64 or 32

ronboronbo Connecticut
edited December 2004 in Hardware
I am building a new computer for gameing and want to make the right choice on the CPU. When I was looking at the 32 bit Athlon 3200+ I noticed you can buy motherboards that have dual channel memory slots. Now that I am looking at the 64 bit version of the Athlon 3200+, I noticed that the motherboards that support it do not have dual channel memory slots. Why is that? It is not needed with a 64 bit Cpu? Thank you for any help..

Comments

  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited December 2004
    Dual channel isn't needed on the Athlon XP, and as a matter of admission, the Athlon XP can't even use it because of the way its memory bus is designed.. That is, it can't use morebandwidth than the bandwidth allotted by its FSB. If it's using a 200MHz (DDR400) FSB, it has exactly 3200MB/s of bandwidth; dual channel provides 6400MB/s, half of which is wasted.

    The matter is a little different for the Athlon 64..

    Any and all socket 754 Athlon 64s cannot use dual channel as the chip itself can't support it.

    Any and all socket 939 or 940 Athlon 64/Opteron CPUs can and DO use dual channel effectively.
  • ronboronbo Connecticut
    edited December 2004
    Thank you Thrax for your quick reply to my question. So in your opinion, which I respect, should I get the socket 939 and not the socket 754, and go with the dual memory? I want a real good and stable system for gameing. I do not plan on doing any overclocking at all with it. This means a lot to me because I have been saving my money for a long time and it does not come easy. Sure don't want to make a mistake on the most important part of the system....thanks...
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited December 2004
    Definitely get the Socket 939 system, as it'll be vastly superior than the socket 754. If you have time to wait, I'd also wait about 30-45 days for the nForce4 to really come out.
  • ronboronbo Connecticut
    edited December 2004
    Ok Thrax, so far so good. Without going into a lot of detail, which I might not understand because I am new to this. I noticed the socket 754 3200+ has a speed of 2.2gigs, while the socket 939 is only 2gigs and more expensive. So the faster chip is not allways the best?
  • Omega65Omega65 Philadelphia, Pa
    edited December 2004
    The Single Channel bandwidth of the S754 platform contrains CPU performance. So even though the S754 chip is clocked at 2.2ghz the S939 2.0ghz Dual Channel version is more efficient.

    Get the S939 chip.

    Athlon 64 Comparison: 12 CPUs - Single vs Dual Channel - 512K vs 1MB Cache
  • EnverexEnverex
    kicks his socket 754 Athlon64 system
     Worcester, UK Icrontian
    edited December 2004
    kicks his socket 754 Athlon64 system
  • ronboronbo Connecticut
    edited December 2004
    Thanks to everyone that helped me. The S939 chip has been ordered. Now to find a good MB to install it on.....Graphics card will be a no brainer 6800GT or 6800Ultra..I am a Nvidia fan since birth...
  • Omega65Omega65 Philadelphia, Pa
    edited December 2004
    MSI Neo2 Platinum & get Samsung TCCD memory ( Ram with Samsung TCCD - Listing)

    This memory does 260mhz in my KV8-Pro Patriot Dual Channel Kit 184-Pin 1GB(512MB x 2) DDR PC-3200 w/ XBL Technology)

    This TCCD memory is rated at 275mhz Cas2.5-3-3-7 G.skill (Samsung TCCD) Dual Channel Kit 184-Pin 1GB(512MB x 2) DDR PC-4400, Model F1-3200DSU2-1GBLE - Retail
  • ronboronbo Connecticut
    edited December 2004
    This MSI board looks real nice. Have been reading the reviews about it at newegg but this bios problem with the SATA drives scares me a little. I did want to go with the SATA drives and I am hopeing I will not have an issue with that....Never had a MSI before. Had 3 Abit and 1 Asus boards so far. The MSI board does look like the way to go and I am hopeing that if I have any issues with it I can reley on the great people in this forum to help me through it....
  • ShortyShorty Manchester, UK Icrontian
    edited December 2004
    I agree with Thrax.. wait for nForce4. I am so tempted to shop in my 754 but I don't see the point until nForce4 hits :)
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited December 2004
    ronbo wrote:
    ...The MSI board does look like the way to go and I am hopeing that if I have any issues with it I can reley on the great people in this forum to help me through it....
    I will be ordering the same board in a day or two, so if it has a problem there will be at least two of us yelling for help. :D
  • Omega65Omega65 Philadelphia, Pa
    edited December 2004
    Three of us :) I have one on the way also.
  • JimboraeJimborae Newbury, Berks, UK New
    edited December 2004
    Sata works fine on my board both in raid & single config, dont know of any issue with it except that there's no lock on ports 1 & 2.
  • ronboronbo Connecticut
    edited December 2004
    Lock on ports 1 & 2 ? Can you tell me what a lock is?
    I am also looking at this MB, it got very good reviews..GIGABYTE "GA-K8NS Ultra-939"
  • TheSmJTheSmJ
    edited December 2004
    Are 32-bit systems even worth getting anymore? I'm not going ot be buying in the forseeable future (dont want to waste my "legacy" 3 month old AGP video card quite yet), I'm just curious what you guys have to say is all.
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited December 2004
    I'm going to be using an AGP card with my new 64-Bit system; I wouldn't let that hold you back.

    I could build the best 32-Bit system available for what I'm spending on a mid-line 64-Bit rig, but I'll have plenty of upgrade options down the road that won't be there for a 32-Bit system.
  • TheSmJTheSmJ
    edited December 2004
    Yeah, but the real question is; how much longer do the 32-bit systems still have?

    Not in terms of new upgrades, but in terms of the playability of new games? I plan on using my current system up until about a year from now. While the current 64 bit systems will still be "upgradeable" for much longer than the 32 bit systems, the chipsets will be crummy, and new CPU, RAM, and SATA support me terrible within a year/year-and-a-half from now anyways, which at the very least would require a new mobo purchase, if not RAM as well (going by DDR upgrade patterns as of late).
  • JimboraeJimborae Newbury, Berks, UK New
    edited December 2004
    ronbo wrote:
    Lock on ports 1 & 2 ? Can you tell me what a lock is?
    I am also looking at this MB, it got very good reviews..GIGABYTE "GA-K8NS Ultra-939"

    I'm talking about pci lock which is very useful when overclocking; it keeps the pci & agp bus speeds in spec no matter how high you set the front side bus (fsb/htt). THe pci lock only works on s-ata ports 3&4 on the K8n Neo2, therefore if you have a s-ata drive connected to ports1 or 2 it likely to get corrupted when overclocking.
  • ronboronbo Connecticut
    edited December 2004
    Thanks for the heads up on the pci lock, Jimborae. I will remember to use ports 3 & 4..
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