Athlon64 Socket 939. Worth the wait?

[none]

Hi,

I'm planing to upgrade my PC in the near future. I currently have
Athlon 1.33GHz, 512MB, with ATI Radeon 64MB DDR VIVO. That card can't
run Colin McRae Rally 04 or Far Cry demos.

Anyway, I've heard of Socket 939 coming in the second quarter with
similar price of current Athlon64. Question is: should I wait for
Socket 939 CPU/mobo, or go for currect Socket 940? Would I get any
benefits from Socket 939?

I don't upgrade gradually (ie. replace CPU with faster one etc.). I
built my PC about 3 years ago and I will not be recycling much from it
since I want QUIET performance in my next box.

Thanks.

 

[Anon]

Hi,

I'm planing to upgrade my PC in the near future. I currently have
Athlon 1.33GHz, 512MB, with ATI Radeon 64MB DDR VIVO. That card can't
run Colin McRae Rally 04 or Far Cry demos.

Anyway, I've heard of Socket 939 coming in the second quarter with
similar price of current Athlon64. Question is: should I wait for
Socket 939 CPU/mobo, or go for currect Socket 940? Would I get any
benefits from Socket 939?

I don't upgrade gradually (ie. replace CPU with faster one etc.). I
built my PC about 3 years ago and I will not be recycling much from it
since I want QUIET performance in my next box.

Thanks.

I think you answered your own question. You are the average user who will
want to replace your whole system every ~couple of years. So build what you
want to build now. After 939 comes out, something new will be just weeks or
months away. The only advantage is that 939 is rumored to support
dual-channel memory with cheap RAM. So if you wait, you will get a slight
performance increase without having to spend a fortune on RAM, IF you choose
to use the dual-channel function. Me, I'd build with what's available
ow. -Dave

 

[wlcna]

[...]

built my PC about 3 years ago and I will not be recycling much from it
since I want QUIET performance in my next box.

I'm in about the same boat as you, specs on my system virtually identical to
yours, and was wondering what your plans are for the quiet aspect here.
Quiet is a huge dissatisfaction I have with all my computers, though most
people consider my machines quiet and I've seen other's machines that are
RIDICULOUSLY noisy. Mine aren't that but still not near silent. So how can
you get quiet nowadays with all the heat issues?

 

[Anon]

[...]

built my PC about 3 years ago and I will not be recycling much from it
since I want QUIET performance in my next box.

I'm in about the same boat as you, specs on my system virtually identical to
yours, and was wondering what your plans are for the quiet aspect here.
Quiet is a huge dissatisfaction I have with all my computers, though most
people consider my machines quiet and I've seen other's machines that are
RIDICULOUSLY noisy. Mine aren't that but still not near silent. So how can
you get quiet nowadays with all the heat issues?

I'm gonna have to add this to my sig file. Slightly edited, but copied
and pasted from an earlier thread on google:

If you want to upgrade your system to make it silent, you simply need
to choose the right components for it.
1) Power supply . . . I'd recommend just about anything Seasonic brand.
This is important as the fan(s) in the power supply can easily drown out the
noise from all other components, if you choose the wrong power supply.
2) CPU cooler . . . look for Speeze "Whisperrock II" or similar, make sure
it is rated at LOWER than 30dBA.
3) Video Card . . . look for a mid-range video card that is PASSIVELY
COOLED, such as Sapphire Radeon 9600 XT ultimate, which uses a heat pipe
with an oversized heatsink, but no fan. If you can't live with the mediocre
selection, try to at least find a video card that can be modified to accept
a passive cooler by Zalman or another good brand.
4) Motherboard . . . it's OK to have a heatsink on the chipset, but choose
a motherboard with NO cooling fan on the chipset
5) It's a good idea to use at least one case fan to draw in cool air near
the bottom of the front panel, or through an opening in the side of the
case. But look for an 80mm case fan that is low noise and adjustable or
thermally controlled. Enermax makes one that is rated for 18 -29 dBA and
thermal controlled. There are many others, but watch the ratings and try to
stay below 2700RPM and below 30dBA.

If you follow the above, you will end up with a system that is nearly silent
without resorting to water cooling. Note that this is not theoretical, I
built a nearly silent XP 2500 system for my wife following my own advice,
based on plenty of research. -Dave

 

[eljay]

That's a good summary Dave and it's exactly what I'm going after. I
already have specific components in mind, but when I will build, I'll
look around to see what's available.
So far, I'm looking at:

Antec Sonata case (maybe with front temp-sensitive fan, I'll see if
that's a must)
Athlon64 3000+ w/ ThermalTake SilentBoost HSF
a mobo without a chipset fan
Seagate Cudas for quiet HDD
no floppy disk drive
a single combo CD writer/DVD drive
ATI Radeon 9600XT (I didn't know there's a passive cooling version,
thanks)

I don't plan to do any overclocking etc.