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Thread ID: 61501	2005-09-07 00:37:00	PC purchase question :)	Organicpete (133)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
386621	2005-09-07 10:53:00	The point was that there is no production of Socket A Athlons, none, zip, zero, not being made anymore. If someone buys a Socket A board and thinks they will drop an Athlon it futher down the track then they are going to be completely out of luck. Its possible to source them at the moment but supply is haphazard and overdue to run out. Which is why most don't list them as available..... AMD have also announced that they only new 754-pin chips coming to market will be Sempron chips, The Athlon 64 754 chips are still easily available but shouldn't be by the time somewho has bought a 754-pin board wants to upgrade from a Semperon cpu. Granted AMD may continue production despite what they have announced (a stopping of production) if the line is still selling. I know I would. The 939 motherboards and cpu's have hit a pricepoint where they represent the best possible combination of value and performance, and they are "meant" to be able to suport dual core Athlon chips with a bios upgrade. Meaning they will be as future proof as you will get in todays market, From that theory a system bought today running an nforce4 and Athlon 64 3000 should be able to run the dual core 4000 and 6000 cpu's.....3000 to 6000 sounds pretty damn good to me.... If your looking budget then a Sempron 754 is a great choice,just don't expect to get an Athlon to fit it futher down the track, though if AMD keep to the road map then you will be able to source a much faster compatible Sempron chip.The window of opurtunity is usually less then 2 years though. so its worth asking if you will do an upgrade in that time period.	Metla (12)
386622	2005-09-07 11:19:00	Thanks for the ongoing info Guys I feel the pull of AMD :) Metla you said "If your looking budget then a Sempron 754 is a great choice,...." is sempron an athlon with lower bus speed or cache size ? Pete	Organicpete (133)
386623	2005-09-07 13:21:00	The AMD64 CPU architecture. It has its own memory controller rather than using the north bridge like the 32-bit CPU's. It can also address 2^64 bytes of address space (vs 2^32) and has multiple HyperTransport buses which apparently is pretty cool :thumbs: . Hmm ... OK, well that is about all I can remember on the presentation given recently at the Auckland Linux User Group (LUG) meeting on AMD64 architecture. :p Basically the technology is better, whether you need that technology right now is a different question. :DYeah, well said. But... how does it benefit the user of an AMD based system? It kinda reminds me of my early days in the retail liquor industry, when we'd have an expert guy trying to sell us a range of wines based on the fact that their vines were located on such and such location on such slope of the hill and ad infinitum stuff that your average housewife, wanting to buy a bottle of wine for dinner didn't want to know about, and just wants to know what wine goes with the dinner she was preparing.	Greg (193)
386624	2005-09-07 19:56:00	Thats a good point Greg . Unless you are a gamer, all it means is that your computer is idling for 99% of the time instead of 80% of the time . Also it means that some programs are noticably faster, such as my graphic's ones . For wordprocessing, etc, there is no difference regardless of the machine . However I upgraded for the ability to run new programs such as skype etc . But practically, I still don't have a reason to upgrade from my old pentium 450, it still is a good workhorse, I just wanted the buzz of a new machine :)	netchicken (4843)
386625	2005-09-07 20:41:00	T is sempron an athlon with lower bus speed or cache size ? Pete Less cache basically. Metla forgot to mention there are now NO 32 bit AMD CPUs - not counting some shops that have old stock still. All Semprons now are 64bit too. And he is right - forget Socket A - its history. Socket 754 is next for the chopping block.	pctek (84)
386626	2005-09-08 00:13:00	Less cache basically. Metla forgot to mention there are now NO 32 bit AMD CPUs - not counting some shops that have old stock still. All Semprons now are 64bit too. And he is right - forget Socket A - its history. Socket 754 is next for the chopping block. cheers... spose I should own up to being a gamer two a little better FPS and less flashing would be good :) Pete	Organicpete (133)
386627	2005-09-08 00:52:00	What sort of games would you be wanting to play then? A new computer is much more then just the cpu, the key is to get the system in balance,Intergrated graphics,motherboard/chipset,hard drive can all have an effect...especially intergrated graphics, people that spend 3 grand on a p4 with intergrated graphics and a 4500rpm harddrive are mad... Anyhow, The new sempron boards for example come with a PCI_E slot giving you a huge range of video cards to choose from and have native support for S-ATA drives (just a point here, the price difference between a 40GB 5400rpm IDE drive and an 80GB S-ATA drive is about $18...) Socket A boards on the other hand have no suport for Sata (actually I lie,there are a couple) or PCI_E.	Metla (12)
386628	2005-09-08 01:40:00	Thanks Metla games ? :) two sims really GPL and BoB WoV... ( www.simhq.com and img.photobucket.com ) both are 5 yo games GPL modded to the eyeballs and BoB WoV rereleased with all candy. BoB needs a 128 meg graphics card by the sound of it maybe a suitable sempron with good video card and a gig of ram might be an economical go ? get your point about SATA etc Pete :)	Organicpete (133)
386629	2005-09-08 02:36:00	Depending on where you shop . . . . . yes and no . . . . The price difference between a sempron system and an AMD 64 3000 running on an Nforce4 could be as little as $120 . Imo if your going to get a GB of ram and run games then the extra cost of the Atlhon will be paid back in spades . For the budget minded I would suggest an ECS Nforce4 motherboard (make no mistake ECS have released a couple of boards in the past that richly deserve the hate they recieved, However the Nforce 2 and Nforce4 line are solid and perform as good as any higher level board on the market . . . . . though again an extra $80 will get you into an Asus or Gigabyte . . . . depending on where you shop) . Match that up with a vinilla 6600 and your rocking . As to the car sims . . . w00t w00t, they just happen to be the main games I play myself . Have you heard of rFactor at all? It is the latest and greatest product from ISI (they made all the EA f1 games) . What they have done is built an entirely new game and graphics engine, implenting the most advanced phyiscs and full DX9 capabilities . The idea was to spend all the effort on the platform, build it so it was configarable in everyway possible . The upside of this is that the sim community are hard at work building tracks and cars for the game . Meaning they can go futher into detail in every way then any commercial product ever could . This also means that every era of motorsport can be intergrated into the game . You can or at least wil be able to fire here up and choose to play whatever takes your fancy, modern f1, aussie V8's, lemans, nascar etc etc, the skies the limit . They also built the best netcode on any racing game to date, I have been up untill the small hours every night this week playing online . The downside is that the cars and tracks that shipped with the game are a little lacking, A lot of fun to be sure but the game will grow in quality as time goes on, all because the platform was built for the sim-racing community in mind . Imo, A god-send for anyone that has an interest in racing sims . As for flight sims, in every case i have seen the more grunt the better, purely because the line of site has to be measured by the mile,or dozens of miles, or hundred of miles .	Metla (12)
386630	2005-09-08 03:06:00	Athlon it might be then... point taken and thanks for the MB advice as its all greek to me :) wOOt wOOt indeed :) Have seen some rF screnies but thats it... GPL plus the 1965 mod and coming '69 are the bees knees... hundreds of real tracks, wonderful graphics updates... excellent physics VROC and iGOR great for online :) as for BoB I may have just given up on it...tired of dying :) Pete	Organicpete (133)
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