMD Athlon64 socket 939 based processors
Chipset NVIDIA nForce4 SLI MCP
FSB 200MHz
BIOS Phoenix AwardBIOS
Memory 4 184-pin DDR DIMMS, up to 4GB
Expansion slots 2 x PCI-Express x16 slot, 2 x PCI-Express x1 slot, 2 x PCI slots
Onboard IDE 2 x ATA 133 ports; 4 x SATA ports; 4 x SATA II ports
USB 2.0 4 rear panel / 3 headers supporting 2 ports each (10 ports total)
IEEE 1394 2 headers supporting 3 ports (2 full sized ports, 1 mini port)
Audio 8-Channel Realtek codec with S/PDIF RCA based input / output ports
NIC 1 x NVIDIA Gigabit Ethernet controller, 1 x Marvell Yukon Gigabit Ethernet controller, 1 x GIGABYTE 802.11g wireless PCI adapter card

BUT, the Mb came as a bundle pack with a Gigabyte GV-3D1 Dual GeForce 6600GT video card, designed specifically for the M/B.
http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1749

Therfore to replace the M/B, i would need to replace the V/card as well, and it is a rather good card.
Sticky problem money wise to replace V/card as well.
Click to expand...
That card is PCI-express hey? Then it will work with another PCI-express board, or not?
 
Nanfeishen said:
Surely older stock in that case should be cheaper?
Click to expand...

One would thin kthatm but supply is very low, demand is high, doesnt cost too much to stock (CPU boxes are small) prices are gonna stay high, just like PC133 SDRAM still costs a lot.

Regarding your graphics card, here http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NzEyLDIsLGhlbnRodXNpYXN0 they got in running on a nvidia SLI board. I assume on a nonSLI nvidia board it will run like a single 6600GT. This rules out Intel options at your pricepoint...

What I can get you for R2400:
Athlon 64 X2 3800+ 2.0GHz AM2
1GB DDR2 800MHz
Asus M2NE-SLi (AM2 nVidia nforce 500 chipset motherboard)

Is should be very easy to overclock the CPU to 2200MHz and there you have a 4200+ speed.

The best price I can give on a socket 939 4200+ is R2300.
 
Although the card is Pci Express, it seems by all the links i have googled that it is best suited to run on the K8NXP-SLI m/board(current), the only link i did find thanks to supersunbirds link was for the Asus A8N-SLI motherboard , BUT once again this is only a 939 socket not an AM2, so we are left with the same problem.
All the reviews i found regarding the Dual core 6600 Video card , refer back to the same m/board, and all generally say the following:
The drawbacks to the 3D1 are its limited application (it will only run on the GA-K8NXP-SLI),
Click to expand...

I am currently running an AMD Sempron 3000 overclocked to 2.4, on standard cooling with a rise of 1-2 degrees , pretty good chip i must admit.
My next best option is to get an AMD 3800 dual core, and throw in an extra gig of ram, instead of the 4200 running on 1 gig.
And the last option is to email Gigabyte themselves, and find out which motherboards will allow me to run the dual core graphics in sli mode.
There are a number of boards that would take the card , but they dont recognise the sli option of the card, being a single card yet dual chip.
 
im almost 500000000% a pci e card will work on any motherboard with a pci e slot

the 7950 x2 work on any board im sure a 6600gt dual core will as well
 
Killadoob, remember that was the first dual graphics chip card in a long while and it cards BIOS could easily have some restrictions. So like I said, the best way to go further is to test if it works and go from there...
 
Finally found the following off the gigabyte site, all the following are AM2 SLI m/boards:
NVIDIA nForce4 SLI -- GA-M55SLI-S4(rev.1.0) & (rev.2.0)
NVIDIA nForce 570-SLI --GAM57SLI-S4(rev.1.0) & (rev1.1) & (rev2.0)
GAM57SLI-DS4(rev.2.0)
NVIDIA nForce590-SLI --GA-M59SLI-S5(rev.1.0) & GA-M59SLI-S4(rev1.0)

Under the FAQ of each M/Board the following question is posed:
Can this board support Gigabyte 3D1 series VGA card?
Click to expand...
Each board gives the following answer:
This motherboard cannot support 3D1series VGA card in SLI mode. It can only run in normal mode.
Click to expand...

So my only choice is to source a 939 socket chip out of the following that my m/board supports, and throw in an extra Gig of Ram, which should keep me going for another 2 - 3 Years, as i have no interest in running Vista, until there is absolutely no other option.
Athlon 64x2 4800+(E6,Toledo,90nm,1MBx2)
Athlon 64x2 4400+(E6,Toledo,90nm,1MBx2)
Athlon 64x2 4600+(E4&E6,Manchester,90nm,512KBx2)
Athlon 64x2 4200+(E4&E6,Manchester,90nm,512KBx2)
Athlon 64x2 3800+(E4&E6,Manchester,90nm,512KBx2)

To go to AM2 , i have to replace the following :
1) M/board
2) CPU
3) Ram
4) Graphics Card, (only decent one i have seen is the 6800 at R1700 odd),
and i would need 2 for decent SLI.
Thats one serious upgrade, its basically a whole new system.
 
Go for SSB's deal, its more future proof.
The 66gt 3d1 will work but will not utilize both gpu's, then you can upgrade it to something greater later on when your budget permits. Socket 939 & DDR 1 is dead, absolutely no point spending so much money on a old CPU which is already way outdated, just to get the 3d1(which is rather weak/old) to work.

My 2c
 
Nanfeishen said:
Finally found the following off the gigabyte site, all the following are AM2 SLI m/boards:
NVIDIA nForce4 SLI -- GA-M55SLI-S4(rev.1.0) & (rev.2.0)
NVIDIA nForce 570-SLI --GAM57SLI-S4(rev.1.0) & (rev1.1) & (rev2.0)
GAM57SLI-DS4(rev.2.0)
NVIDIA nForce590-SLI --GA-M59SLI-S5(rev.1.0) & GA-M59SLI-S4(rev1.0)

Under the FAQ of each M/Board the following question is posed:

Each board gives the following answer:


So my only choice is to source a 939 socket chip out of the following that my m/board supports, and throw in an extra Gig of Ram, which should keep me going for another 2 - 3 Years, as i have no interest in running Vista, until there is absolutely no other option.
Athlon 64x2 4800+(E6,Toledo,90nm,1MBx2)
Athlon 64x2 4400+(E6,Toledo,90nm,1MBx2)
Athlon 64x2 4600+(E4&E6,Manchester,90nm,512KBx2)
Athlon 64x2 4200+(E4&E6,Manchester,90nm,512KBx2)
Athlon 64x2 3800+(E4&E6,Manchester,90nm,512KBx2)

To go to AM2 , i have to replace the following :
1) M/board
2) CPU
3) Ram
4) Graphics Card, (only decent one i have seen is the 6800 at R1700 odd),
and i would need 2 for decent SLI.
Thats one serious upgrade, its basically a whole new system.
Click to expand...


If you want to get 1GB DDR400 RAM and a dual core 939 CPU then you can afford AM2 stuff and a 7600GT (~R1050) which will slap that 6800 silly.

For example, you can get a 3800+ x2, Asus SLI motherboard and 2GB DDR2 667MHz for R2550 and your card will work like a 6600GT.

I myself am in the same situation as you almost, I have 2 3200+ 939s in two systems and each with 2GB DDR400. I'm saving up to get AM2s rather than get 939 x2s since I can get two AM2 x2s for the price of one 939 x2...

Ultimately its your choice though and you can do whatever you want :) Are there any other concerns with moving over to a AM2 system?
 
Last edited:
@Freakboy, Mud in my eye, :o , after re-reading my post on graphics cards , i did mean to say 8600, not 6800 for the price i mentioned, (it was late) :D

@ SSB, no, i dont have any qualms in moving over to an AM2, , although i am an avid gigabyte fan, m/board wise, an an avid AMD fan, (never had a problem with AMD), had intel problems long ago though.
The biggest problem currently is cost wise, I need to take a long hard look at all my options in that regard.
If i go 939 Dual now , i can also reconsider my graphics options in the next few months, 2 8600's that could be re-used on an AM2 board next year for instance, and then see how the AM2 trend settles or fluctuates... choices choices :confused:
My biggest questions always are : What sort of future does a chip have? Yes, its current now but what will be the norm in 2 -3 years? Should i rather wait an extra year or 2 to see how the market settles on Vista? and then upgrade?
AM2 is new, and soon there will be AM2+ with Hypertransport ver3 , and then there will be AM3, apparently backward compatible to plug into the AM2 or AM2+ m/boards, so the trend seems to be looking good as far as AM2 is concerned.
http://blogs.theage.com.au/screenplay/archives//005769.html
 
I say go the AM2 route. Atleast you're more updated and things will be faster with ddr2 support etc. Vista wil be here for atleast 5 years. Everyone will eventually go over to Vista especially after SP1 is released.
 
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