It looks like the S754 will be designated for budget Athlon 64 systems.  If
you are looking to put together a relatively inexpensive Athlon 64 system,
these probably are what you should look at first.  Available processors
include the $115 (oem) Sempron  3100 (1.8ghz, 256K cache, no 64 bit support)
and the $127 (retail) Athlon 64 2800 (1.8ghz, 512k cache and 64 bit
support).  The main thing that the S754 Athlons 64s lack, compared to the
socket 939 models, is dual channel memory support.

The S939 processors start out with the $149 (oem) Athlon 64 3000.  It also
is a 1.8GHz processor with 512K of cache.  AMD is using their 90nm
manufacturing process for these lower end S939 processors; so, they run on
less voltage than the other Ahtlon 64s and produce less heat.  Chances are
that you'll see some faster processors added to this line, while the S754
might be expanded in the other direction with more Semprons.

As Russ noted, there are two major competing chipsets for the Athlon 64 --
one from VIA and one from nvidia.  Performance-wise, under stock conditions,
they are pretty evenly matched; so, a choice might best be made on features
and cost.  Also, if you are looking to overclock, the nvidia version seems
to be the better choice.  The nvidia chipset also seems to have more
features integrated into the chipset (such as gigabit LAN and an integrated
firewall) than VIA, which uses secondary chips to support something like
Gigabit LAN.

As Russ also noted, we should be seeing the PCIe version of the Nvidia
chipset before long.  This should look very interesting to gamers, since it
will have the option of supporting two PCIe video cards in SLI
configuration, somewhat like how the voodoo2 cards could be hooked to
together in tandem.  Other advantages will be seen for workstations and
servers that need a lot of bandwidth for either multiple drives and/or
networking.  I'm not sure that the average home user will see any advantages
in having PCIe, but it does seem like a standard that is catching on
relatively quickly.

How much power supply capacity you need will probably depend on things like
what video card and which particular processor you intend to use.  These
days 350 watts seems pretty minimal for a new system, especially if you
might be adding more stuff as you go along.  Of course just the power rating
doesn't tell the whole story, since not all power supplies are made equal.

John Sproule

----- Original Message -----
From: "Bill" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, December 01, 2004 3:50 PM
Subject: [PCBUILD] Socket 939 vs 754


> Hello, I am planning on building a new system.   I have  used ASUS MB
> boards
> and AMD processors in the past with good luck.  ASUS has two boards out
> that
> would work for the Athlon 64 cpu.  The A8V, VIA K8T800 Pro has the socket
> 939 and the K8V, VIA K8T800 has the socket 754.  Could you folks discuss a
> build using the Athlon 64 with either of these ASUS boards and pros and
> cons
> for the socket 939 vs 754.
>
> Also, I was planning on using my present Enlight 7255 case with an Enlight
> 300W power supply.  Would this  power supply be okay or would I be better
> off getting the 360W.  Thank you all very much.

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