What's in your...[computer configuration talk]

[dwchang]

HT has definately made a positive impact. Just using Windows is a lot smoother than before, and it's not smoother in the sense that it's just a raw speed increase. I'm starting to see what they mean when they said "cinematic computing" but using Windows, that's a bit farfetched isn't it?!

When your northbridge is running that fast, of course you'll see a difference .

If you plan on dual opterons Pwolf, do a bit of research, I originally wanted to, but it requires "special" registered RAM, which differs from the standard DDR RAM and as expected costs more.

Yes, you need registered memory. It's more expensive, but not by *that* much. I have registered on my dual-Athlon and it's not an Opteron.

As for Athlon 64's and their sockets, I might as well point a few things out that confused me at first.

Athlon 64's come in 754 and 939 pins
Athlon FX's come in 939 and 940 pins
Opteron's come in 940 pins only.

Correct.

The 754 pin Athlon 64's are single channel DDR with a 1MB L2 cache (Clawhammer core)
With the exception of the Newcastle core which is 512KB and clocked higher, I guess this might intrude on would be overclockers. I think this is an attempt at cutting production costs, seems like a step backwards to me

Sort of correct. The main problem I've seen with most people (and sites like newegg) is that they call all 754's "Clawhammer core." This is incorrect. The core (claw/drill/sledge) is based on the cache size, *not* the package used (754/939/940).

It seems that most sites/people regard the name based on the package type, but that's incorrect. A Sledge 754 and a Sledge 939 are effectively the same die with the same cache size and thus both sledge...not claw and drill per se.

Also there is an Athlon-64 with 256k of L2 and that's the appropriate die for "Clawhammer."

The 939 pin Athlon 64's are dual channel DDR with a 512KB L2 cache
(Clawhammer core?)

Could be Drill or Sledge. Depends on the cache-size.

The 939 pin Athlon FX are dual channel DDR with a 1MB L2 cache
(Sledgehammer core)

Yes.

The 940 pin Opteron are dual channel(?) DDR with a 1MB L2 cache
(Claw/Sledgehammer core?)
I don't know a great deal about these, but from what I know and what I'd expect, I'm guessing these are "modded Athlon FX's", similar difference between the Athlon XP and Athlon MP, perhaps dwchang can clarify? Again these require that expensive registered DDR RAM, and obviously a dual processor or greater board (which I had a hell of a time locating)

Sledge and yes, effectively an Opteron ~ FX (similarly priced if you look carefully) except for a few modifications to run in MP and such. This, I imagine, is a marketing tactic to target certain segments (i.e. servers).

There are probably minor errors, but I hear dwchang is "in the know" So feel free to correct me

Define "in the know." If you mean I work there then yeah you're right . Yeah some minor errors, but nothing different from what sites and people seem to think. I actually find it humorous since I recall arguing with trythil about what core he was buying...I freakin' work there and have hundreds in my cube dude .

In any case, my advice Pwolf is to wait for the 939's to come down in price and then buy them. We've publically announced that we won't be producing any more 754's after 2005. Obviously they will still work, but in terms of upgradeability, it would be prudent to buy a 939 so you can still use the same motherboard and such later down the line...assuming you keep the MB and so on.

[Voices_Of_Ryan]

I say Dwchang should bring amd's to every convention showing us how godlike they are... then give away one at every convention =O *rigs contest*.

[SnhKnives]

I say Dwchang should bring amd's to every convention showing us how godlike they are... then give away one at every convention =O *rigs contest*.

or just to the people who win

[Zero1]

Define "in the know." If you mean I work there then yeah you're right

Yeah, that's what I meant I've heard about you, can't remember where from, think it may have been Pwolf. I was stressing a while back, just like Pwolf, "wanted to get a dual Athlon 64". Of course I now know better, but they was like ask DW.. he works for them!

Gotta say, although I don't particularly know much about computers, and I don't really keep my ear to the ground for specific information, I'm quite impressed what I said was fairly accurate; of course it can only be as accurate as what you read and learn.

Never heard of the Drill, that's a new one on me. Looks like AMD are going all D.I.Y. on our asses

I'm starting to wish I waited for a 939 now

Was surprised at a 256KB Clawhammer, I thought they 64 series kicked off at least 512KB. I assume it's one of the lower end CPU's, going toward 2800 and such?


Oh yeah, it's worth a try, but what's the tolerance of a ADA3400AEP5AP CAAOC? Heh, just kidding, I don't expect you to know, or answer that, (kind of rhetorical if you like ) but I assume all CPU's have some sort of "safe" overclocking margin like 5% or something? (Well, AMD wouldn't release CPU's that are operating "on the edge", there's got to be a safe margin, right?)


What can you tell us about the future... Is SSE3 on the horizon?

I say Dwchang should bring amd's to every convention showing us how godlike they are... then give away one at every convention =O *rigs contest*.

I wholeheartedly agree, I would have the motivation to get on a plane and attend the next convention


Cheers for clearing things up for me dwchang

[Kalium]

or just to the people who win

As things are right now, he would rapidly have a renderfarm going.

[Voices_Of_Ryan]

or just to the people who win

As things are right now, he would rapidly have a renderfarm going.

LMAO.

It was a joke Knives. Besides. Maybe it would convince more of us that AMD is the right chip for our needs .

[Zero1]

Righty

I've had a chance to play around with my new system (runs fine with only 2 DIMMs, tried all combinations and it's not a compatability problem with the modules, so it looks like it's an issue with the Athlon64 memory controller, or the motherboard)

If you were wondering this is air cooled, not a bad overclock I reckon





I wish I could push it that little bit higher, at the moment it runs 4000+ speeds (if the current Athlon 64 line went that high) Wanted to go for 4200, which would equate to around 2717MHz. Sadly for me, it seems to upset things if I set the FSB higher than 236.

Just got to re-install Windows now (I did a quick clean install on a spare harddrive and it didn't say I've used all my registration chances! Must have been my computer acting stupid back then and corrupting the registry or something.

Well let's see how things go, dwchang, what do you think about me not being able to run 3x512MB DIMMs (Double sided it seems)

The board manual specifies that at maximum you can use 1 Double sided DIMM and one Single sided DIMM together, but obviously I'm running 2 Double sided DIMMs with no stability issues.

Strange eh?

[Beowulf]

Jesus I wish my penis was that big.