AMD 64 shopping...

[fkdup74]

i'm going apeshit here ppl

you got:
-939 vs 754
-Newcastle vs Winchester vs Clawhammer vs Sledgehammer
-90 nm vs 130 nm

the only 1MB L2 caches i have seen are on the 'Hammer cores...
the only 90 nm ones are the Winchesters...

some ppl are big on the 90 nm tech...
benchmarks/reviews i have seen are pretty close with the 90nm vs 130nm
the Winchesters (90 nm) ran a couple of degrees cooler vs Newcastle (130 nm)
(both 512k L2's)
and were a couple of points higher in various b/m tests
(pc mark, 3d mark, etc.)
nothing eye-popping, just 2 or 3 points here, 2 or 3 degrees there...

not worried about OCing, happy with stock AMD performance
(a stock AMD is better than an OCed Pentium IMHO )

so i got it down to either:
the 90 nm Winchester (which is only in 939 if i remember right)
or the bigger cache on the 'Hammer cores (754 or 939)

the s-939 4000+ Sledgehammer has dropped to 600 bucks
but the mobo that caught my eye is a Gigabyte 754 mobo

shit, i might just give up and upgrade my socket A

[Virtualbody1234]

AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Winchester 90nm

The Winchester has built-in dual channel memory controller, is cooler running, newer technology and great price: http://www.buyxg.com/store/item.asp?key=CU-131-110

[Snee]

I think I'd buy a 939 if I was shopping for a new processor right now. Winchester I think.

I'd want one of these to put it in, tho'

[fkdup74]

hmmm....interesting quote from AnandTech....

But this leaves us with a very important question, does the additional L2 cache actually justify an increase in model number? Remembering that the Athlon 64 has an on-die memory controller it's obvious that the CPU will benefit less from a larger cache than something like the Pentium 4, which does not have the benefit of always having extremely low latency memory accesses.

so maybe a 939 winchester it will be....
(and a hell of a lot cheaper than the 4000+)

[harrycary]

939 is the way to go since it has the highest chance of being used by AMD for it's next generation dual-core processors. (according to AMD they haven't commited to it, yet)

This will allow you to upgrade down the road when they become available. Otherwise you'll be stock with outdated hardware and CPU.

[lynx]

939 all the way.

Got my Athlon64 3000+ (90nm Winchester) last week, it's been running at 100% ever since, max temp 37C with stock cooling. And for some reason my mobo automatically decided to OC the FSB to 204 MHz. Wtf, it is running fine.

Edit: checked mem bandwidth, up around 5.4GB/s which you will have no chance of achieving with Skt 754

[spirex]

Also, the 939 winchesters have a slightly faster hyper transport speed than the socket 754.