AMD Prpcessor and Motherboard questions

[Mr. Mustang]

I am a big time gamer looking to build a new machine. I have always used
Intel's products and I am looking to try an AMD processer. The benchmarks
for gaming on AMD's 64 bit chips blows intel out of the water. Even on
there own 6XX series. I am looking at the 3500+ and 3800+. Are there huge
performance differences between the two? THe price difference is around
100 bucks. What is the best gaming motherboard to use? I have my sights on
a ABIT AV8-3rd Eye VIA K8T800 Pro. Is this a good board?

I have a high end NVIDIA 5950 Ultra that I do not want to part with so PCI
express is out of the question.

Thanks

 

[Hawkeye]

Asus A8V is another good mb choice

 

[General Schvantzkoph]

I am a big time gamer looking to build a new machine. I have always used
Intel's products and I am looking to try an AMD processer. The benchmarks
for gaming on AMD's 64 bit chips blows intel out of the water. Even on
there own 6XX series. I am looking at the 3500+ and 3800+. Are there huge
performance differences between the two? THe price difference is around
100 bucks. What is the best gaming motherboard to use? I have my sights on
a ABIT AV8-3rd Eye VIA K8T800 Pro. Is this a good board?

I have a high end NVIDIA 5950 Ultra that I do not want to part with so PCI
express is out of the question.

Thanks

I have an MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum which is a very solid board, I'm using it
with a 3800+. The big performance jump is between 754s and 939s and it's
not in the direction that you would think. I have both an 3400+ system
(754) and a 3800+ (939). On some applications the 3400+ is twice as fast
as the 3800+. This is due to the 1M cache on the 3400+ vs the 1/2M cache
on the 3800+. You can get a 1M cache on the 939 in the 4000+ and the FX
series but they are very expensive. The 3400+ is cheaper than the 3500+
and I've found no application where the 3400+ is slower and some where
it's much faster. The only downside of the 754 package is that you can
only put 3 DIMMs on it and that they can only run at 333MHz when you have
3 (two will run at 400MHz). However you can buy 1G DIMMs so 3 is enough.
You also won't be able to upgrade the processor in the future because the
dual core chips are going to be 939 only.

 

[Cuzman]

Mr. Mustang wrote:

" I have a high end NVIDIA 5950 Ultra that I do not want to part with
so PCI express is out of the question. "


Today, your GeForce FX 5950 Ultra is a mid-range card. Put it on eBay,
and some mug will pay more for it than a new PCI-Express 6600GT 128MB
costs. You're all set up for the future then, and with a better
graphics card to boot.

 

[Bill]

I am a big time gamer looking to build a new machine. I have always used
Intel's products and I am looking to try an AMD processer. The benchmarks
for gaming on AMD's 64 bit chips blows intel out of the water. Even on
there own 6XX series. I am looking at the 3500+ and 3800+. Are there huge
performance differences between the two? THe price difference is around
100 bucks. What is the best gaming motherboard to use? I have my sights on
a ABIT AV8-3rd Eye VIA K8T800 Pro. Is this a good board?

Yes. Avoid old stock though. Make sure you get one with the latest
bios that supports the Winchester core. Also they have an issue with
older Antec power supplies. It's the power supplies fault, not the
boards. My AV8 3rd EYE with 3500+ Winchester is running 2442 MHz@
1.45vdc with no problems. Get good ram.

I have a high end NVIDIA 5950 Ultra that I do not want to part with so PCI
express is out of the question.

Thanks

Bill

 

[Mr. Mustang]

Where did you get your Winchester Core Chip?

Yes. Avoid old stock though. Make sure you get one with the latest
bios that supports the Winchester core. Also they have an issue with
older Antec power supplies. It's the power supplies fault, not the
boards. My AV8 3rd EYE with 3500+ Winchester is running 2442 MHz@
1.45vdc with no problems. Get good ram.



Bill

 

[Bill]

Where did you get your Winchester Core Chip?

<snip>

Newegg.com. And please don't top post.

Bill