NEED CPU Advice PLZ! ATHLON-> SOcket 939 vs 754

[john c]

Please help me guys!
Im a complete idiot when it comes to Hardware. So ive been struggling with the cost/benefit ratio of whether I should get an Athlon 64 chip with the 754 Socket or spend hundreds more for the newer 939 socket. hundreds to more expensive Mobo, CPU, Memory, etc
Whats the huge difference in performance? Dual memory? Please explain to an idiot here.

I really am on a budget but why buy a PC if it isnt going to be good enough in the first place? I wanna be able to run Cubase with tons of plugins with no problems.
Im deciding between these 2 chips:

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...103-498&depa=1

and

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...103-484&depa=1

Plz help me decide! Thanks my friends

[Jay Selway]

Buy a G5. Problem solved.

Also will be easier for us to collaborate on projects.

Plus I can give you about $500,000 in software.

[djane]

What little advice I can give you is get as much ram as you can afford. I would say 2gb minimum. don't know much about PC chips since I use mac, but i do know that the chip won't matter unless you have the ram to go with it. The new g5s handle up to 8gb of ram...I would kill for one of those

[i licked JOEYd]

939

Get the Athalon 64.

How can you go wrong with 64-bit architecture?

[i licked JOEYd]

I would also recommend the Abit AV8 board for that 939 chip. :yes:

[john c]

the 754 socket is also 64-bit chip though Joey.
and i dont want a mac. With parts, i can get a monster PC for 1/3rd the price.
And jay, Cubase is the most stable on PC :)

[john c]

the AV8 board is the one I was looking at actually . Thanks Joey. But whats the hardware diff between 754 and 939?? And how do u take advantage of 939? Do I get DUal memory?

[MLikens]

Ok i just put together a new Pc at my home, I used a gigabyte nforce3 motherbaord socket 939 and im using the new AMD64 3500+. Socket 939 is way better than 734, and the new nforce4 boards are out. I also would go with nvidia for your video card, i have the 6800gt, i can run everygame out their on the higest settings. Most people like P4's but after i bought this amd64 i will never buy pentium again. Most amd's can be overclocked bye almost a gigahertz if u have the proper heatsink. GO with 939 and amd you cant go wrong.

[john c]

Jay I have more software than you now trust me :)

[MLikens]

Also my 939 has duel bios and has 4 slots for sata drives and another 4 for the new sata :) Duel bios is awesome, if your bios gos bad you have a back up so u dont lose info :)

[delphi]

the AV8 board is the one I was looking at actually . Thanks Joey. But whats the hardware diff between 754 and 939?? And how do u take advantage of 939? Do I get DUal memory?

I believe the 754 and the 939 are almost identical. I think the 939 may have a faster bus speed. This would come in handy if you're hooking up any DSP cards.

[john c]

heres the thing, I dont wanna get the TOP TOP of the line PC if a TOP TOP of 3 months ago is good enoguh. With the new Nvidia 4 you start raising my cost by $200-300 now. Id like to keep the whole PC around $800. Also, I dont play games. This will be 100% DAW. I got my current 1.7 Ghz pc for non music shit.

[lovedumplingx]

If you're looking at those it's fine. 64 bit processing is great, but I can't see much difference between the two chips asside from the Socket configuration (which means that they'll use different types of motherboards). One thing you should look at is the chips Front side bus. This is a big factor on how fast your computer will operate.

This of it in terms of a warehouse. The clock speed (in mHz) would be how fast the fork lift can get/process the information. The cache is likened to how many boxes could be stacked in front of the door before there's no more room. But the Bus speed is like how much information the truck could take to the destination at once. So you can have a super fast chip but not see major performance enhancements unless the bus is larger.

Already mentioned is a large memory setup. This is always good advice because it's another layover point of the data between processes.

I'd definitely try to find out what the bus speeds were first.

[john c]

I believe the 754 and the 939 are almost identical. I think the 939 may have a faster bus speed. This would come in handy if you're hooking up any DSP cards.

Yeah which im not. Im prob gonna hook up an Audiophile 2496 soundcard since I dont use ANY hardware (dont need digital to analog converters). If 754 will give me almost identical processing power, I will save $200-300! So thats my Q, is it really worth it? I just need ot be able to run TONS of VST's without skips.

[john c]

Both have 800mhz FSB
And I am planning on getting 1 gig of RAM.