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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ryanv12 - Sunday, July 24, 2005 - link
#5 - you sound extremely pro-AMD with that statement, and you probably are.I didn't detect any subtle pro-intel remarks in this article at all. If you notice, Kris recommends against a Prescott processor. I'm afraid I don't see the bias here...
JGunther - Sunday, July 24, 2005 - link
"Intel is currently pumping out dual core processors in all of their fabs; AMD's Fab 30 in Dresden is the only facility AMD has prepared for dual core production."Sigh, Kris... could you try any harder to make it sound like AMD is struggling with dual-core chip production?
Of course Intel is going to have more fabs producing dual-core chips: they have more fabs, period. Fab30 is THE chip production facility for AMD: Fab 25 is used for flash memory production, and Fab 36 hasn't yet entered production.
The fact that AMD is only producing X2s out of Fab30 is NO SURPRISE AT ALL, and I can't for the life of me figure out why you even mentioned it other than to try to put AMD down.
Just one of the many little sentences in this article that are subtly pro-Intel when they shouldn't be.
KristopherKubicki - Sunday, July 24, 2005 - link
Sorry about that Rand. The tables are generated on keywords and apparently I didnt have the right keywords for the XE chips. It should show up now.Kristopher
Rand - Sunday, July 24, 2005 - link
I'd be mildly interested to see the results of the P4 580 relative to the 3.73GHz EE should it ever pass through your hands.Speaking of the P4 EE. any reason why you didn't list it despite listing it's direct competitor in the A64 FX?
Rand - Sunday, July 24, 2005 - link
At $163 and $263 respectively the 3400+ and 3700+ S754 models aren't too badly priced for users that have an older 280+ A64 of which I suspect there are still a decent number.2.4GHz/512K or 2.4Ghz/1MB provides a reasoably respectable upgrade over a 1.8GHz/512K 2800+, at those priced I'm not sure you gain much by jumping to a similarly performing S939 processor and motherboard given the extra cost.
For low end A64 S754 users that want something faster, unless they need the absolute highest single core performance (A64 FX/A64 4000+) or DualCore they may as well grab a 3400/3700+ S754 and use that to tide them over until Socket M2 hits... though that would require replacing the DRAM as well, but eventually they'd have to do that regardless.
vitamalt - Sunday, July 24, 2005 - link
And my next upgrade will be? Who knows, gonna see how all this pans out after the "budget' X2 arrives.