[Gllug] It doesn't fit - cock-up on the motherboard format vector

Frank Scott fscott at frasco.demon.co.uk
Sat Apr 9 15:51:07 UTC 2005


On Sat, Apr 09, 2005 at 12:57:34PM +0100, John Winters wrote:
> I mentioned on this list that I was proposing to upgrade my existing
> power workstation (Duron-800) with a new motherboard and an Athlon 64.
> 
> 
> Anyway, plan B is now to build myself a new decent spec computer, rather
> than re-furbishing the old one.  I need a new case and PSU and I'm
> tempted to try a new Serial-ATA HDD.  Everything else I have sitting
> about.  Two questions.
> 
> Can anyone recommend a better-than-average case and PSU?  Quality of
> build, quietness, good appearance and ease of assembly are more
> important than price.

I have an aluminium Antec P160 case coupled with a Zalman psu. Very 
nice but expensive. Main criterion in selecting it, was that it is
fitted with 120mm rather than the normal 80mm fans. Large fans run very
much slower and therefore quiter to shift the same amount of air.

> 
> I have a number of IDE HDDs sitting about which I could use, but is it
> worth going to Serial-ATA since the board can handle four of these?  Are
> they significantly faster?  Again, quiet is good.

I have 3 SATA drives in my new m/c and 1 transferred old PATA drive of
the same manufacturer and speed. The SATA ones are a lot faster.

> 
> BTW, what's the difference between socket 754 and socket 939?  Athlon
> 64s seem to come in both types.  Why?

AMD 64 bit devices use a direct chanel from the chip to the memory (
copied from the late lamented DEC Alpha). 754 sockets have 1 such
chanel, 939 and Optereron 940 sockets have two. The improved memory 
transfer is one of the reasons why lower clockspeed AMD parts can keep
with the higher floating performance of the Intel 64 bit chips when
running large cpu intensive jobs. At one time AMD were shipping chips 
with the same performance number, but one had dual chanel memory and 
a 512KiB cache, the other with a single chanel and a 1MiB cache. So 
with 939 sockets, you will have to buy your memory sticks in pairs.

Frank


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