Athlon 64 3500+ vs. Athlon 64 X2 3600+

My dad is using my old CPU, which is a single-core 3500+. He likes having
numerous anti-spyware, anti-virus and other utilities running, despite my
repeated warnings about them slowing the machine up.

My question, therefore, is will the dual-core 3600+ X2 2GHz processor show
an improvement over the single-core 3500+ 2.2GHz processor? He's running XP
SP2 32-bit. And does anyone know of any places other than eBay, that have
any higher specced 939 X2s available new?

Cheers

JW

"John Whitworth" wrote in message
...
And does anyone know of any places other than eBay, that have any higher
specced 939 X2s available new?

Preferably in the UK.

John Whitworth wrote:
My dad is using my old CPU, which is a single-core 3500+. He likes
having numerous anti-spyware, anti-virus and other utilities running,
despite my repeated warnings about them slowing the machine up.

My question, therefore, is will the dual-core 3600+ X2 2GHz processor
show an improvement over the single-core 3500+ 2.2GHz processor? He's
running XP SP2 32-bit. And does anyone know of any places other than
eBay, that have any higher specced 939 X2s available new?

Cheers

JW

As an example, Newegg still has Opteron 180 dual core, which is S939.
They don't have any desktop dual cores for S939 for sale. All the
S939 stopped production some time ago, so if product is left, it
may exist in isolated parts of the world.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103582

Support for Opteron dual core S939, in a desktop board, is not always the
best. Some motherboard manufacturers make no mention of whether they
work or not. Which makes using one, a potential gamble. (I.e. You
google to see if someone tried it with the particular motherboard.)

This is an example of regular S939 dual cores.

http://products.amd.com/en-us/Deskto...f8=&f9=200 0&

X2 Dual-Core 4800+ 2400 110 W
X2 Dual-Core 4600+ 2400 110 W
X2 Dual-Core 4600+ 2400 110 W
X2 Dual-Core 4400+ 2200 110 W
X2 Dual-Core 4400+ 2200 89 W
X2 Dual-Core 4200+ 2200 89 W
X2 Dual-Core 4200+ 2200 89 W
X2 Dual-Core 3800+ 2000 89 W
X2 Dual-Core 3800+ 2000 89 W

I think the FX-60 is also a dual core, out of the list here.
The rest of the FX S939, are singles.

http://products.amd.com/en-us/Deskto...=&f8=&f9=2000&

In the list here, the FX-60 shows "2 x 1024 KiB", which means it is
a dual. It runs at 2.6GHz. It is the next step above a 4800+.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...icroprocessors

There is no reason for most retailers to carry stock of S939.

If you want an upgrade, and to be able to buy it from a retail
outlet, chances are you'll be moving to AM2 or AM2+. The
Phenom B3 stepping will be out soon, and you could even move
to a triple or quad core with those. But that will be a
"forklift upgrade" for you, and means new motherboard and RAM
and maybe even a new video card.

Paul

"Paul" wrote in message ...
John Whitworth wrote:
My dad is using my old CPU, which is a single-core 3500+. He likes having
numerous anti-spyware, anti-virus and other utilities running, despite my
repeated warnings about them slowing the machine up.

My question, therefore, is will the dual-core 3600+ X2 2GHz processor
show an improvement over the single-core 3500+ 2.2GHz processor? He's
running XP SP2 32-bit. And does anyone know of any places other than
eBay, that have any higher specced 939 X2s available new?

What mainboard does your father use? If a proprietary system which model is
it? As the other poster mentioned, if the m/b will support it, an Opteron is
the best choice. (lower voltage, run coolers due to this, has double the L2
cache (2x1Mb) I've found eBay is by far the best place to go shopping for
one of these. I've bought two new OEM S939 Opterons over the last 6 months
off eBay (a 180 and a 185) and run them in on Asus A8N platforms which
support them with a BIOS update. Performance increase was dramatic. They
both overlclock to 2.9-3.0 Ghz pushing the voltage to stock X2 spec. There
was a dramatic increase in speed over my original A64 San Diego 4000+ ( 1Mb
L2) which was no slouch.

On Sun, 24 Feb 2008 09:58:50 +0000, John Whitworth wrote:

My dad is using my old CPU, which is a single-core 3500+. He likes
having numerous anti-spyware, anti-virus and other utilities running,
despite my repeated warnings about them slowing the machine up.

My question, therefore, is will the dual-core 3600+ X2 2GHz processor
show an improvement over the single-core 3500+ 2.2GHz processor? He's
running XP SP2 32-bit. And does anyone know of any places other than
eBay, that have any higher specced 939 X2s available new?

Cheers

JW

Going from a single core 3500+ to an X2 3600+ isn't worth it. An Opteron
is a better choice. However before you do that you'll need to see if
there is a BIOS update for the motherboard, there is a very good chance
that the BIOS on an old 3500+ system won't support a dual core. There can
be other issues. I upgraded a 3800+ system to an Opteron 180. The system
wasn't stable with 4G in it, I had to reduce it to 2G. The problem wasn't
the RAMs, I thoroughly tested them on another system plus the system
worked fine with these DIMMs when it had the 3800+ in it. It was the
combination of the Opteron 180 with 4 double sided DIMMs that this
motherboard couldn't handle. There was also an issue with the ondemand
CPU speed governor causing the system to crash, with the User Mode speed
governor everything is fine. The problem is that the motherboard is old
enough that the latest BIOS doesn't do a proper job of handling speed
changes. I'm using Linux so I have precise control over things like speed
governors, you don't have the same level of control with XP so if there
is a problem you won't be able to do anything about it.

Bottom line is that it's probably more trouble than it's worth to upgrade
a 939 system. If you want to do an upgrade you should replace the
motherboard and CPU and move to Intel.

"John Whitworth" wrote in message
...
My dad is using my old CPU, which is a single-core 3500+. He likes having
numerous anti-spyware, anti-virus and other utilities running, despite my
repeated warnings about them slowing the machine up.

My question, therefore, is will the dual-core 3600+ X2 2GHz processor show
an improvement over the single-core 3500+ 2.2GHz processor? He's running
XP SP2 32-bit. And does anyone know of any places other than eBay, that
have any higher specced 939 X2s available new?

Cheers

JW

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...atid=6&subcat=

£35.24 including VAT. They are an excellent online vendor in the UK.

Oh, In answer to your question on whether it will run faster, though I don't
have an AMD dual-core, if they're anything like even the bottom-end Intel
chips, yes - multiple apps will run much, much more smoothly, if the
mainboard will work with a dual core CPU.

Dr.White.

"Augustus" wrote in message
news:YOgwj.42518$w57.2787@edtnps90...

"Paul" wrote in message ...
John Whitworth wrote:
My dad is using my old CPU, which is a single-core 3500+. He likes
having numerous anti-spyware, anti-virus and other utilities running,
despite my repeated warnings about them slowing the machine up.

My question, therefore, is will the dual-core 3600+ X2 2GHz processor
show an improvement over the single-core 3500+ 2.2GHz processor? He's
running XP SP2 32-bit. And does anyone know of any places other than
eBay, that have any higher specced 939 X2s available new?

What mainboard does your father use? If a proprietary system which model
is it? As the other poster mentioned, if the m/b will support it, an
Opteron is the best choice. (lower voltage, run coolers due to this, has
double the L2 cache (2x1Mb) I've found eBay is by far the best place to
go shopping for one of these. I've bought two new OEM S939 Opterons over
the last 6 months off eBay (a 180 and a 185) and run them in on Asus A8N
platforms which support them with a BIOS update. Performance increase was
dramatic. They both overlclock to 2.9-3.0 Ghz pushing the voltage to stock
X2 spec. There was a dramatic increase in speed over my original A64 San
Diego 4000+ ( 1Mb L2) which was no slouch.

The 3500+ was originally in my old Asus A8V. But for some reason, when I
upgraded to my Core 2 Duo system, that A8V died. So we got him a budget
board replacement, an ECS KV2 Lite. I've just checked CPU support, and it
seems to support all S939 CPUs, but no mention of Opterons!

http://www.ecsusa.com/ECSWebSite/Sup...D=69&LanI D=8

He is retired, so we went for the low-cost upgrade (i.e. just replace mobo),
and that is ideally what is required again - hence the desire to remain on
S939 and just change the CPU.

Cheers

JW

"Paul" wrote in message ...

If you want an upgrade, and to be able to buy it from a retail
outlet, chances are you'll be moving to AM2 or AM2+. The
Phenom B3 stepping will be out soon, and you could even move
to a triple or quad core with those. But that will be a
"forklift upgrade" for you, and means new motherboard and RAM
and maybe even a new video card.

Thanks for that Paul. Much useful advice there. Really need to stick with
S939, for cost reasons.

Cheers

JW

"General Schvantzkopf" wrote in message
. ..
On Sun, 24 Feb 2008 09:58:50 +0000, John Whitworth wrote:

Bottom line is that it's probably more trouble than it's worth to upgrade
a 939 system. If you want to do an upgrade you should replace the
motherboard and CPU and move to Intel.

If money was not an issue, then I'd agree. In fact it's what I did when I
moved on from the A64 system that he has now. Just wanted to get around his
bottleneck of greedy Antivirus programs etc...and no, education hasn't
worked!! ;-)

JW

"Dr.White" wrote in message
...


http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...atid=6&subcat=

£35.24 including VAT. They are an excellent online vendor in the UK.

Oh, In answer to your question on whether it will run faster, though I
don't have an AMD dual-core, if they're anything like even the bottom-end
Intel chips, yes - multiple apps will run much, much more smoothly, if the
mainboard will work with a dual core CPU.

Thanks, I found that a little after I posted. Just not massively confident
that it will be worth it, and was eyeing up the 4200+ or 4400+ instead.

As I was browsing eBay, I came across this clown:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...MEWA:IT&ih=015

The "Just to let you know" comment was added after my Question to him, which
he has replied to and made public.



JW