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Thread ID: 76682	2007-02-09 05:58:00	What CPU do I need?	Wickitoria (11879)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
524068	2007-02-09 05:58:00	I have an MSI ATX motherboard with currently a Sempron 2600+ CPU. I want to upgrade to an Athlon 64. My manual says my motherboard supports 64 bit AMD K8 Athlon 64 (Socket 754). My question is can I get any Athlon 64 bit processor that fits a Socket 754 or do I need to specialise? Silly question to some of you but I need to be sure before I fork out the bucks.	Wickitoria (11879)
524069	2007-02-09 06:04:00	Any 754 socket CPU. Altho, I would go to the MSI site search for the model of your mobo and it should give u a list of CPU's it supports. It may also depend on what BIOS is on the mobo at the mo....whether it'll support higher 754 socket CPU's.	Speedy Gonzales (78)
524070	2007-02-13 02:25:00	You may have to look pretty hard to find one, Socket 754 only ever had a couple of Athlon64s. S754 was/is mainly a sempron platform, socket 939 (now obsolete) and socket AM2 are the A64 platforms. morning.co.nz <- they have one listed, don't know if it's in stock	trig42 (11325)
524071	2007-02-13 03:24:00	You may have to look pretty hard to find one, Socket 754 only ever had a couple of Athlon64s. S754 was/is mainly a sempron platform, socket 939 (now obsolete) and socket AM2 are the A64 platforms. morning.co.nz <- they have one listed, don't know if it's in stock What ever gives you the idea a 939 is now obsolete? It may not be the latest, but it's far from obsolete. And why are 754 cpu's hard to come by? Read the on-line stores pages and you will find plenty.	JJJJJ (528)
524072	2007-02-13 03:53:00	754s are not hard to come by if you don't want an Athlon 64. Some of the Semprons are 64-bit, but they are not A64s. The OP wanted to upgrade to an Athlon64, there will be very few around, they only came in two flavours originally (2800 and 3000) for socket 754. Socket 939 has been superseded by AM2, this happened in the first half of 2006 officially, that makes s939 obsolete. You can still buy S939 boards and CPUs in NZ, but we are hardly at the bleeding edge of new technology. The suppliers I deal with do not import desktop boards with socket 939 (and those are Asus, Gigabyte and MSI suppliers), nor do they have any great numbers of s939 processors (only run-out lines, very limited in range)	trig42 (11325)
524073	2007-02-13 10:58:00	yes you can buy an athlon 64 for skt 754 (www.pricespy.co.nz), i'm using one now :) as for 939 vs. AM2, the performance difference at present is still less than 10%, this is because while DDR2 ram has faster clock speeds (800MHz vs. 400MHz) the timings are looser (so the ram works slower). the current DDR2 ram is catching up to DDR, so expect AM2 to become much faster. i am upgrading to AM2 this week (when parts arrive). i also found on wikipedia that AM3 is coming out late2007/early2008, which technically would make AM2 obsolete. AM3 CPUs will be backwards compatible to AM2 sockets, as the only difference is that AM3 has support for DDR3 (uses same 940 pin layout), whereas AM2 only goes up to DDR2, and 939 has regular ol' DDR. so while both 939 and 754 are 'obsolete' and ultimately dead ends (especially as 754 has very little PCI-E 16X support, instead favoring AGP), AM2 is soon to be 'obsolete' also, but is still a worthy investment as you will not need to upgrade the motherboard untill you see DDR3 as necessary.	motorbyclist (188)
524074	2007-02-13 11:15:00	also note both socket 754 CPUs and AGP video cards are becoming very expensive now compared to their 939/AM2 and PCI-E counterparts, perhaps pushing the need/viability of a whole new system of course, you may not need a new system, but ultimately it's your money and your patience	motorbyclist (188)
524075	2007-02-14 03:27:00	I have had a fair bit to do with 754 boards and their AMD Sempron 64s. They go quite well, and there is not much to be gained by spending on an Athlon 754, pretty rare and a bit pricy, processor that is only marginally faster. Better perhaps to go to 1GB DDR400 if you have not already done so.	PENTIUM (426)
524076	2007-02-14 06:36:00	I have had a fair bit to do with 754 boards and their AMD Sempron 64s. They go quite well, and there is not much to be gained by spending on an Athlon 754, pretty rare and a bit pricy, processor that is only marginally faster. Better perhaps to go to 1GB DDR400 if you have not already done so. if you do get a new 754 cpu, perhaps getting one with a larger cache (if possible) would be a good idea too. and removing programs that run in the background help too, like MSN messenger - there is a setting to stop it starting when you log on. spyware etc can also slow your system	motorbyclist (188)
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