Dual Channel AMD 64 3400+ Motherboards

Hey,
Im buying a new rig in a couple weeks so I'm trying to find the fastest computer i can afford.

Im looking at a AMD 64 3400+ vs. AMD 64 FX-1 because of the price difference. What do you think?

Right now the main motherboard I'm favoring is the Asus K8V Deluxe, unfortunately this MB doesnt support dual channel RAM, and I haven't had much luck finding any Dual Channel motherboards for the Athlon 64 (Socket 754) cpu.

Also is Dual Channel worth it? Its double the price for how much preformance increase?


BTW are AMD or Pentium going to release a new chip so maybe the prices will go down?


Thanks,
Nick

the 939s will be ur best bet because the cpus will have dual mem and 512 cache just as good as the fx64s but a whole lot cheaper.the upgrade path will be good as well.via and n3 will have chipsets for 939 sockets

I wouldn't make any moves until the end of april, beginning of June. Socket 939 and other things are yet to be seen... Like a chipset with pci/agp locks.

kniq said:

Hey,
Im buying a new rig in a couple weeks so I'm trying to find the fastest computer i can afford.

Im looking at a AMD 64 3400+ vs. AMD 64 FX-1 because of the price difference. What do you think?

Right now the main motherboard I'm favoring is the Asus K8V Deluxe, unfortunately this MB doesnt support dual channel RAM, and I haven't had much luck finding any Dual Channel motherboards for the Athlon 64 (Socket 754) cpu.

Also is Dual Channel worth it? Its double the price for how much preformance increase?


BTW are AMD or Pentium going to release a new chip so maybe the prices will go down?


Thanks,
Nick

Click to expand...

With the K8, the memory controller is built into the CPU. THe main difference between the A64 and the A FX is that the FX supports dual channel memory. That's why you won't find dual channel memory boards for socket 754. The CPU/socket doesn't support it.

I don't think dual channel is worth it. A lot of benchmarks put the fx-51 and 3400+ at nearly the same levels.

The socket 939 is the best bet to get the full power of the A64. These might start pretty high in price so your wait won't just be for these to come out, but also for them to come down in price.

The A64 is really holding its own with single channel memory and not using 64-bit software. Despite, these hindrances, check out these performance tests.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/athlon64-3400_3.html
http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NTc1LDQ=

Also, these final words in a review sum up the differences between the top of the line processors to include their thoughts on single channel vs dual channel memory and upcoming sockets.

http://www.anandtech.com/cpu/showdoc.html?i=1946&p=7
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/athlon64-3400_16.html

Supposedly there are socket 754 boards already out with PCI locks and possibly AGP locks as well. I ordered the nForce3 board from Chaintech to go with my new A64 3200 and will post whether it locks or not. I have already read 2 reviews that reported it having a lock which they used to OC it.

Here is the review on the Chaintech board that mentions the PCI / AGP lock.

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.html?i=1883&p=7

the 939's have dual mem on the cpu,just like the 64fx u dont need to run ecc mem either.lower cost for mem and 512 cache on the cpu too.the new chipset should keep up with the 64fx as well.it will be the path to go instead of the 64fx.