Is it a Good Time to Get an Athlon64?

City_Idiot asks: "I'm looking to upgrade my current P4 2.4Ghz and i'm giving serious thought to a Athlon64 3200+. The tests look good, and it gives a 3Ghz P4 a good run for its money but is the technology ready for end users?"

Comments

run ordinary 32 bit linux on it for now?

[anon mouse-cow-aard]

Yesterday's posting described issues with current
AMD 64-bit linux distros. Can one just use
a 32 bit one for now, and wait a while for the
64 bit ones to mature?

If not, it doesn't sound reasonable (as in, what?!!?
Getting X to work is a challenge?)

Re:run ordinary 32 bit linux on it for now?

[Tuxinatorium]

Of course. The athlon64 is backwards compatible with all 32 bit x86 instruction sets. In short, anything that can be run on an athlonXP can be run faster on an athlon64 without so much as a recompile. It still supports MMX, SSE, SSE2, 3dnow!... Unlike itanium it actually performs very well on 32 bit applications, in fact better than any other processor currently in existance, including the G5.

Re:OS

[mOoZik]

I have successfully installed and run a 64 bit version of Windows XP with no problems. To be uninformed is one thing, but to pass your disgust for Microsoft as fact is another.

Athlon64 3000+

[Laven]

Take a look at the newly released Athlon64 3000+ processor which is compatible with the same socket as Athlon64 3200+. Both chips are 2.0GHz, but the 3000+ has 512KB L2 cache instead of 1024KB L2. The price is around around $220 vs $420, which is a significant difference.

I personally bought the 3200+ two months ago, but I totally would have been happy with the 3000+.

Also check out Fedora Core 1 preview release of AMD64. Official test1 release should be coming soon because they fixed the last blocker bug in pango.

What most people forget is...

[eWarz]

What most people forget is, REGARDLESS of the 64 capabilities of the chip, the athlon64 is HANDS DOWN the FASTEST consumer processor money can buy. While i'd question you upgrading a p2 2.4 ghz, if you are just determined to have the fastest chip money can buy then the athlon64 is it. (get the FX51 if that's the case). However, if you are a gamer looking for more speed, upgrading your graphics card would do alot more, as a 2.4 ghz p4 is more then fast enough to handle today's games.

Beware of the Slot1/A Syndrome.

[driftwood]

Here is a quick summary of the AMD64 line. It comes directly from an AMD Engineer working on the AMD64 projects. His recommendation was to wait for the 2nd generation motherboard chipsets sporting the 939-pin sockets.

Current parts
The processor cores for Athlon64/AthlonFX/Opteron are currently all the same.

• Opteron
  940-pin Socket
  Dual channel DDR registered/ECC required.
  84X series are 1/2/4/8 way system certified.
  24X series are 1/2 way system certified.
  14X series are 1 way system certified ( same as AthlonFX51).

• Athlon FX
  940-pin Socket
  The FX is simply a relabeled Opteron chip. This chip has pinout for dual channel DDR (needs to be registered/ECC and I believe buffered, yuck)

• Athlon64
  754-pin Socket
  Opteron 14X but with single channel DDR Athlon64 comes in the 754 pin package now but only supports single channel DDR but can use unbuffered standard DDR.

Future parts
939 package Athlon64/FX is a new pinout to support dual channel unbuffered DDR, allows for 4 layer PCB motherboards (cheaper to make boards) and a faster HyperTransport external link.

• Drill Hammer
  512kB cache instead of the 1MB on current products. Packaging should be same as other chips (754/939).

• Claw Hammer
  256kB cache instead of the 1MB on current products. Packaging should be same as other chips (754/939).