AMD sockets

[Bozo]

In the AMD world, which socket will last at least a couple of years? 939?, 940?

Thanks,

Bozo :mrgrn:

 

[Buck]

939

 

[Will Rickards]

I think neither as they are both being replaced next year?
Of those two, I think 939 has the longevity.

Don't trust me though, read anandtech's article here.

 

[Gilbo]

Ya, both are up for replacement in 2006. 940-pin has been around for a long time as sockets go.

 

[P5-133XL]

Neither the 939 or the 940 will be good for two years or more as both being replaced in 2006.

 

[ddrueding]

Socket Longevity? I haven't even heard of such a thing for years...Socket 7 was the last I can remember that stuck around a while.

 

[Buck]

Being replaced in 2006 simply means that a new Socket will emerge. But if 939 is even close to A, it will still be around for a couple of years. My disti still has Socket A boards.

 

[sechs]

Who cares how long a socket lasts? Motheboards are go out of date just as quick as processors these days.

 

[Bozo]

I was just contemplating building an AMD system. Having a socket type that will be around for a (short) while would allow me to upgrade the CPU later.
Or maybe I should just wait for M2??

Bozo :mrgrn:

 

[sechs]

Buy now, enjoy now.

Perhaps I'm unusual in this, but when I upgrade processors, I get a new motherboard, as well. Stuff changes too quickly these days to think that you're going to be able to make a CPU-only upgrade; if you actually can, call it a bonus. Unless you want a particular technology, there's no point in waiting; there's always something different, better, and incompatible down the road.

 

[LiamC]

Digitimes (Taiwan propaganda notwithstanding) reports that AMD will standardise on Socket M2 next year, but that S754 and S939 will be around 'til at least the end of next year

http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20051021A9057.html

AMD’s Socket M2 CPU line will originally target the high-end market, the makers said, noting that the chip vendor has informed them that the 940-pin platform will also be released for the mainstream and entry-level segments next year. AMD is now delivering samples of the next-generation CPU to its downstream customers, the makers added.

There's more. Even so, I don't think M2 (DDR2) will become ubiquitous until (if) DDR2 becomes significantly cheaper than DDR400. Buy a 3200+ 939 now and late next year upgrade to a 5x00+ X2, and perhaps more memory. That should give you a more than reasonable life span for the system.

 

[Bozo]

I've read a lot about the AMD CPU being so much better than the Intel CPU, but do you really notice it on a day-to-day basis??


Bozo :mrgrn:

 

[time]

On a day to day basis, you notice the far, far lower heat production and the quieter fan(s) made possible by that.

Published benchmarks give you some idea where there are glaring performance differences, eg many games. Traditionally, the AMD CPUs have been way ahead in commonly used business software, compiling, etc.

 

[Tannin]

More than anything else, I notice the difference in mulltitasking ability. Pentium 4s bog down very easily (P4 Celerons are worse, of course). They are said to shine in sustained single-task intensive applications but I wouldn't know as I don't really run anything of that nature, but as soon as you start trying to do several things at once, the AMD chips shine. This has been generally the case since the days of Socket 7. An honourable exception is the Pentium III (real one, i.e., Coppermine, not the marketing smoke and mirrors P-II that was Katmai), and of course the (P-III derived) Pentium M, which is a lot better than it has any right to be.

 

[paugie]

More than anything else, I notice the difference in mulltitasking ability. Pentium 4s bog down very easily (P4 Celerons are worse, of course). They are said to shine in sustained single-task intensive applications

Hey, if this is true then it is a plausible explanation for what I am experiencing.

I have a Celeron D2.53 by accident. Used to have a Sempron 2400. This system is the most hiccupy system I've ever had since my AMD 42mhz. When it's been doing something one thing for a while, say preparing a DVD to be burned. And I decide to hunt around on Windows explorer for something old to delete. It takes ages for the explorer window to come up. And even then, just switching to the next level subdirectory takes 2 or 3 seconds. It's like saying, "don't bother me, can't you see I'm busy?"

Ughh! If I had a just 2 thousand pesos, I would shift again to a Sempron64 2800. It would probably not be faster but I am quite sure it would be a lot more responsive.

 

[Tannin]

That's classic P4 performance, Paugie, especially noticable with P4-based Celerons. I dislike Socket A Semprons as they are not a patch on the old Athlon XPs (in particular, the superb XP 2500) but the 2400 you had should comfortably see off the Celeron 2.53. And any Athlon-64 based Sempron will not only be more responsive, it will be faster too.

Oh, and they cure your acne, produce visible results in only three weeks or your money back, and increase the size of your unmentionable members.

 

[paugie]

Oh, and they cure your acne, produce visible results in only three weeks or your money back, and increase the size of your unmentionable members.

Radiation?

Really have to find those P2,000.00. I am switching again from the DARK SIDE. I was thinking of just upgrading from the CeleronD to a full fledged P4, but if the Sempron64 really cures my acne, that's the one I got to have. :mrgrn:

 

[Mercutio]

Couple years ago I bought a Dell 2.4GHz, 533MHZ fsb P4 (it was $100, shipped, with a monitor). It was slow when I got it. So I added RAM. 512MB + the 256MB it started with. Then I switched up the hard disk to something 7200rpm (as I recall, there was a 5400rpm drive in it to start). Still slow. So I ditched the onboard video for a still-nice-at-the-time Radeon 8500. Still seemed slow. I gave up and sold the stupid thing. It was hopeless.

That's pretty much the Intel experience, to me. Intel motherboards have great reliability if not performance. Maybe some day they'll come to their senses and start making them for proper AMD chips.

 

[blakerwry]

When it's been doing something one thing for a while, say preparing a DVD to be burned. And I decide to hunt around on Windows explorer for something old to delete. It takes ages for the explorer window to come up. And even then, just switching to the next level subdirectory takes 2 or 3 seconds. It's like saying, "don't bother me, can't you see I'm busy?"

It sounds like your background apps got paged to disk while you had your DVD app open. Next time it happens, take a look at your hdd light. If it is mostly solid during this period of unresponsiveness you may need to look at getting more RAM or playing with the page file.

 

[paugie]

blakerwry,
hmmm. that's new to me. I'll see if that's the case. But I've got a gig of RAM and my pagefile is at default. Whenever I look at my memory usage it's never over 300mb.

 

[Bozo]

You might also consider that if you are preparing a DVD for burning, your software is writing to a temp file on the hard drive. Then you ask Explorer to show you the contents of the hard drive. There might be considerable delay waiting for the hard drive.

Bozo :mrgrn:

 

[blakerwry]

I've have 768MB of RAM in both my desktop (AthlonXP 2GHz) and laptop (1.5GHz PentiumM) and have noticed that the swaping behavior of windows can really slow me down. Even when I have plenty of free RAM, some applications choose to page themselves to disk when minimized. Bringing these applications back to life can be unnecessarily slow if they have been either minimized or in the background for too long.

 

[Groltz]

The windows paging executive can be disabled with a simple registry entry. After its done, applications will be forced to be held in RAM instead of being paged out to disk. It's a very old tweak, and recommended for machines running 1GB of RAM or more.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management]
"DisablePagingExecutive"=dword:00000001

 

[sechs]

Is it really useful to do?

 

[LiamC]

Socket M2--940 pins

Uses a reference clock of 333MHz (currently 200 in 939). Uses DDR2 667. 2 x 333. HT clock remains at 1000MHz--it's double data rate as well remember.

The memory controller can work with DDR2-800--with a reference clock of 400MHz.

MC is ready for DDR3.

http://translate.google.com/transla...&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&prev=/language_tools

 

[CougTek]

I wish they had skipped DDR2 completly, but I know it wasn't possible due to the lack of DDR3 modules on the market. If AMD would have had some 30% of the market, then maybe they would have been able to push it all by themselves, but not with only 17% of marketshare.

Good thing the new memory controller will be ready for it when it will arrive. Thanks for the info baby white lion.

 

[paugie]

Hello Groltz,
how do you do that pagefile mod in the registry? sorry, not knowledgeable. but i'd like to try that.