Nforce 3

champ2005

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14 Jan 2004
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Im thinking of purchasing a cheap AMD64 system. Something like a AMD Athlon64 2800+, Gigabyte S754 motherboard, ive got some spare (1gb :) ) of PC2700 lying around (i know its not pc3200 but its not worth buying it atm) and i have a few other bits and pieces already.
Ive read up quite a lot, but still have a few unanswered questions:

- What is the 2800+ FSB?
- Will it be fine with 333mhz memory?
- Is there something wrong with the Nforce 3 150 chipset (ive heard rumours, though the 250 chipset motherboard will only set me back like $10 extra).
- Is dual channel with AMD64s a lot faster than single channel (S754 doesnt have dc)
- Say i get 64-bit Mandrake/Mandriva Linux, will i be able to run i586 programs next to x86_64 like you supposedly can on Windows x64?

Thanks in advance :)
 
All athlon64's use Hyper Transport and dont have an fsb. However they operate ram at 200mhz so you're most optimal solution would be pc3200 ddr however it will work just fine on pc2700 just a tad slower.

The nforce 3 150 chipset just fell short on a lot of abilities and wasnt all that great even nvidia thought it was crap :p

Dual channel athlon64's are identical except they have the extra pins to handle the second channel. this also means they can access both channels at the same time to retrieve data and results in a significant bandwidth increase and as a result you get aboost in processiong performance.

64bit linux/bsd will run 32bit applications as can windows x64 edition.
 
K thanks for that :)

Only one question though - some motherboard manufacturers (in this case Gigabyte) state like SOCKET754 - FSB1600 , others have FSB2000. What is that referring to?
 
HyperTransport bus :)

HT1600m/t indicates its capable of 1600 million transactions per second if I understand correctly. HT2000m/t is for 2000million transactions.

You'll want to search google for HyperTransport terminology to get an accurate answer
 
Nforce3 wasn't all that bad. If you didn't notice, there were a ton of top ranking boards like the MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum board which was one of the best selling boards on the market.

I sadly am not sure about the whole 1600 and 2000 thing.

I would stronly suggest trying to push your funds into 939 processors. Mostly because future upgradeablility is more feasible with that socket type then 754.

Your processor cost will go up about $50 if you go to MonarchComputers.com and get a 3000+ Retail 939 at $156 But you may be able to find it cheaper.

As far as boards are concerned, there are plenty of boards that are inexpensive and provide rock solid support. It's just a matter of what your price range is.

Oh yeah, and I would suggest selling off your GB of PC2700 and buying at least 2x256mb PC3200. Or even 1x512MB and then adding one later. Just because you won't be downgrading your speed.
 
Do not purchase a socket 754 if you can help it at this point.

AMD has announced plans to tranisition a64's to 939 only so unless you plan to use sempron proc's in the future I would probably stay away from 754's.

Also apparently some of the future opterons are tranisitioning to 939's as well.
 
ShepsCrook said:
Nforce3 wasn't all that bad. If you didn't notice, there were a ton of top ranking boards like the MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum board which was one of the best selling boards on the market.

nforce 150 was pretty bad considering the alternatives and the nforce2.. The neo2 platinum is the nforce3 250gb which greatly improved the chipset and put it back its place above the via k8t800 :)
 
woot yeah... thanx for the encouragement. :)
I've had 3 boards in mind, 2 of which were NF4 boards - Gigabyte K8NXP-9 and MSI Neo4 Plat. The other and my final choice for a number of reasons is now MSI Neo2 Plat. hehe. :p
 
If you can, consider waiting for a couple of months while AMD transitions its dual-cores to the mainstream.

That might give you a better idea of some of the tech they are going to use in the new year or so.
 
Im thinking of skipping the budget pc idea, and replacing my laptop in a year or so with an awesome Pentium D or Athlon X2 system. Basically because for what i plan to do (video edit) dual core will be a lot faster than a single processor. Can't wait to stock up on 8 or so gigs of DDR2/3...
 

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