939 Vs. AM2?

[chibi_man]

Been attempting to find a satisfying conclusion to what processor socket size is worth spending the money over at this time.

I've seen a lot of reviews suggesting that AM2 is great only most hardware is not ready for it. Others say 939 is just slightly under AM2, so they suggest it's not worth switching since you can achieve near the same performance.

Fill in the blanks please

btw.
I have the Asrock 939Dual-SATA2 board and I am debating on getting the AM2CPU.
I figure since the AM2CPU upgrade is only $40, and an AMD Opteron for AM2 is near and around the same price range as 939... why not upgrade. on a plus side I can then move up to DDR2 ram.

[Mars]

What processor do you have now, and what AM2 processor were you looking at upgrading to?

[Supergrover]

Personally I wouldnt go 939 there is no upgrade path for it so when/if you wanted to upgrade say the cpu or RAM there is going to be slim pickings, plus ddr1 is still higher priced than it's ddr2 conterparts. Any ddr2 that you purchase now will still be usable in both AM2 or in a Intel.
I other words if you go 939/ddr1 then there is no chance of reuseing the RAM in another system.
939 was a great socket plenty of fun and the Opty's were some hot clockers.
What CPU are you interested in?

BTW I think BALISTX still has my old Opty 144 and isnt useing it, might want to PM him if you are interested save you some cash, it would do 2.7 on stock Air. I like to think it would have hit 2.9 with some decient cooling. But it's single core.

[chibi_man]

I'm going to be getting an Opty. I would like to see what benefits would come out of AM2 and DDR2

[magictorch]

Yes there is no upgrade path for 939.
But a Oc'd 939x2 opteron still manages things applications very well with good RAM and MB.
Im not sure that you would see much difference in 3d games between an AM2 processor/DDR2 and a equally clocked opteron with good DDR500 and a fast MB...especially with an 8800series.
Why dont you just go for the core2's anyway if your considering a platform change to DDR2? If not just get the 939 opteron as long as you have performance RAM and MB to keep things ticking till your ready for a major platform upgrade.

[ebdoradz]

AM2 socket was a few % faster in some task then the 939 socket,if you have some DDR1 ram then you might consider a 939 system,otherwise go for socket Am2

i could give you a link of the diy-street forums where a comparaison betwen the AM2 and 939 have been made

[DerekOldschool]

Originally Posted by chibi_man

I'm going to be getting an Opty. I would like to see what benefits would come out of AM2 and DDR2

no doubt that choosing the cpu that uses ddr2 ram (AM2) would be the logical choice since ddr mem is not used in more recent motherboards.

However, it depends what your current system is - besides the mobo

what are your other system specs? ( A good sig is worth a 1000 words...lol)

[Amon]

If you're looking into one-way Opteron chips, 939 is perfectly fine for that as they will be cheaper and easier to find. I'm not familiar with one-way chips for AM2--I believe they remained on 940.

[chibi_man]

Yea, I have been reading something similar. From what I have found there is more benefits for me if I keep the 939 with opty. In the future AM2 would be the choice but right now it does not seem to be.