As some of you know I did a major upgrade on my rig this spring, buying new motherboard, CPU, RAM and graphics card. My overall plan has been to do that somewhat tight on the budget, and then this winter continue the upgrade with new PSU and HDD. When picking CPU socket I had three options: 754, 939 and AM2. Here are the thoughts I had at the time: 754: Cheap and proven, but old and no high end CPUs available. With the AM2 about to be released I expect this one to be phased out pretty soon. 939: Main AMD socket, with a wide range of CPUs available. Will hang around for a couple of years, replacing 754 as the low end platform. AM2: About to be released. Few and expensive, unproven, motherboards available. Only higher end (=expensive!) CPUs available initially. To tighten the spendings I naturally went for socket 939 with a lower end Athlon64 (3200+), with an intention to get myself a higher end dual core CPU around next summer. Now AMD has announced they'll continue with socket 754 Semprons, but stop making socket 939 CPUs altogether! That forces me to either delay any plans of a CPU replacement for a few years (and then replace the motherboard once more) or ASAP order a new CPU together with the PSU and HDD that I planned to buy early next year, effectively increasing the spendings by some 150% when I'm hard pressed to afford it. (While at the same time spending a small fortune on books, and not least new flooring in half of my apartment!) What it now all boils down to for me are these two questions: 1) How much longer will an X2 4600+ last me than my current CPU? 2) Is that extra time worth the extra spendings? What's your opinion? Cheers Olle
Yes, I feel completely the same as you do. But things are not that much better at the Intel camp. Even though the Socket 775 remained the same, newer CPUs require newer chipsets, or newer motherboard revision. If you have the early 975X motherboard, you won't be able to upgrade to Core 2. I'm thinking of upgrading to dual core system, but the high prices of Intel mobos is stopping me from upgrading. I'm not even considering AMD because it's just not good enough, it really gives you the feeling of getting the second best, and it's not value for money at all, especially when Core 2 Duo is such a great piece of engineering, and it overclocks so much better which whoops AMD's ass, even FX-62. I'm definitely leaving the AMD camp. But it's only matter of when.
Even though they have stopped making them doesn't mean they won't be on the market. It might take a year or so before supplies are used up.
I would get the Core 2 series processor. The 754s are extinct already, the 939s are already disappeared and the AM2s are very expensive - the decent boards are even too much for a budget user. You can just hold on to your old rig, and wait for a few more months and you will see that the prices of Cores will be slashed and more variants of Cores will be produced. The AM2 platform isn't stable yet - they are like equipped with baby-walkers, and meanwhile the Cores are still in tricycles. When they have become matured I'll get one of these, and surely the prices are low enough already.
The AM2 platform is still very new, unlike the LGA775 system, which was introduced back in early '05. I would wait for at least one whole year and final revisions are released before I could even consider it. I heard that the AM2 is quite picky with the DDR2 sticks installed. For an extreme budget user like me, I would still go for the Core series - the lowest end can be like the high-end Pentium 4 Extreme Edition and some more framerates compared to the X2 3800+ in games.
Sure, but they'll be much harder to find and the prices will sky-rocket, so there's no reason to wait if I'm going to upgrade. I've noticed that my regular shops have already dropped several of the CPU variants for 939. /Olle
True, if people continue to buy the 939's then yes prices will rise. Now, if people have the mindset like Chai above, then 939 prices will hold steady for some time, as nobody is buying the processors. It that case, I would just wait until you can afford the Conroe based processors. I think your current CPU is more than sufficient.
For now, yes, but for how many years to come? I don't intend to replace my motherboard in at least two years, and would really like to hang on to it for another year after that, performance permitting. /Olle
How many years? That's really up to you and your usage. I will upgrade to C2D most probably early next year.
Me too man. See if I can get the E6300 + P5B (the most plain one in mATX form factor) and some DDR2 sticks in the lowest price.
Out of stock... I ordered an X2 4600+ about one week ago, and just got word from the store that their supplier can't deliver it because it's out of production... I've now contacted another store to see if they can get me a 4600+ or 4800+, although I doubt it... Cheers Olle
olle p: how much did you pay for it? haha, think again, after the centrino platform Intel has become so extremely boring that even I myself can't believe it. unless there are some new sparks comnig up (not ddr3, not integrated memory controller, not direct connect), otherwise sooner or later they will be the 2nd microsoft in my eye. the PC industry is goign no where since 1-2 years ago, up to the point where manufacturers have to market meaningless, useless products. viiv, live, hp's 'PC gets personal again'..oh man all thess stuff has totally bored me to dead. fortunately, AMD+ATI, nvidia and IBM+sony are doing something extremely interesting..
Hey, from a marketing perspective I thought that one was really good - the advert for that sleek black laptop. Damn nice. Made me feel like buying one
Somewhat good news, at last! The 2nd store's supplier did have "a few" 4600+ (boxed) in stock, and one of those will be sent to me tomorrow. Cost will be ~2,500 SEK. That store removed all S939 CPUs from their lists after I contacted them, so it seems like I really took the last oportunity available, short of buying 2nd hand... /Olle
Hmm...I guess it's quite pointless to sell my RM1700 S939 setup now. I think it's worth RM500 now at most!
Photoshop is quite sluggish, Nikon Capture is even more sluggish when I run noise reduction, and not forgetting I'm STILL running D2OL... hehe... Even 2GB RAM is barely enough. I can hit above 1.5GB usage quite regularly if I do photo editing.
