worth the extra money to go 939?

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dirty_dan

Weaksauce
Joined
Jul 8, 2004
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hi all. its time for me to build my new comp, and ive come to a dilemma. im trying to decide if i should go 939 or 754. keep in mind that i am on a pretty small budget and every penny counts. a local retailer has a sale going on and its time to purchase my motherboard.

proc will be a 3000+
the 2 motherboard choices are between the 754 DFI lanparty or the MSI NEO platinum in 939. the MSI board is a good 40 bucks more. i WILL be overclocking if that matters at all. ive seen alot of people say that going 939 is the smarter thing because 754 will be phased out eventually etc etc, but i dont see myself upgrading again for a long while so either way its going to be whatever mobo i choose and the 3000+. so what it all boils down to is that i really want you guys to give me some GOOD reasons why i should pass up 754 for 939 at THIS point in time. thanks.
 
Usually I would recommend a 754 but you say that you won't be upgrading for quite some time so 939 it is. You'll be able to pick up let's say an FX-55 processor down the road for much less than what you'd pay today. According to most roadmaps the 754 will not get any faster than the current 3700+ (2.4Ghz Clawhammer).

If you were planning an upgrade in 1-1.5 years or you're a yearly upgrader not trying to spend all of your tax return on your pc, then I would say save some money now and get 754. The current line of processors will still be strong performers for the next year.

The main difference is that it is not yet written in stone that the current 939 boards will support dual core A64's. It's also quite obvious that there are no motherboards OR processors that support DDR-2 which AMD has recently revised to be implemented in '06. You will have to have a DDR-2 enabled CPU and motherboard.

For me, I just picked up that 754 DFI you mentioned and a 3400+. I plan to do a full upgrade next year to PCI-E, DDR-2, and Dual Core so I figured that I should start saving now. :cool:
 
i guess i should elaborate on " a long time." it would probably be a good year until i upgrade again. i just want something that is going to handle all the newest games nicely for around a year or two. still so confused.
 
I just built a 754 amd 64 3200 +
back in the fall.
and its a fast pc.
it plays doom and half life 2 and all the games with out any trouble.
but if the 939 will only cost u like 200 or 300 dollars more go with the 939.
 
i know the 754 will run the games. im just trying to justify the extra money that the 939 rig is going to cost vs. the 754. which is the better motherboard? the lanparty or the platinum?
 
They are both great boards. It's not that simple. It never is.

I also assume you are talking about the K8N Neo2 Platinum. I hope you are. (You need to be if you're not)

S939 simply provides more options for the future.
 
mwarps said:
They are both great boards. It's not that simple. It never is.

I also assume you are talking about the K8N Neo2 Platinum. I hope you are. (You need to be if you're not)

S939 simply provides more options for the future.
Click to expand...
yes thats the board.
 
If you're a here and there upgrader (like me up to the point of major hardware changesit's just this and that) I'd say go 939; because the 754 looks like it's not going to go over 3700+ and 939 looks like it'll be pushed much higher before AMD's duel core is released for the desktop. S o if say in 6-8 months you wanna get a faster proc for cheap and not a nything else you can do that. Otherwise jus t go 754.
 
im in the same predicament, and have decided on the 754, here are my reasons

From what i have seen there is little performance increase between the two. I like yourself only upgrade once in a long while, im currently upgrading from my AXP 2000+. When i upgrade, i always get a new mobo to go with it, so in the future if i upgrade to a 939 or the current socket of the moment, i will be buying a new mobo with it. The only thing that even made me consider 939 is PCI express, as if i were to upgrade video cards that would be easier and cheaper.

The only excuse anyone has ever givin to me why i should go 939 is it is easier to upgrade when the current top of the lines get cheaper. That is not a factor in my decision, so i am going the 754 route.
 
Check out the Anandtech HL2 article released yesterday.
Pay attention to this page especially:
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2330&p=3

The 3400+ and 3700+ are socket 754. 3000+, 3200+, and 3500+ are the "low end" socket 939.

I wrote down the differences between my CPU and a 939 3500+ for each test. The 3500+ had the higher marks in all tests but see what the differences are.
2fps
3fps
2fps
1fps
3fps

Retail pricing from newegg
3400+ $223
3500+ $268

DFI Lanparty 754 $108
MSI NEO 2 Plat. 939 $148
 
Aku12 said:
The only excuse anyone has ever givin to me why i should go 939 is it is easier to upgrade when the current top of the lines get cheaper. That is not a factor in my decision, so i am going the 754 route.
Click to expand...
agreed. by the time you update your cpu, the gpu will also be out of date. in a years time, they will be primarily pci-e, which will require a new mobo, unless you get an insane expensive one now with a pci-e video card. probably out of the budget though.

my opinion: buy a decently spec'ed 754 system, when you want to upgrade it in a year or two, go for a 939 board.
 
damnitt they sold out of the LANparty board. looks like its back to the good old egg. :(
 
i just built a TIGHT budget machine (or rather upgraded the mobo/processor) for $250

i got the DFI lanparty s754 and a 2800+ ($225) and i got a new base for my waterblock to support A64 chips so that cost me $25.

it is a great overclocker for a 2800+ \/\/

running at about 1.62 vCore average (my powersupply is weak, that and my video card are next to be upgraded)

s754 isnt a bad choice. if i held out longer i could have gotten a s939 setup but that would mean i would be without a PC for 1-2 months
 
Pick up a cheap 939 board, epox 9nda3j or gigabyte knxpro (or something like that) with a 3000+. These together should cost you under $250 or there abouts and you won't have to use watercooling to reach 2.4 ghz. (btw I have the same system in my sig running at 2.4 ghz with 1.25 V's prime stable full load temp is 36.5-37 C haha). If you want to go socket 754, if the new sempron 3300+ comes out at a cheap price that would be the way to go. 2.4 ghz default clock means it will probably be a great OCer and I think it should be out sometime in the next couple weeks or so considering gateway and HP already sell computers with it.
 
If you look around there are just way too many 939 MSI Neo combos for it to be a bad choice. Tons of support, tweaks and long term upgradeability (better then most computer stuff these days).

MSI has fantastic support as a company and it looks like the 939 will have long legs for the future.

After searching all over, and already having a 754 I added the combo your looking at with the exception of I used a 3200. Much better memory bandwidth then my 754.

Nice combo, I think it will make you happy

Luck and enjoy
 
well if you plan to do small upgrades in the future then s939 is the way to go, but if you just want something to hold you off til next year then 754 wont be that bad.
 
wickedld9 said:
Check out the Anandtech HL2 article released yesterday.
Pay attention to this page especially:
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2330&p=3

Retail pricing from newegg
3400+ $223
3500+ $268

DFI Lanparty 754 $108
MSI NEO 2 Plat. 939 $148
Click to expand...

Saves you $80 bucks, with a negligible performance difference between the two. Given your budget, get a s754 and stick with it until dual-core s939, then upgrade. I had the same choice to make, and in my opinion s754 fits the bill for now.

-SEAL
 
Save 80 bucks now but how much more when you have to get a new mobo for S939?
 
i just purchased a gigabyte nforce4 sli motherboard, athlon 64 3000+, geforce 6600gt pci-e, 1 gb of corsair ddr400, and an xp-120 heatsink for just under $1000. in about a year, i'll be able to just pop in an fx-55 and geforce 6800 ultra pci-e and still be able to play all the newest games. then in another 0.5 to 1 year i can get another 6800 ultra pci-e and i'll still be jammin'.

in other words, i'd go with a socket 939 with sli right now.
 
Add 'em said:
Save 80 bucks now but how much more when you have to get a new mobo for S939?
Click to expand...

He'll be getting a new mobo anyway, even if he goes with s939, because current s939 mobos can't take DDR2, which enters the AMD picture next year with dual-core CPU's. He'll want the new features coming out between now and then too, such as NCQ support, SATA-II, faster HTT bus, etc. PCIe might actually be worth something by then - it isn't now. Given that
dirty_dan said:
I am on a pretty small budget and every penny counts...I dont see myself upgrading again for a long while...
Click to expand...
He shouldn't count on any of the current s939 motherboards being what he wants when he upgrades after this. Then it's just a matter of current price for performance, where s754 wins.

cowgod said:
iIn about a year, i'll be able to just pop in an fx-55 and geforce 6800 ultra pci-e and still be able to play all the newest games.
Click to expand...

In another year those will still be expensive. The 6800U PCI-E costs what right now? ~$600. Do you think the 6800U will drop to less than $400 in a year? Probably not... so that still has you spending $1,000 just on video cards. And have you checked the You think the FX-55 will be cheap in a year? It costs $850 right now, and if the FX-53 is a good example of how the FX-series prices fall it won't get below $700 in a year. From the sound of things, Dan doesn't want to spend $1700 like that. Let's not forget that your s939 SLI board cost you $200, which is $125 more than a good s754 nForce3 250 board like this one.

-SEAL
 
I really appreciate ALL the imput that you guys have put into this thread. Im pretty sure that im going to go 754 for now. If im not happy with it then i guess 939 will be the way for me. But as of right now, LANparty here i come. :)
 
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