Re: ASUS MOBO upgrade recommendations

In article <1136836129.257705.101080@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
rgraham1@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

> I have 3 ASUS A7N8X Deluxe Systems with AMD CPUs and have found the
> systems to be fairly stable and would like to keep my upgrade path of
> AMD / ASUS. My desire is to reuse as many components as is reasonably
> possible from the systems. So the more options I leave available, the
> better...
>
> Could I get your suggestions on what ASUS AMD MoBo would you recommend?
>
>
> What AMD Processor for the above would be a good tradeoff between
> horsepower and cost?
>
> Do you feel that the 64 Bit CPUs are a good value at this point in
> time?
>
> If so, what memory configurations would you recommend for the above?
>
> The applications for the systems include: Windows Media Center and
> general business applications and consumer use. I don't expect any
> will be used as Gaming machines.
>
> thanks,
>
> Ron

>From your old system, you might be trying to preserve the AGP
video card and the DDR RAM.

The newer processors come in S754 and S939 variants. The core
on the processors is very similar, with the S754 having a single
channel memory interface, and the S939 having a dual channel
interface. The S754 may have three memory slots, of which
2x512 or 2x1024MB DDR memory might be convenient. Filling all
three slots means setting the memory clock quite low (due to bus
loading), so two DIMMs would be a reasonable limit.

The S939 has four DDR DIMM slots, which leaves some room for
adding memory. There is still some loading effect, but
usually you can run DDR400 Command Rate 2T with the four
sticks.

In terms of processor performance, S754 actually holds up
well when compared to S939, and the only real limit is that
imposed by marketing decisions. People who have gamed with
S754 boards seem to be happy with them.

The S754 boards are kind of dead end, in that you would not
expect a pile of more powerful processors for the socket.
S939 now has single and dual core processors as options.
(Socket M2 might be out in a few days, which is a brand
new processor, using DDR2 memory instead of DDR. You will
get to preserve less of your previous hardware by using
that, as more of the motherboards will be PCI Express.)
So you might start your search, by reviewing prices for
S754 and S939 processors on a site like Newegg, to get
some idea of whether your budget dictates S754 or allows
S939.

Boards with K8T800 from Via should be OK. The chipset
doesn't drive memory, as the memory controller is now
inside the processor. The chipset still drives the video
card slot, and the K8T800 appears to work OK on the
AGP end.

If you are looking at an Nforce3 board, and you have a
6800 video card, you may want to do some searching around
either on private forums or in Google. I vaguely remember
there was some kind of stuttering problem in games, with
one of the 6800 cards and Nforce3, which didn't get
fixed by Nvidia.

http://groups.google.ca/group/alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus/browse_frm/thread/424dccdcb057893f/9b38a82d15c3a370

You can go through the list here, and find boards with
Nvidia, Via, SIS, ULI, and ATI chipsets. There might not
be too many Nvidia boards that can help you, as you need an
AGP slot.

http://usa.asus.com/products2.aspx?l1=3&l2=-1

I guess my first question for you, is what you are hoping
to achieve with the upgrade. If the computers in question
were performing a lengthy computation, a faster processor
will shorten the execution time for the computation (whether
it is transcoding a video or doing a Photoshop operation).
If you went from a AthlonXP 3200+ S462 processor to a
3500+ level processor from the new ones, chances are you
might not notice too much difference at the desktop level.
(Scroll throttles in the OS help to prevent more powerful
processor from making the interface unusably faster.)
If you were using Athlon 1200's before, then surfing might
feel a bit snappier with one of the new processors.

Plug the motherboard model name in here, to find out which
processors are supported:

http://support.asus.com.tw/cpusupport/cpusupport.aspx?SLanguage=en-us

There are currently 92 models of processor listed on this
site, and you can see what processor core clock is used
with a given model of processor:

http://www.amdcompare.com/us-en/desktop/

A dual core 3800+ is the cheapest dual core made, and
will definitely feel different than what you are currently
using. It is socket 939. This is AMD's answer to hyperthreading.
That would give you a smoother desktop experience, as the
desktop will still be fluid when there is a lengthy
computation going on with one of the two cores on the
processor. An A8V Deluxe can run a dual core processor, and
gives you the AGP slot. There are plenty of comments here
about setup issues, which OS is best, and so on - the system
should be prepped by someone knowledgeable before being
"sprung" on an end user :-)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/CustRatingReview.asp?Item=N82E16819103562

HTH,
Paul
.

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