Athlon 64: Socket 754 or 939?

[Ceberae]

Hello all,

I am currently getting all the parts for my new rig and, in the end, it all comes down to the cpu. I thought long and hard about it. Here are the main pros and cons I can see with both sockets 754 and 939 that are holding me back from buying either. Please correct me if I am wrong as your responses will pretty much sum it all up for me

Socket 754:

Pros:

- Cheaper than socket 939.

Cons:

- The mobos can only handle 3 memory slots instead of the 4 that the 939 mobos offer.

Socket 939:

Pros:

- The mobos can handle 4 memory slots

Cons:

- More expensive

Please let me in on some details I may not know. I saw a thread on these messageboards whose creator stated that he bought a socket 939 3000+ which confused me completely, especially since I cannot find any 3000+ which are socket 939s anywhere. Thank you.

 

[Ceberae]

I also live in Canada, so that may be an issue.

 

[DaveRun]

I've found most parts are easy to come by here in Canada except if you want special orders for items from the States. Darn Customs. :evil:

 

[lobadobadingdong]

I would say it would come down to your budget.

If you have the cash the 939 are faster boards, with faster processors

the 754 are still fast boards, but is a bit cheaper, both in the board itself and the processors.

 

[Gnoad]

I think you'll be better served by s939. The new 90nm 3000 is only about $160, which is very competitive with s754 cpus. Also you'll be OCing much better, have dual channel memory, and be more future proofed for upgrades.

 

[kogase]

Future proofed. Right. In my experience, if I'm ever in the situation where I only need to upgrade my video card, the other stuff is so outdated "bus" and "socket" wise that I just have to buy new a new CPU, motherboard, RAM and video card. The only future proofing I would ever be concerned about is for the hard drive. Namely, the NCQ and 300mb/s SATA coming out on the Nforce4. Wait for that.

 

[imported_michaelpatrick33]

With the new pricecuts the 90nm 939 cpu's are the same price (a couple bucks more maybe depending on where you get them) as the 754 130nm cpu's so they only difference in price will be the motherboard you decide to get. Seems pretty clear to me which way to go at this point. 939