Price Guides - July 2005: More 64-bit CPUs
by Derek Wilson & Manveer Wasson on July 23, 2005 10:03 AM EST- Posted in
- Guides
Athlon 64
Aside from dual core processors, AMD's current generation Venice and San Diego processors have also moved significantly since their launch three months ago. OEM versions of the processors surfaced about three weeks ago and AMD's stock heatsink-fan (HSF) combo is actually quite good (particularly when compared to Intel's plastic monstrosity). Anand recently wrote about Athlon 64's "unofficial" DDR500 memory support on Venice, San Diego (and other revision "E" processors), so make sure you take a look at that when you have a chance. Don't get your hopes up too much - unfortunately the additional speeds did very little to performance for the Athlon 64.
That being said, you should still buy a revision "E" processor anyway. The different between 90nm AMD processors is less than a dollar in most situations, and why stick yourself with a 130nm or a revision "D" chip instead? For those of you playing at home, check out price fluctuations on the Athon 64 Venice 3500+ processor [RTPE: ADA3500DAA4BP]:
A few merchants had a very nice sale going on last week that put the Venice 3500+ around $250; money well spent in our opinion. Price on the 3800+ and 4000+ processors has been very stagnant since their launch; don't expect any great deals above 3500+ this week.
It's getting to be about time we stop recommending Socket 754; at least for non-budget uses. Virtually all Socket 754 processors cost more than their Socket 939 counterparts at this point, and again, why hamper yourself with the 130nm chips that lack SSE3 and only have a single channel memory controller? Socket 754: you will be casually missed.
However, if you just need a decent budget PC, Socket 754 is actually a very good alternative to Socket 462 (or a Celeron). Check out the next page for our opinion on AMD budget processors.
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KristopherKubicki - Sunday, July 24, 2005 - link
coomar: The motherboard costs are a little more negligable than I first originally thought. You can get a 945P board for about $130.http://labs.anandtech.com/search.php?q=945p&pr...
An nForce4 Ultra Socket 939 board runs about $90 (unless you love Biostar).
http://labs.anandtech.com/search.php?q=nforce4%20u...
So compare $605 for AMD versus $375 for Intel; it comes to about 1.6. I would still think the D820 has the advantage although I would be very interested in seeing the new AMD chip in a couple weeks. Let's just hope they ship near launch time so that we won't be waiting as pricing on the D820/D840 and X2 chips plummets.
Kristopher
coomar - Sunday, July 24, 2005 - link
the difference between the x2 coming in august and the lowest pentium-D is 345/240 or 1.4, factor in that the pentium needs a more expensive motherboard than the x2 and that drops down to 15-30% more, which is reasonablewe can ignore ram prices, ddr and ddr2 are pretty much equal
boban10 - Sunday, July 24, 2005 - link
The problem with Pentium D is power consuption. And nobody mentioned how much you need to pay more energy bill with those cpus....PrinceGaz - Sunday, July 24, 2005 - link
I'm getting nothing at all showing up in the lists of prices, except for maybe one or two parts every page or two. For instance on the AMD Desktop page, all I see isAMD Athlon 64 (754) 3400+ 512KB Newcastle CDW 319.76 9.99 329.75 +158.03 Check Prices
there are no S939 parts in the upper table, and thats all that it finds for S754.
KristopherKubicki - Sunday, July 24, 2005 - link
sprockkets: I don't know if you've used an Intel CPU lately... they basically mount the thing on the motherboard with plastic anchors. Then again, they've done that since the original Pentium if you really think about it!Kristopher
KristopherKubicki - Sunday, July 24, 2005 - link
JGunther: AMD's fab 30 is hardly a high production fab (it's barely more than a foundry) and yes, the entire facility isn't even dedicated to X2/Opteron A6 production. Meanwhile all of Intel's fabs are doing dual core production...Let's be honest, Intel doesn't have a chance on the technology front here. No doubt about it, AMD has Intel licked as far as tech goes. Unfortunately, they can't seem to make it on the cheap like they did the Barton series.
Throw me a sub $300 A64 dual core chip (even a Sempron) and I am sure it will do circles around the D820. Unfortunately, AMD isn't even close to something like that right now. Maybe 01'06.
Kristopher
JarredWalton - Sunday, July 24, 2005 - link
5 - the point is that there's a reason Pentium D can cost quite a lot less than the X2. You can love AMD all you want, but the simple fact of life is that Intel is way ahead in production capabilities, and that leads to the higher prices. Even the upcoming X2 won't change that too much. It will still cost over 50% more than the 820 I think, and is it 50% faster?I want to try to get some OC tests done with some of these chips, particularly the Turion/Mobile Athlon parts. We'll see....
ElJefe - Sunday, July 24, 2005 - link
OH, I have to add to the Ext. Edition post:a 3700 754 socket outperforms that in gaming.
lol. check it out.... across the board.... lol. wtf intel?
i know the EE of course does video really well, but er, yeah. what a minute % of computing time is devoted to video compression..... and that cant wait another minute....
ElJefe - Sunday, July 24, 2005 - link
Ya know, I can't understand the high level dual core intels, the low end, they sound neat for certain uses and business things def. so.However, I would rather eat glass in truth than buy any intel besides a Dothan 2.1ghz, which is more money than it should be.
amd just has a retarded freakin way to explain their cores and chips.
I dont personally think that the Toledo 4400 is going to drop anytime until january by any noticable degree. They have the market cornered on the best dual cores, and well, for 600 dollars I can get myself a sick proc and also feel dumb that I spent that much.
i wonder if M2 is going to be anything. it must have something up it's sleeve. as it stands now it doesnt offer a blessed thing.
sprockkets - Sunday, July 24, 2005 - link
The intel dual core processor is nice, well, doesn't that thing run very hot?Well anyway, can you elaborate as to what you mean by Intel being a "plastic monstrosity"?
What is cool is that the new boxed amd processors come in a green tray that feels like styrofoam but says it's really made out of paper.