On Sat, 13 Nov 2004 21:51:20 -0600, Joe wrote:

I remember when AMD switched from rating processors by megahertz to there
current method the idea was the rating would be based on I think the 1000
MHZ Athlon. For example if you bought an Athlon 2400 even though it was not
2400 MHZ you could expect it to perform 2.4 times as fast as the 1000 MGHZ
Athlon. If this is correct would an Athlon XP Barton 2800 perform any
differently than an Athlon 64 Newcastle 2800. I just want some way to make
an intelligent buying decision. When I look at NewEgg where I buy all my
parts you can get in retail box;

A Sempron 2800 @ 2GHZ for $109
A Athlon64 2800 @ 1.8GHZ for $130
A XP Barton 2800 @ 2.08GHZ for $152

Based on my computer knowledge I would think the Athlon 64 would be the
fastest of the three so buy it.
Based on what I remember AMD saying when they went to this rating system as
apposed to MHZ naming they should all perform the same so buy the sempron
it's the cheapest.
Based the idea you get more when you spend more buy the Barton it should be
the fastest of the bunch.

Then you get into Socket choice. Time was everything 1200 to 3000 was socket
A. This allowed a cheap build with major upgrade capabilities. Now There is
Socket A, 754,939 and 940. Now the 754's are best priced but I think I heard
AMD was moving everything to 939. I do not want to buy a 754 if its lifespan
is only going to be 2800-3600. I somewhat feel like I got burnt on my first
AMD purchase ever as I bought a 650 SLOT A and Slot A was dead a few hundred
MHZ later.

I am thinking about going ahead and spending $210 and buying an Athlon 64
Winchester core 939 as I want the most bang for my buck but also do not want
to tie my hands on upgrade options.

Am I completely lost? If I am can you straighten me out?

Joe

A 939 pin Athlon 64 is the best choice today unless your decision is
totally based on price. The 939 and 940 pin A64s have four DIMM
sockets on their motherboards, the 754 pin A64s can only handle two DIMMs
at 400MHz or three at 333MHz. The larger memory system is reason enough to
pick a 939 pin A64 over a 754 pin part. Even if you never upgrade anything
else over the life of the system the one thing you are likely to do is to
add memory at some point. Having four sockets instead of two means that
you can add DIMMs in the future without having to throw away the DIMMs you
already have. As for XP systems, you don't even want to think about buying
one of those. Not only is the Athlon XP processor obsolete but so are the
chipsets and motherboards that go with it. What you want is an 939
pin Athlon 64 and an Nvidia Nforce 3-250GB or Ultra chipset. There are
also NForce 4 boards starting to come out but I'd wait on those for
several months until the bugs are out.