Revive an old Socket 939...?

I have an Old *** Gigabyte K8U Socket 939 motherboard I realized I had sitting around.. I don't have a CPU for it though. I broke the last one.. long story. Anyway I have some DDR Ram sitting around though. As well as a 6600GT AGP (it's an AGP board). I've found a 20 dollar 3500+ on ebay.. Would it even be worth resurrecting this thing? Just for the sake of doing so? Lol. I've got a spare DVD drive and such too. There's also some slightly more expensive 4200+ Dual Core's around for this socket. As well as the FX-55 for around the same price as the 4200+ dual cores.. Any suggestions? Is it even worth it?

Potential uses? No idea! .

if you have that money to spend then id go for it, nothing wrong with some retro hardware!

Older rigs like that make good file servers. You could probably get by running Win98 and older games on it and I know they'll run XP and internet games. I've seen some people turn them into Linux machines for various uses. Depends on what you do with your rigs or what you might want to explore doing.

Hmm. I have a spare XP disc lying around. Apart from my crappy netbook all my computers run Win 7. So I could definitely install XP on it.. Might set it up as my little brothers first comp (he's 11). And he could play his precious FLYFF game again which doesn't work on Win7 . Could be an idea.. Though a file server sounds like a good idea! I've been meaning to make a system specifically for storage/backup and what not.. Cos I'm quite lazy when it comes to backing up stuff.. It's bad I know XD.

I've used a file server as a back-up for years. I also added a small APC UPS to it, just in case.


No reason you can't let your brother play his game on it as well. You can always hide the other HDDs - and I think you can password protect them, if needed.

Ok so in which case, for just a file server or even a basic old gamer unit what CPU?

I can get like a 3500+ single core Venice for like 20 bucks.. That's all I'd need right? Alternatively those dual cores/FX-55 cost around 80-100 with postage. >.> Can't see that being overly worth it unless I'm going to use it a lot.. As long as it's all stable. I'm pretty sure I'm answering my own question here but thanks! XD

I think a single-core would be plenty for a file server as long as you're not trying to access big files while something else is running.

Dual-cores could do both but you'd have to weight how often that would happen with the price difference.

The FX-55 would be a waste, it's a single core. Speed isn't very critical for a file server.

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/AMD-Dual-Cor...75641080?pt=AU_Components&hash=item19c4c842f8

I'm very tempted on this CPU... It's pulling me in! Dual core Oppy! Ahhh run away ><. Should just buy the 20 dollar 3500+ and stop temptation XD

LOL!

Too bad the second line of numbers off the CPU aren't included. That's where you tell how good an OC'er it might be. Guess it doesn't matter too much for a file server, though.

I love seeing that 939 again, reminds me of the old days.
I had an old MSI K8N-Neo 2(holy crap I remembered that) socket 939 board,
An Athlon 3000+, 1.81Ghz single core
1GB of DDR1
and a Geforce 7600GT.
This could run Counter-Strike: Source formidably.
Also: I used to play FlyFF. It's coded extremely badly. It's a terrible looking game compared to the amount of resources it uses. You might need a bit more GPU power for this game specifically, maybe.

Ya I know it's horrible. Our 2nd computer has a x3 720 with a HD4870. For those graphics it should rip that game apart, but it lags during city areas and high-density monster areas sometimes.. Horribly coded indeed! Reminds me of Aion.... .

Mmm I'm decided. 20 bucks here I go! ...Now to find that venice again.. The Winchester is the one I keep finding, but I specifically remember the Venice being better...

I remember when I played for a little bit with my new rig(in the sig)
when I started it up it would say "Insufficient Texture Memory" or something along those sorts. And my GT240 is a 1GB card.

God I love 939 rigs! My first one had a SD core 3700, DFI ultra D MB modded into a SLI board and dual 6800 gt's oc'd to ultra speeds. Later I added an opty 165 that still powers my mom's rig.

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290491322491&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT

I ended up buying this from China.. Here goes nothing haha. Made sure it specified Venice core though. Time for some fun! . Though the postage said it'll take like 2 weeks to get here.. I'll probably make a new thread about it if I have any issues or try to OC it.. THAT SAID!!!

I have a question. I don't think it ships with a heatsink. I have my X3 720's stock AM2 heatsink, as well as my 6400+ AM2 heatsink. The 6400+ heatsink is actually a block heatpipe thing.. Kinda weird, but I remember my 6400+ putting out a lot of heat, so I was wondering if these mounts will sit exactly with my old board? (I've already put it away for now, figured I'd just ask .)

I assume the S939 and the AM2 layout in terms of CPU area is the same and thus the heatsinks should fit..? Maybe? possibly? Hopefully?

Mjolnir said:

I assume the S939 and the AM2 layout in terms of CPU area is the same and thus the heatsinks should fit..? Maybe? possibly? Hopefully?

Click to expand...

The s939 uses a fastener that goes across the HSF and hooks on to a frame around the socket. At least that's how the ones I have look. I think the AM2 has holes in the mobo with a backing plate that the fastening mechanism screws into. But perhaps you can adapt a more modern design to an s939 mount. In fact, I just pulled the trigger on a Cooler Master hyper 212+ for my s939 system. Amazon listed it as compatible with 939 but CM does not. And the one I have for my new system did not come with the fastening H/W for s939. But I have a couple old s939 coolers so I think I can adapt.

Speaking of which, if you want a stock s939 cooler for parts or to use, advertise in the "want to buy" classifieds. (No selling allowed in the regular forums and I may already be crossing the line by suggesting this...)

And to your original question (which you've already answered) - yeah, do it! I retired my s939 system to replace it with something modern. And then when the Rosetta contest came along, I put it back together and overclocked it for the first time since I bought it. At the moment, it's getting me 635 RAC vs. 2000 for the new system. The s939 is an Athlon 64 X2 3800+ and I overclocked it from 2.0 to 2.4 GHz.

I would run Linux on it, but that's because I run Linux on everything.

Haha sounds like fun! I would but I live in Aus. There's plenty of cheap heatsinks on Ebay, just figured if I could use one I already have it'd be easier.

I read that Socket 939 Gigabyte boards were notoriously BAD for OC'ing, but let's see how we go... . I'll work out the heatsink when it arrives.

If I recall my own experience in that area correctly (it's been a couple of years) I had to add a very thin shim to make my AM2 heatsink fit right on my s939 CPU. The clamps are exactly the same and, just looking at it, you'd think they were 100% compatible but the AM2 sink was just a tad loose on the s939 socket for my liking. The "looseness" may have just been me, though - it's the first stock heatsink I had installed in many years.


PS
Any sink that mounts using the screw holes isn't compatible at all. AM2/AM3 uses four screws, s939 only has two. The stock sinks all use spring clamps and there are a few after-market sinks that use them as well.

I used my old socket 754 3200+ up until like a few weeks ago. I ran windows 7 with 1GB of memory quite well. I didn't notice a huge difference when I upgraded except when it came to doing more than one thing lol.

Had to reseat the cooler on my grandads socket 939 3500+ was getting a little toasty after 5 years of no maintenance. It's still very snappy to use and have been looking on the bay for an old x2 chip. I miss the days of the socket 939.
Will never forget the day I upgraded from a socket A xp2400, to my first 939 3500+ then x2 4400 toledo.
Until this xmas my Dad was still using a s754 3400+ newcastle

Looking forward to Bulldozer but i'm not too fussed my pc does everything i need to.

im still loving my x2 4400 on water @2750 ran like that and higher since it was born but wasnt allways on water..went from the big typhoon to water...
the box folds and is my tv pc (hauppauge wintv/radio)...