AM2 based systems ?

[mitchellds]

Greetings all,

Has anyone put together any AM2 based systems? If so what MB's and cpu's, and what kinda OC abilities have been discovered. I see that high end cpu's for the AM2 based line of CPU's are cheaper than the corresponding lines of 939 based cpu's now. Obviously AMD want to push this line and phase out the 939's. Pricewatch reports a am2 x2 5000 going for around $314, and a 939 based 4800 cpu going for $360. I dont really see a massive reason to go AM2 yet. Anybody else want to share their thoughts on this?

[Brucifer]

I'm where you are on this. The way I see it is that this rapid changing of M/B's and cpu designs isn't too cool...... right away it trashes the argument for buying something saying that it has an upgrade path.... there isn't any upgrade path other than buying a new m/b and cpu. 939's work just fine for me too. I haven't bought any of the AM2's, cause I'm just gonna wait now until the next gen of multi-core units hit the street. I think they are inadvertently shooting themselves in the foot here.

[Nflight]

Ditto Brucifier, I too am going to hold off till next fall when the big changes will take place. Unless your starving for an upgrade a postponement is my suggestion. The improvement of the AM2 over the 939 is far less worth the $$$ I need at this moment. I also have seen the direction I may want to go change to the 1207 pin chip which as I understand is not the AM2 chip. We will see!!!

[gatekeeper53]

I'm with you guys. I've bought 5 motherboards in the last year (all 939's) and see no reason to rush off the fence to upgrade. AM2's are a large chunk of money to get into as far a having to have new everything. All the parts I have now can at some level intermingle. With AM2 I would have to invest in a butt load of new mem that may or may not be useful a year or two from now. I can drop duallies into the 939's and be pretty happy for a couple of years.

[Steve Lux]

I started building an AM2 5200+ system, but the 600 watt power supply was DOA. The replacement should be arrive on Tuesday. Now, I'm no OC expert, but the plan for this system was to test the ATI GPU with FAH. I figure when the time comes I could get some OC advice from the rest of you.

[Ototero]

I've just upgraded my 754 pin 3000+ 64 to an AM2 4200+ (a completely new box actually). At stock running 100% cpu it's 48.5C. I think that is reasonably cool.

[gatekeeper53]

I started building an AM2 5200+ system, but the 600 watt power supply was DOA. The replacement should be arrive on Tuesday. Now, I'm no OC expert, but the plan for this system was to test the ATI GPU with FAH. I figure when the time comes I could get some OC advice from the rest of you.

Steve,
From what I have read that thing is an OC monster. You should have a lot of fun with it.

[Big Whiskey]

the computer store where I shop has dropped it's A64 939 chip sales all together if you want an A64 it's AM2

the reason AMD is pushing AM2 is because it will be more Vista friendly.

My AM2 A64 4200+ is on it's second built

first build

Asus M2NPV-VM with 6150 Geforce graphics
1 Gig-Muskin XP2 PC5300 Extreme Black Series 1.9v 5-5-5-15
stock heatsink
and cheap case with 500 watt PSU( 4-80mm fans,2 in, 2 out, and NB would run hotter then the CPU)

Board was a POS(nforce 430 chipset buggy and only two DRAM voltages 1.8v and 1.9v)
Memory was weak
and poor air flow in the cheap case caused to run hotter then it should

best OC was 10% by raising FSB to 220 then it would fail after that

Second build

Used a case I had with better air flow(1-80mm in and 1-120mm out)
Asus M2R32-MVP Crossfire(ATI 3200 Express)
1 Gig-Crucial Ballistix PC-6400 2.2v 4-4-4-12
OCZ 600W GameXStream Power Supply w/ Quad +12V
Zalman CNPS9500 CPU Cooler
Two Sapphire X1900XT 512Meg cards (can enable Crossfire mode with Cat 6.11)
Sapphire Theatrix 550 Pro tuner card

I can OC up 2.550 before it fail, probably can go further but I have an unwillingness to crank up the voltages

FSB-230, mem-400, HTT-5x, CPU-11x-> 2.529GHz, HTT-1150, mem spd-421
FSB-277, mem-333, HTT-4x, CPU- 9x-> 2.493GHz, HTT-1108, mem spd-415
these two have given me my lowest SuperPi scores

runs multi-GPU Client and a console client all at once
CPU Temp 50C OC'ed to 2.42GHz and GPU card at 74C stock speeds
Time for water I's thinks (or throw it in a snow bank outside)

Since missed the boat on 939's, I have a preference for the AM2's

Cheers
Big Whiskey

[gatekeeper53]

Big,
I think you have summed it up, if I were starting out to build new or replace the bulk of my hardware I would go to Am2, Since I have mosty fairly new equip I need to stay within what I have. I have a window of at least a year before I need to think about a major upgrade and even then if I can bandage most of what I have I intend to do so. But, at that time I will have a better idea of the direction that I wish to go in the upgrades. Should anything leap out and scream at me that I just have to have it before then I will have to look at the AM2 and evaluate the cost then. I wanted another 4800+ when I built this one and the second one I had on order showed up with bent pins and I returned it. Since then Newegg hasn't had one for me to buy. Also since then I have decided that I wou;dn't have one. This one just runs to hot! I have a typhoon II on it and I still have to keep it from running as fast as I would like due to heat. I can run at 2.76 but on what I am running there is just no reason. On most other projects I will run at 2.7+ and it is steady as a rock. At 2.85 it starts to get flakey after a couple of hours.

[Big Whiskey]

Need another reason to buy AM2, this was post on the Inquirer today
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=36305

AMD quietly adds faster Athlons, renames chipsets

Athlons 5400+, 5600+ arrive, 5800+ and 6000+ still to come

By Theo Valich: Tuesday 12 December 2006, 12:17


AMD TODAY SILENTLY added two new processors to its price list and officially rebranded former ATI chipsets, as was leaked over a month ago. This is in preparation for its Analyst Day, which is going to be held in just a few days.


The new CPUs come in 5400+ and 5600+ variants, but the clock speed for both is the same: 2.8GHz. The difference is the amount of L2 cache per core. While the 5400+ comes with X2-typical 512KB per core (total: 1MB), the 5600+ comes with 1MB of L2 cache per core (total: 2MB) giving it equal specs to top-of-the-line AM2 CPU, the Athlon 64 FX-62 and the newly introduced FX-72 (the one using Socket 1207FX).
The price of 5400+ and 5600+ (in 1000s) is $485 and $505 US respectively, filling a handy the gap between 5200+ (currently $403) and the pricey FX-62 ($713).

We were unable to confirm whether these are 65nm or 90nm CPUs at press time, but you could bet that they are top-of-the-line 90nm SOI. The second generation of 65nm will come in Q1'07 and then all the wonders of AMD's latest transistor generation will become standard in 65nm production as well.

Chipset-wise, the company has now officially renamed the Radeon Xpress 1600 and 3200 into 480X CrossFire and 580X CrossFire, and added the products on the Once-Red-Now-Green ATI homepage, featuring the renamed line-up.

AMD also wants to speed up the introduction of its new CPUs. The 5400+ and 5600+ won't be top of the line X2 CPUs for long, since AMD is also readying the 5800+ and 6000+.

Unlike the silent launch of the 5400+/5600+, the launch of 5800+ and 6000+ should feature reviews of the products as well. The Athlon 64 X2 5800+ will work at 3GHz with 512KB of L2 cache per core, while the 6000+ will be Socket AM2 version of the FX-74: 3.0GHz clock and 1MB L2 cache per core. We haven't heard the last of 2006. Yet. µ



An Anthlon(6000+) that's stock 3.0GHz, overclock that baby