AMD 939 Vs Intel 775

[monkey_harris]

Hello,

I'm pretty new to this and am looking to spec a new PC. I am looking at one of the two new Processor sockets (939 or 775) but have read differing reviews on both, such as Intel 775 is unstable at the moment and AMD doesn't have the scalability the new Intel architecture has. If anyone could offer advice it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

[Yawgm0th]

Let's see, socket 939 will offer greater performance at reduced cost...

Until Intel brings the cost down, increases performance greatly, and introduces PCI-E, it's new socket type shouldn't even be considered. That's assuming it gets done before PCI-E is available on AMD systems...

What's your budget? what do you want to do with this?

[monkey_harris]

Thanks for the reply.

I'm looking at a gaming machine (possibly overclock) and money isn't a great issue (I'm in the UK by the way) as I plan on building something that I can easily upgrade, thats why I was looking at those two chipsets. Any advice on what I should go for will be great. I have had a brief look round and Intel do appear to ship PCI Express on their 925x boards, will AMD do this soon as well?

[Yawgm0th]

NForce 4 is supposedly in development. It is supposed to bring PCI-E to socket 754, socket 939, and socket 940. It probably won't be too long. However, PCI-E doesn't really matter. It's almost completely useless for graphics cards as it will provide very little, if any, improvement over AGP 8x. It does do away with the old PCI bus, but that doesn't really matter if you don't need a lot of PCI devices (and you shouldn't with a gaming rig).

Without purposely trying to spend as much money as possible, here's what I would suggest for a gaming machine:

ABIT AV8 (you can also get the Wi-Fi version for money, if you need it)
Athlon 64 FX-53 (socket 939)
Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10000RPM 8MB cache Serial ATA (get two for RAID if you can justify spending the money; it will be incredibly fast)
X800 XT PE (go for an X800 Pro or GF 6800 Ultra if you can't find the XT)
480W (or more) PSU from a good brand name (Antec and Thermaltake are good ones)
Corsair XMS 512MBx2 (for dual channel) PC3200 with 2-2-2-5 timings, look for these, but from a different vendor: http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...145-523&depa=0

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-145-521&depa=0

You can figure out a case on your own (although post for us to look over). If you want to increase performance even more, you could look for some (512MBx2 again) PC3500 RAM like this (but not from Newegg, of course):

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-145-511&depa=0

You could also look at a Thermaltake Volcano 12 or something similar for a seperate CPU cooler. Tohse two and some case fans would help you OC everything quite a bit. Of course, you'd be spending more money to OC what is already a top-of-the-line desktop, so it's up to you...

If you wanted to spend a lot less money (with some performance loss), I would suggest a few changes:
Athlon 64 3500
80GB 7200RPM Maxtor SATA drive (get two for RAID if you want)
9800 Pro

That'll save several hundred U.S. dollars right there, but you would get better performance in all ares with other design.

[monkey_harris]

For a case I will probably go for one of these;

http://www.specialtech.co.uk/spshop/..._500W_PSU.html

Looks funny but has had pretty good reviews and then the rest will be (as am slightly restricted on money);

ABIT AV8 (without Wi-Fi version)
Athlon 64 3500 (socket 939)
Western Digital Caviar 120GB Serial ATA x 2
X800 XT PE
Corsair XMS 512MBx2 PC3200 with 2-2-2-5 timings
Thermaltake A1745 Extreme Volcano 12 Heat Sink & Fan

Do the Volcano 12's make a real difference over the standard AMD? Also what version of Raid 0 or 1. And last but not least (your help is appreciated!!!) how would I overclock the AMD or ATI.

Thanks.

[tweaky]

nice case, sure does look like a space invader!

[KoolDrew]

The case you chose is a good one.

Also the volcano 12s will amke a good difference especially if you overclock. And it depends on what Raid. Raid 0 means that half the data is on one drive and thr other is on the other drive. It sounds faster but it wont really amke a whole lot of difference and if one drive fals then all your information is lost and unrecoverable. With Raid 1 the data is written on both drives. That way if one fails you still ahev a backup of all your stuff. It sounds alot slower since it writes the information on both but its not much slower. If you want to you can go with Raid 0 but it doesnt really provide much greater performance. It may be between 2-5 % faster but thats it.

To overclock your video card you could use a program and its really simple. Overcl****ing your CPU is a little different and should be done through the BIOS. Try to find a guide on it or something since theres way too much involved for me to explain it here

[monkey_harris]

Thanks, I will see how it goes.

[Yawgm0th]

RAID 0 can provide quite a permformance boost. Most would use a RAID 0 setup with NTFS as the file system. Unless you have some important stuff to backup, RAID 1 isn't really a good idea. It might be interesting to try RAID 1 with FAT32, though. I'm thinking RAID 1 would make up for the unreliability of FAT32 and FAT32 would make up for the performance loss of RAID 1.
For more on RAID see this.

For OCing you can Google around for some guides. It's a bit different with A64s, but most of the same stuff applies as with socket A processors. Search TweakTown for the guide regarding overclocking AMD processors.
For video card, check www.ocfaq.com. You can get softmodded drivers that allow for overclocking and ATITool (which is what you overclock with). Alternatively, you could just go to www.omegacorner.net and download the Omegas.
When you do OC, go for processor first. After if you found the highest you can get with that while remaining stable, go for the video card.
I think it's the Thermaltake Venus 12 that I was thinking of. I'm pretty sure that the Volcanoes are for socket A processors. In any case, it can make a huge difference. It will get rid of a lot more heat, allowing you to OC everything more (mainly the processor more). If you can, get a cheaper OEM processor without a HSF unit. I don't know if you can get them over there, but here at online stores like Newegg an OEM might cost $10 or more less so it allows you to spend more on a good HSF.
The case looks good. The 500W PSU should be enough (even if it's a crappy, generic one) and the three case fans should be helpful for OCing.

[tweaky]

I have a Volcano 12 and it sounds like a motorcycle is parked next to my desk! I'm looking into water cooling next.

[wayout44]

Get the Thermaltake POLO 735 and it will fit any Athlon socket and Socket 478 Pentium 4's (its a variation of the Volcano 12).

[jamie_horwood]

I use a Volcano 7+ for socket A. I'm running a 3200 CPU and i get temps of 32C to 45C. Thermaltake say that the rpm speeds reach upto 6000rpm but mine reaches 6617 rpm= 49 cfm air but mine will be over the 50 mark. had no problems. version 12 though should last longer because of lower rpm exceeding the 7+ life expectancy by miles with 1db increase and cfm is around 72 cfm of air. I wouldn't mind upgrading to see how much cooler i can achieve on my system

[dr_sharp]

Yawgm0th.. just curious.. what do you have against newegg?

[Yawgm0th]

Nothing. He's not in the United States (and I assume he's not a member of the military).

[monkey_harris]

Just out of interest why would it make a difference if I had been in the military ?