Athlon 64, Clawhammer or Newcastle?

[Neil Harrington]

I'm planning on putting together my first Athlon 64 system. I have built
several Athlon XPs but have no familiarity with the 64. On NewEgg I see
they're selling Athlon 64 2800+ at $113 for either Clawhammer or Newcastle,
and all the specs appear to be the same between the two. What's the
difference?

 

[Neil Harrington]

Also, between the Athlon 64 3200+ Venice and Winchester versions--what's the
difference? Specs appear to be the same.

 

[Peter van der Goes]

Also, between the Athlon 64 3200+ Venice and Winchester versions--what's
the difference? Specs appear to be the same.

I'm going to offer you an opinion on socket choices, and what I believe to
be a fact on the differences between the Winchester and Venice cores.

I believe the Clawhammer and Newcastle chips are Socket 754? I'd opt for a
Socket 939 mobo and CPU, it's newer technology with an upside.
The Winchester is an older design than Venice. Venice has support SSE3,
while Winchester does not.

IMHO, you get more for your $$ with Socket 939 and Venice (unless, of
course, you want to venture into the realm of the dual core CPU's). BTW, the
dual core CPU's are Socket 939.

Hope this helps.

 

[Bob Knowlden]

I'm not familiar with "clawhammer", but I have a Newcastle (130 nm) 3500+ in
a Socket 939 package.

I agree with the Venice recommendation. I don't know whether SSE3 is a
meaningful advantage, but I figure that it can't hurt. I believe that the
memory controller on the Venice chips is supposed to be more robust than the
Winchester one.


Address scrambled. Replace nkbob with bobkn.

 

[Neil Harrington]

Thanks very much to both of you, you have indeed helped. Venice it will be.

Neil

 

[Wes Newell]

I'm planning on putting together my first Athlon 64 system. I have built
several Athlon XPs but have no familiarity with the 64. On NewEgg I see
they're selling Athlon 64 2800+ at $113 for either Clawhammer or
Newcastle, and all the specs appear to be the same between the two. What's
the difference?

The Newcastle is a newer core and will probably clock higher. That said,
get a socket 939 3000+ instead. Get the latest core (boxed=ADA3000BWBOX,
OEM=ADA3000DAA4BW) for about $10 more than the old 754 2800+. It will
clock a lot higher and run a lot cooler. I've got 754, but when I bought
mine there was several hndred dollars in price difference between 754 and
939 and it wasn't worth it for the performance different. Newer 939 cores
and price drops has changed all that today.

 

[Gert Elstermann]

I'm not familiar with "clawhammer", but I have a Newcastle (130 nm) 3500+ in
a Socket 939 package.

I agree with the Venice recommendation. I don't know whether SSE3 is a
meaningful advantage, but I figure that it can't hurt. ...

SSE3 gains importance for those users installing Mac OSx86 on their
x86 computer.
If you are interested in this aspect, you may look at

<http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page>
and especially at
<http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/HCLPart#CPU>
- compare SSE3 and SSE2 -

Gert

 

[Neil Harrington]

The Newcastle is a newer core and will probably clock higher. That said,
get a socket 939 3000+ instead. Get the latest core (boxed=ADA3000BWBOX,
OEM=ADA3000DAA4BW) for about $10 more than the old 754 2800+. It will
clock a lot higher and run a lot cooler. I've got 754, but when I bought
mine there was several hndred dollars in price difference between 754 and
939 and it wasn't worth it for the performance different. Newer 939 cores
and price drops has changed all that today.

Thanks a lot for the good advice. I will get a 939 Venice.

Neil

 

[RDN]

If you have'nt already built your new Athlon 64 system yet,
wait for the new M2 (940) pin chip in 2006.
These new CPU's will have a DDR2 memory controller built in.

 

[David M.]

Thanks a lot for the good advice. I will get a 939 Venice.

Neil

Hi,

I am facing a similar situation, wandered into this newsgroup, found this
thread, and I think it answers my question, but just to be safe, let me lay
it out. I am buying the parts to rebuild my computer. I'll probably buy
from newegg and this is the page with their athlon 64 processors:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...NC-GoogleAdwords&ATT=AMD+Athlon+64+Processors

this web page lists three 3500+ processors, but there are two 3500+ Venice
processors. Which one do I want? Does getting the 3700+ solve this problem
for me (there is only one non-clawhammer of those ?

 

[Wes Newell]

I am facing a similar situation, wandered into this newsgroup, found this
thread, and I think it answers my question, but just to be safe, let me
lay it out. I am buying the parts to rebuild my computer. I'll probably
buy from newegg and this is the page with their athlon 64 processors:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...NC-GoogleAdwords&ATT=AMD+Athlon+64+Processors

this web page lists three 3500+ processors, but there are two 3500+ Venice
processors. Which one do I want? Does getting the 3700+ solve this
problem for me (there is only one non-clawhammer of those ?

One is stepping E3, the other is stepping E4. Using the part number go to;

http://www.amdcompare.com/us-en/desktop/

Now select model 3500. You should be able to figure out what to next to
find this. As for the 3700+, it's a San Diego core. Runs at the same
default speed (2.2Ghz) as the 3500+, but has 1M L2 cache. might want to
look it up on amdcompare too.

 

[David M.]

One is stepping E3, the other is stepping E4. Using the part number go to;

http://www.amdcompare.com/us-en/desktop/

Now select model 3500. You should be able to figure out what to next to
find this. As for the 3700+, it's a San Diego core. Runs at the same
default speed (2.2Ghz) as the 3500+, but has 1M L2 cache. might want to
look it up on amdcompare too.

Ah so, stepping. I have heard of stepping, but never bothered to understand
it, until today! So I pay $7 more for an additional step. Sounds
reasonable to me. Thanks.