Ok, this is just my opinion, but I think it is worth hearing. Below are the current "desktop" platforms, along with some information I have gathered about their future. AMD Socket A: Lets face it, Socket A is coming to an end. As far as I know, there are no plans to introduce new Socket A processors, so buying a new socket A based system at this stage would mean no possible upgrade path in the future, with the exception of more memory. Also, many of the new socket A chips are multiplier locked, and cannot be unlocked. Bye bye overclocking. Socket 940: This is the socket design used by both the opteron and the Athlon FX. The next Athlon FX will be the FX53, running at 2.4GHz, which should be released by the first quarter of this year. However, by the second quarter, the FX53 will be migrating over to socket 939 heralding the death of socket 940 as a high end desktop solution. As you can see, this leaves very little path for upgrade for those who bought the athlon FX51 without having to buy a new motherboard. Socket 754: This would appear to be the only current AMD socket design with any margin of life in it. There is an athlon 64 3700+ forecast for the second quarter of this year, but beyond that, all high performance athlon 64 cpus wil be migrating over to socket 939 as with the FX. In fact, the 64 and the FX will have the same dual channel, non registered memory subsystem, the only distinction being 1MB of L2 cache on the FX and 512kB on the 64. Beyond the first athlon 64 3700+ (there will be three different ones - 754, 939 130nm and 939 90nm) the only cpus to be released on socket 754 will be budget chips running just 256kB of L2 cache. Clearly DURON's successor (again, heralding the death of socket A, even as a budget platform) INTEL In Intel's case, we need only discuss socket 478 since it is intels only desktop platform. As some of you may know, Northwood is coming to an end. You can already preorder PRESCOTT cored processors from OCUK from 2.8 up to 3.2 (scheduled for early february). These chips are based on the socket 478 platform but will need a bios revision on current motherboards. It is also likely that many current top end P4 boards won't get a revision supporting the PRESCOTT cored P4's. So for many, it looks like a new board, though I would STRONGLY advise against this, as Intel will be migrating prescott over to LGA775, a completely new land grid array socket, as early as april. Along with LGA775, we will see the introduction of PCI-Express (more on this later) as well as the introduction of things like DDR-II further down the line. TEJAS, the core scheduled to replace the Prescott will also be released on the LGA775 platform. PCI-Express As far as I can tell, a lot of graphics manufacturers are going to be moving over to PCI-Express soon as a replacement for AGP. The LGA-775 boards will eventually ship with PCI-Express, though I'm not sure whether this will be from launch in April. Currently, I don't know about AMD's planes with PCI-Express, but I get the impression, that graphics manufacturers will be moving completely over to PCI-Express possibly by the end of this year, again, putting a cap on both current and some future AMD platforms still shipping with AGP ports instead of PCI-Express. There you go. My advice would be to wait until April-May, after the introduction of LGA 775 and Socket 939, and then reassess the situation. If anyone has any other information pertinent to this topic, please post as ammendments, and I will try and add the info to keep this current as new info arises. Equally, if anyone can see any obvious misinformation, please let me know, and I will get it changed as soon as possible. 8-ball
Indeed. My plans are to wait at least until PCI Express and DDR-II are out, which will most certainly mean socket 939 has been around for a while and got over its teething problems. It's a good time for people who like new technology at the moment
i have been thinking about building a new system for a few months now and was going to build one in early february. but having read about the amd64's migration and the immenent release of the prescott chip. I have decided to wait
Im not upgrading my pc now till i can get my hands on a AMD64, a 2.5 Barton running at 2.3 is fine for me, and i need to wait for all the mobos to get fixed, the 939 will probably have lots of things wrong with ti
heres a list of all the current motherboards which support s478 prescott http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NTY1LDE has anyone heard of any plans from intel to produce a 90nm s603 cpu or are they going to go straight to a new package for the xeon?
Doesnt look like im going to be upgrading yet then, i was thinking about getting a NF-S v2 board aswell this month.
I did mention that I was covering desktop platforms. Whether opteron will remain on socket 940, I don't know. But you can be sure that if it does, it will be almost entirely for server boards. No more enthusiast 940 once 64 and FX move over to 939. 8-ball
Although you are right to a certain extent about socket 940. It will remain a supported socket even after the FX-53 moves to socket 939, it will remain on socket 940 at the same time from what I understand. Socket 940 will not be discontinued however, it will remain in use for high end servers using the Opteron processors, which are currently running on socket 940. The budget Socket 754 processors that are going to be emerging very soon are based around the thoroughbred core, with the addition of an on die single channel memory controller from what I gather (I'm sure ZapWizard will correct me if I'm wrong). They will be multiplier locked. Overclocking is not over by no means, VIA are supposed to be working on a chipset for socket 939 which has a PCI lock, this is great news for enthusiasts, because you won't need to buy an FX-5x to enjoy the revels of overclocking. nForce3 is also due a revision, with the introduction of the nForce3 250 pro chipset sometime over the next 4 weeks. With the current A64 3400+, you only require 227 fsb to reach 2.5Ghz, that's not out of reach by any means with some decent PC3500 memory. With DDRII around the corner, tight timings and high fsb will be something that everyone can dream about. Winbond have ceased production of their BH-5 memory chips, which is bad news for current overclockers. However there are rumours that their recent CH-5 memory chips are getting down to the low timings that BH-5 was doing, they are still no match for the mighty BH-5. Winbond have also knocked their BH-4 research&development process on the head, in favour of turning their attention to providing high quality DDRII memory chips. I'm planning on upgrading nearly as soon as socket 939 arrives, hopefully ABiT will have released a board when it comes to my turn to upgrade. PCI Express is going to have little support for graphics cards as soon as it arrives, so I'm going to wait a while before even considering upgrading to PCI Express.
bigZ, I have already acknowledged that 940 will go on, but mainly for server boards. The original post has been edited to reflect this, from to Equally, I never mentioned that overclocking was over, only that it is becoming increasingly difficult with newer SOCKET A cpus, as they are now irreversibly multiplier locked. (or so I understand) Hope that clears that up. I also think that april may time will be a good time to upgrade, as there will be a choice of LGA775 and socket 939 to go at. Both processors will have been out in one form or another to have an idea of the relative performance of each. My current radeon 9800pro will see me through until PCI-Express takes off proper. 8-ball
you said "bye bye overlocking" I understand to a certain extent, the multiplier has gone, but intel users have never been able to change the multiplier and I can't see intel changing their policy on this You can still achieve decent overclocks, both in 1:1 and 5:4 on A64 motherboards. 2.4Ghz from an A64 3200+ is a very realistic goal for someone with aircooling and good memory.
/me has just bought a new system Ahh well, I've never been one for upgrading much anyway (this is my first processor over 1 Ghz ffs...) so I reckon my system is gonna be good for everything I throw at it for a good few years (well, once I get a decent Gfx card) Sam
Do you think that the Prescotts will offer decent competition for the Athlon 64s or will the athlon 64s be the best way to go for the near future?
I have been looking at upgrading recently and have worked out that right now the best value for money would be Barton XP2800 + NF7S which is what I plan to get in the next few days. I know athlon is coming to an and but what the hell. a system is generally only good for 6 months anyways
we will see it is likely that they will be pretty much comparable, with one of them taking the edge, but it is impossible to say which one until they are availible the big boys will alwas be neck and neck, ie ATI/nVidia and Intel/AMD its just that from time to time the one with the slight edge swaps places
I don't plan to upgrade a thing in all honesty, for quite some time, apart from maybe hard drives (my 80GB RAID 1 array is getting a bit full), a DVD burner, and a new monitor. Everything else will do for the time being (I'd like to get a higher fsb but I think thats down to other factors than my cpu really)...a faster system all round would be nice, but realistically given the amount of new technology anything major in the way of case/memory/cpu/motherboard I buy in the first or even second quarter isn't likely to last as long as I'd like before one of those things limits my future upgrade paths.
I only plan on upgrading to faster RAM and maybe a better graphics card, on my current system, in the near future. My current CPU Tbred 2600 and mobo should last me a wee while. I'll move over to an A64 system later, once the whole socket, PCI - Express, DDRII debate dies down.
Same here. I'm waiting until LGA-775, S754, S939 and DDR-II are being reviewed side-by-side. I'm still gunning for a dual Opteron 248 rig, though.
The memory in my system is the only thing I'd like to upgrade, along with a new proc possibly as I'm running an OEM2.4c, but the only way I'll upgrade in the near future is if I were to build a computer for either of my siblings. My bro is after a fairly cheap comp for MP3s and such, so I may get myself a 3.2C when the prescotts are released along with some new memory and ship the old stuff on to my bro with a nice shuttle case or something like that. That way, my dad will put ost of the money up for it, so I will only have to pay for the value of the upgrade rather than the whole cost. That would definitely see me through with the rest of my system as it is. 8-ball
Well I have just bought most of my system, just waitng on the CPU and a couple of other bits now... I reckon it will probably be about a year before all the new chipsets, sockets, PCI-Express stuff settles down and some real quality motherboards for this stuff start appearing so I am still very happy with my kit (am upgrading from a 400MHz G3 Mac). Just wondering now whether to wait a couple more weeks and get the 2.8 Prescott instead of the 2.8 4c I am planning on? I also may upgrade my graphics card if the ATI 420 supports AGP...
