Athlon64 boards, setups, clocking, suggestions needed!

[Punkrulz]

Ok,

First of all I would like to thank everyone in my previous thread about Athlon XP 3200+ boards. On my other set of forums they sort of convinced me into the possibility of getting an Athlon64 processor. Originally I wasn't going for it, because I won a free danger den water cooling kit with the Maze4, however I didn't want to change the block in order to use a 64 chip... so I was leaning towards the 3200+...

Now that I'm leaning a bit in the other direction, I'm curious to find out what kind of setups you guys have with your Athlon64. What kind of motherboards are you guys using? To be honest since I am setting up Water Cooling, and I am going to have a window, I want something with a little color... doesn't matter what color, but Asus Green doesn't cut it for me.

What kind of memory are you guys using? Are you over clocking both memory and motherboard? If so, are there any guides [great guides, I know they're all over the place but I want YOUR input with what you had experience with] that you guys are using for Water Cooling? Specifics too, voltages, bus speeds, etc...

If you can provide me with links and prices too, this is going to be lasting me for awhile [well that depends!]. I'm not really shooting for anything with PCI-Express, but I don't think the 64 boards have it yet do they? [Unless it was an old article I read].

Thanks for the input!

 

[Petros]

Deliberatly and shamelessly copied and pasted from another thread...LOL

I just ordered the 3400+; it's a 754 pin like the 3200+ you're looking at. The only thing I strongly recommend is getting the Clawhammer. (1MB cache) This page has the 3400+ Clawhammer benchmarks. It outperforms a 3700+ in some tests and even gives the 3800+ a run for its money.

This is the board I chose. Newegg sells it for $73, and Epox has always delivered great products; I couldn't resist

Model
Epox EP-8KDA3J CPU Supports the new generation of AMD Socket-754 Athlon 64 CPU 800MHz (Hyper-Transport)

Chipset
NVIDIA nForce3 250Gb

Memory 3 x 184-pin DDR DIMMs up to 3GB
Supports DDR266/333/400 memory

Expansion Slots 1 x AGP slot for both 4X/8X AGP(1.5V)
6 x 32-Bit PCI slots (v2.2 compatible)
IDE 2 x ATA 133 IDE ports up to 4 Devices
Serial ATA 2 Serial ATA devices for the highest data transfer rates (1.5Gbps burst)

Back Panel I/O Connectors One PS/2 Mouse and Keyboard port
Four USB 2.0 ports
One RJ45 connector
One 9-pin D-Sub male Serial ports
One 25-pin D-Sub female Parallel port
Audio I/O jacks
Coaxial and Optical S/PDIF Out
Integrated Video N/A
Integrated Audio Realtek ALC850 selectable 2 or 8-CH audio CODEC with SPDIF
Integrated LAN Built in nForce3 250Gb 10/100/1000Mbps Fast Ethernet
Integrated 1394 N/A

System BIOS
Award/Phoenix BIOS v6.0
Power BIOS
Additional Features P80P LED Debug Display
Form Factor ATX
Dimensions 12" x 9.6"

It's not really flashy and colorful, sadly : ( But it is feature-packed and cheap!

 

[Petros]

If you want to spend about $50 more for some color, this one is awesome.

Tons of them to choose from http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.asp?submit=property&DEPA=0]here

 

[Mainframeguy]

One simple comment - economy = 754 board, but if you want something to last a little longer = 939 board (I have the MSI Neo Platinum and apart from the NB fan that I am going to remove and heatsink I am very happy with it).

Since you asked running a Winchester 3500 with 1GB Crucial Ballistix DDR 400 RAM - still in early stages of setup so no clocking or anything, but runs nice and cool at 2222 Mhz with no need to even think of watercooling.... I imagine it could overclock very nicely if I went that way (unlikely early on!)

 

[Petros]

One simple comment - economy = 754 board, but if you want something to last a little longer = 939 board

Hehe...yeah I forgot about that one. It's just that I've never upgraded motherboard and processor at different times. The problems I was always having was "well, I got a new processor. What do I do with this old processor? Buy another motherboard for it? If I'm going to buy another motherboard anyway, it might as well be a nice one. And I'll put my new processor in it...ehhhhh geez." Therein lies the mental trap I make for myself.

 

[ming]

I think you guys upgrade your machines/components too often. Not that it's a bad thing or anything like that. Just don't see the point in throwing money away if the existing machine is working perfectly fine.

Anyway, back to the subject.
I'd get a new mobo and CPU at the same time, then there's no need to worry about what to do with the one that's just been taken out.

 

[Punkrulz]

Regarding the 939 boards, what board do you recommend for that? Will that be able to use an A64 754 chip? Which chips are the 939 capable of holding? Bah, new information = more research.

What advantages do the 939 chips have over than the 754? What is this "90nm" things that I'm seeing? I'm not seeing many of the 939 chips on pricewatch.

 

[onimkron]

For 939, many recommend MSI's Neo 2 Platinum, as it's a sure-fire bet for performance. However, overclocking-wise, it's not too much of a performer.

Some prefer Asus's alternative, as some boards are coming with revision 2 bios- basically the pci/agp thing is locked. Same for Abit's AV8 3rd Eye, although they actually say that on the box/specs. Also, it's recommened by Custom PC, depending if you want to follow on that.

I've heard that the Winchester (90nm core compared to newcastle's 130nm) is supposedly runs cooler without hindering performance.
Actually, i'd like to know if this true as well, when compared to the older varaints, since i'm not even sure if the above motherboards support it. Quick google should do the trick

Edit: I had a quick look, the MSI Neo2 supports the Winchester varaint, which apparently is the way to go (rather than the 130nm...can somebody check me on that?). I'm guessing most motherboards would require a bios update to support it, if they haven't been updated from the factory already.

 

[Punkrulz]

Ok, so both of the Winchester and the Newcastle run on the 939 chipset, however the Winchester runs on 90nm and the Newcastle runs on 130nm? What is the difference between the two processors? What exactly is this "nm"?

What are you referring to by AGP being locked? The only thing I can think of is that you can't tweak the voltages on the AGP Slot to get OC Performance, however I know nothing about voltages anyhow.

 

[Punkrulz]

Just took a look at the Neo-2 Plantinum, that board sounds pretty cool, I love the way it looks too, I'm a huge fan of the black PCB's. However the only thing that worries me is the put down of the over clocking abilities. Why is this particular motherboard not that great when it comes to over-clocking?

Also, I notice that the motherboard has 2 gigabit integrated ethernet... are there any advantages to using two gigabit connections? Is it possible to get more speed if I use both at the same time?

 

[onimkron]

There's a review of the Athlon 3500+ Winchester varaint over here :

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2242

I think the smaller die means that there is a lower power requirement, in comparision to the larger newcastle version. This could mean that you could overclock it better...but again, I have no real idea.

Locking the AGP/PCI bus means that you can lock the buses to a specific mhz, while moving the FSB at the same time. This basically means that if you raise the FSB, the value of the AGP and PCI would remain the same; if it isn't locked, the PCI and AGP would move concurrently with the FSB, causing stability issues. Apparently, it's very useful for overclocking, but I don't really do much of that

The Neo2 is indeed a good board, but why it won't overclock higher I don't know. The max I've ever seen the FSB go up to is 210, but even then it's quite fast. Some prefer the Asus over it though.

 

[Punkrulz]

Oooh, ok! So you're saying that PCI/AGP locking is a GOOD thing, alrighty then. That is what was throwing me off, to me it sounded like a bad thing. onimkron, do you know of any good guides for overclocking that are easier to understand? It's been so long since I've read anything about it, and working two jobs I have little time to think things through as much as I would like to, especially to ponder on one idea for awhile on how something works.

Also, just to be certain... if you're running memory in a dual channel configuration, and you purchase 2 PC3500 1gb sticks... you run them in the same channel, does that mean you have 1gb or 2? What are the advantages?

 

[ShepsCrook]

For 939, many recommend MSI's Neo 2 Platinum, as it's a sure-fire bet for performance. However, overclocking-wise, it's not too much of a performer.

Are you kidding? The MSI K8N Neo 2 Platinum board is one of the best boards for overclocking. That and the Gigabyte board. Both maxed out their HTT at 300. No other board even got that close. Plus with the NF4 being the better chip then the Via. That puts the MSI ahead even more. The AV8 is a good board, but by no means is a better performer then the MSI.

The Socket 939 90nm chips run beautifully. Cool, fast, and are brand new.

My setup will contain:
MSI K8N Neo 2 Plat
AMD64 3200 90nm 939
1GB of OCZ EL Platinum Revision 2

Now, the previous MSI board for the 754 processor line was not that great.

 

[ShepsCrook]

Also, I notice that the motherboard has 2 gigabit integrated ethernet... are there any advantages to using two gigabit connections? Is it possible to get more speed if I use both at the same time?

Yes, technically having any sort of Dual LAN/Network is suppose to give you better speed and utilization of your network capabilities.

 

[onimkron]

Are you kidding? The MSI K8N Neo 2 Platinum board is one of the best boards for overclocking. That and the Gigabyte board. Both maxed out their HTT at 300.

Are you sure? From what I've read, it isn't that much of a good overclocker. Howver, I think they could be using 130nm varaints, so that could be why...as I've said, I haven't seen it higher than 230, so that could jsut be me then.

Thanks for clearing up the misconceptions.

 

[ShepsCrook]

If you check out the review on anandtech. They compare all of the 939 boards. And the Gigabyte and the MSI were the two best boards in their opinion. 230 must have been people using lower grade ram. Non Samsung TCCD ram. All of the top ram like Ballistix, and OCZ Plats, Maybe some others I'm not sure have gone into the 60s +