Where have all the S939 X2s gone?!?

[H Allen]

WHAT PART OF the above warning do you people not understand? Enjoy your three day vacation.
No sales outside of FS/FT.
You must comply with FT/FT rules if you post a thread there which includes making your profile and email address visible.
Anandtech Moderator
Gillbot

 

[TurtleCrusher]

Nope. The 2.4ghz dual core Athlon was the 4800+. That, my friend, is a single core. Boo!

I'm so happy one year ago my lady friend bought my an S939 X2 4200 2.2ghz Manchester. In most games it did nothing more than my 3500+ (the 4200+ IS two 3500+'s on one die) but in multithreaded games and applications it brought me to a new level of performance. Now i just cringe when i thought that was performance.

OP, he's gotta upgrade to a better platform. 4GB of DDR2 800 is cheaper then ever, and AMD has out a 7750 dual core and intel has the E5200. Both tenfold better choices then going with an overpriced 939 chip.

 

[Fox5]

With the way CPU, motherboard, and DDR2 prices have dropped, it's almost worth it to do a complete upgrade.

However, Tigerdirect has some dual core socket 939 cpus still.

 

[GeezerMan]

Get one of those Fry's combos, if you live near a Fry's. One of my HTPC is a AM2 ECS board with 4200+ X2. Board and CPU were 60.00, including tax. 2GB of ram was 20.00 AR
Then sell the old 939 items he has.

 

[Schadenfroh]

Originally posted by: zerogear
I loved my 939, but the nForce mobo, not so much

Same here, by the way OP... read up on the Vista / Athlon x2 / ATI GPU issues with the nForce 3 if you have that combination.

 

[SlowSpyder]

Originally posted by: H Allen
No Sales outside of FS/FT
Anandtech Moderator
Gillbot

If you have an FX60 you should Ebay it. For the money they are going for you can buy a much better CPU/mobo.

 

[Cabages]

Originally posted by: SlowSpyder
If you have an FX60 you should Ebay it. For the money they are going for you can buy a much better CPU/mobo.

:Q

Holy hell, even a fx-55 (what I have) is going for ~$90 with 10 hours left.

That is more than I paid for it new.

Definitely will ebay this sucker.

 

[Denithor]

Originally posted by: SickBeast

Originally posted by: garritynet
I ran into the same problem about six months ago when a friend wanted to upgrade his 939 board. Best I could find was this

http://www.starmicro.net/detail.aspx?ID=673

Here is the "reseller ratings"

http://www.resellerratings.com/store/Star_Micro_Inc

Seems like a gamble I personally would feel comfortable taking. As far as I know he never actually upgraded his processor.

Is that a dual-core?

Nice find if it is.

Nope, that's the single-core model.

Their cheapest X2 chip is the 3800+ priced at $131. Too rich for my taste, when you can get a new e5200/mobo/4GB/PSU for $200.

 

[chucky2]

I wonder if we'll see S939's come down in price once the AM3's are out and fairly cheap. Got to think at some point, these things will start coming down in price.

I want to stick in a - cheap - S939 dual core into my brothers A8N-SLI Deluxe, but I'm not willing to blow the kind of money being asked for right now. I think it's faily safe to say that the S939 dual cores are enjoying the best re-sale value of used CPU's I've even seen....

Chuck

 

[GeezerMan]

Yeah, the prices are crazy on some. Like the FX-60. Some are going for 300.00. Nutty.

 

[H Allen]

Excuse me, the FX-60 is a "Dual" Core and is very capable of holding it's own with an X2 up to a 4800+. Read this article (http://www.tweaktown.com/artic..._performance_compared) then comment all you want. For something from just a couple of years ago it was money well spent and it didn't cost me an arm or a leg for that matter. The only thing about a FX-60 is it doesn't overclock well, to bad for me as I never bought it for that. Pair it with a good videocard and it is more than capable.The cost new was less than $250.00. I see you are an Intel clone, good for you.

 

[H Allen]

Uh Geezer, you all right?

 

[H Allen]

Just don't put an AMD in a Nvidia NF-3. I made that mistake to!

 

[nyker96]

ebay?

 

[SlowSpyder]

Originally posted by: H Allen
Excuse me, the FX-60 is a "Dual" Core and is very capable of holding it's own with an X2 up to a 4800+. Read this article (http://www.tweaktown.com/artic..._performance_compared) then comment all you want. For something from just a couple of years ago it was money well spent and it didn't cost me an arm or a leg for that matter. The only thing about a FX-60 is it doesn't overclock well, to bad for me as I never bought it for that. Pair it with a good videocard and it is more than capable.The cost new was less than $250.00. I see you are an Intel clone, good for you.

Not really sure what you are talking about here... the FX60 is a dual core socket 939 processor running at 2.6GHz with 1MB of cache per core. No doubt it can keep up with a 4800+ and then some.

But the thing is many of them are going for HUNDREDS of dollars on Ebay right now for a used chip. That's a crazy amount for a chip that is basically obsolete. AMD processors are plenty fast and are often overlooked simply because Intel Core 2 stuff is just so good. No doubt that if you had an FX60 you could still game and do just about anything on it at acceptable performance levels.

But the problem is that they are selling on Ebay often for more then $300. For $300 you can buy a Phenom/Motherboard/2-4GB of DDR2. You could also get a Intel dual core system (Motherboard/Chip/Memory) that will be much faster then the FX60 could ever be all for the same price as just the FX60. The only advantage of the FX60 is you drop it in and don't have to overhaul your system by installing everything and re-install Windows.

For most of us here that don't mind the work (and in my case even look forward to hardware upgrades and enjoy putting new systems together).

 

[GeezerMan]

Originally posted by: H Allen
Uh Geezer, you all right?

Yeah dude, and you? I used to have the FX-60, Opty 165, 4200+ X2.

I still have a 3800+ X2 in a HTPC, and a 5000+ X2, and a 6000+ X2 sitting here.
So you see, I like AMD.

BUT, no one should spend 200.00 or 300.00 on a FX-60 these days. That's nuts.
Heck you can get a 6000+ X2 for 75.00

My present main rig is a Q6000 with Abit IP35 pro board, 4GB of Crucial ram, and all of that cost me 335.00 6 months ago.

 

[KarenMarie]

I got given a 939 board a year ago. I waited forever for the opteron 170 to go down and it never did. So, finally I bought one. The board puked out in a week. So, I scoured the FS/T forums for about 3 months until I found one. In the meanwhile, I bought a video card on the forum and it sat in the box here for 3 months while I waited to find the board. Once I found one, I learned that the video card was DOA. Since it was 3 months later and I had never tested it during that time (had no way to test it w/out a board) I just ate it and bought a new card. The new/used board needed a bigger PSU so, I bought that too.

Well, i got it all up and running and this board puked out after 4 months. So, for the past 4 months I have had an opteron 170 sitting here collecting dust. Had had less than 40 hours use time. hahaha. Cannot find a decent 939 board that I would trust enough to spend money on.

939 was a BAD time for me! hahaha
Just went out today and bought an i7 and evga x58

 

[GeezerMan]

I see that Geeks has a decent Foxconn NF4 Ulta 939 board for 37.00 delivered. Not bad if you need one.

 

[deadken]

Thanks for all of the input guys. I didn't realize that a small rant I had would turn into a 3 page thread! Please, do not offer to sell a CPU in this thread, that is what the FS/FT section is for. If you'd like to PM me information about what you have for sale, I'd think that would be fine and appreciated. I will see my friend tomorrow and Friday at work.

-Ken

 

[Dadofamunky]

Hmmmf. I've just acquired a 3800+ on an NForce4 A8N-SLI mobo with 2 GB of OCZ Plat RAM, which I've already tested at 2.5 GHz. I think it's gonna be my wife's next machine. Took it off a tech recycling pile. Heh heh. What were those people thinking?

 

[ther00kie16]

I see a used "AMD Opteron 170 2.0GHz Server 1GB RAM 250 GB HD H8SSL-i" for $110 buy it now on ebay.
That seems like a good deal if the cpu, ram and hd all work.
Also not too many people seem to know about the Opterons so those have way fewer bids and seem to sell at lower prices (specifically 165, 170 and 175).

Lastly, I found this site that still sells x2 939 3600.
Probably worth at least an email to confirm that they still have them.

 

[PingSpike]

Originally posted by: chucky2
I wonder if we'll see S939's come down in price once the AM3's are out and fairly cheap. Got to think at some point, these things will start coming down in price.

I want to stick in a - cheap - S939 dual core into my brothers A8N-SLI Deluxe, but I'm not willing to blow the kind of money being asked for right now. I think it's faily safe to say that the S939 dual cores are enjoying the best re-sale value of used CPU's I've even seen....

Chuck

Based on past experiences, at this point there won't be another "super cheap" phase for s939 until the platform is so old and slow it isn't really worth anything.

There's a point right after a new tech is shut off where the prices plunge as retailers clean out their stock. That point has passed for s939, I think it was a year ago.

After that, there's no signifigant new supply anymore and it becomes a niche upgrade that has to be bought from the used market or from one of the few retailers that still has some stock. Those retailers usually have stock because they want the original MSRP for it. The used market starts to follow that somewhat. It commands a niche premium. s939 is entering or has entered this phase. Its still pretty good performance wise and would make a good upgrade for users, but it isn't being made anymore.

Then, after awhile it becomes so outdated and old that the price drops because its approaching worthless. Pentium 3s, most socket A crap, SDRAM and that kind of stuff is in that phase now.

And if you wait a REALLY long time it becomes a classic collectors item and its price starts to go up again.

The wise thing at this point is to bite the bullet and sell all your 939 crap while its overpriced as hell, then upgrade to a much faster setup for not much money. Most people don't because its a huge PITA to swap motherboards and deal with potentially reinstalling windows, etc. They were shopping for a cheap drop in upgrade using obsolete parts, but the flood of supply has been turned off so they aren't cheap anymore.

This phenomenon is the same reason the buy-one-now, upgrade-to-two later SLI plan has NEVER been a feasible plan despite being touted as a great money saving idea. Its even worse here because nvidia and ATI have gotten VERY good at blowing out the old stock before introducing their new stuff.

 

[Gillbot]

I saw the 939 prices climbing a while ago and parted my x2 4200+ (?) rig and gathered enough cash to build an entire 775 intel rig with $ left over.

 

[poohbear]

Originally posted by: iFX

Originally posted by: covert24
yup. Obsolete my dude...

Ebay is your best bet.

Obsolete? Hardly. Out of production? Yes.

The people who have S939 processors are hanging on to them, and for good reason.

word!

although i think only us ppl still on s939 are saying that.

i can't get 4x1gb to work on my sys, so its obsoloteness cometh much sooner than if it could support 4gb.

 

[Makaveli]

Damn so now would be a good time to sell my Operton 170.

I'm running it on a Asus A8N SLI32 Deluxe with 4GB of RAM.

Max overclock I hit stable was 2.75GHz with 2GB of DDR500.

Since I added another 2 sticks of DDR500 tho I've had to bring my overclock down to 2.5Ghz to keep the system 100% stable.

I originally had this on a AGP NForce 3 board which doesn't do Dual core and Vista cause NV is to lazy to write drivers for it. So I swapped to the above mentioned board to get it up and running and to be able to use PCI-E. It was probably the best upgrade i've done in while.

System still runs great and I can throw all the current PCI-E videocards in it.

However those newer systems do look tempting!