Life of Socket A and 478?

What kind of life do socket A and socket 478 boards have left? I've narrowed my upgrade choices, based on price and then performance, to the Athlon XP 3000+ or P4 3.0E, but I'm concerned as to how upgradeable their respective boards'll be in the next couple years. I'm staying away from the newer sockets and processor for cost reasons, but I want to make sure I'll be able to upgrade at least one more time without having to throw in a whole new board if I go with the XP or P4E.

m19

 

as far as socket a goes the xp3200+ is the end of the line. AMD is using socket 939 from here on pretty much!

 

I can't find mention of socket 939 on Newegg anywhere, do they exist yet? It looks like it's all socket A and 754 boards.

m19

 

How about socket 754?

(Why did MG remove extended editing functions, anyway? Seems like it just makes threads unnecessarily longer...)

I'm back to looking at the Athlon 64s now. I'm wondering if I should go that route, despite the rarity of 64-bit apps and OS now, in hopes that a future upgrade will only involve swapping a processor rather than having to get a whole new board again.

1) If I pick up a socket 754 board (looking at Albatron, ASUS, Biostar, and Soyo 754 boards), will those be able to upgrade to a higher processor in the near future, or are they ceasing socket 754 development too?

2) I've heard rumors that a 64-bit processor can slow down a 32-bit OS or apps. Is that true?

3) Talking numbers, in general how would a 2.0 Ghz Athlon64 perform compared to a 2.0 or 2.16 Ghz AthlonXP? (I know there are a lot of factors involved, but I'm just curious as to how the two compare and if it's worth the money.)

m19

 

Right! I think I've narrowed it down to this:

- Athlon 64 3000+ 2.0 Ghz (Newcastle, Socket 754)
- MSI K8N Neo Platinum
- Geil PC3200 512MB

One question regarding motherboards with built-in components in general. I already have a videocard, soundcard, and NIC and am not planning on using any of the board's integrated components for those items. Is it easy to disable them? I'm particularly concerned about disabling the audio no the MSI board because people have listed a "buzzing" noise problem with the integrated sound. Just want to make sure.

Hopefully someone will post in this so I'm not just talking to myself again.

m19

 

dont you like talking to yourself?

j/j
anyhow, yes all of those onboard integated devices can be disabled! Either using a jumper on the motherboard or in the bios...depending on the board. The socket 754 was the first socket style for athlon64 chips. It will be replaced entirely by socket 939, but there will be cpus released in 754 and 939 configurations for some time. If you want more of a future proof motherboard you should go with a socket 939.
There are plenty of socket 939 boards on Newegg. Just shop by category->motheroards AMD, select socket type on left side pulldown menu and select socket 939.
this is an example:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-130-469&depa=0

 

Searches on Newegg don't work on my Mac here at work, so I have to do it manually. Probably one of the reasons I haven't
?5{any 939 socket boards. Once I'm back home this afternoon I'm going to do a little more poking around. So far I've narrowed it down to MSI boards (the few I'm looking at have all gotten glowing reviews) and the price range is just right.

(EDIT-) Hey, your example is an MSI board. Excellent.

m19

 

Depending on your primary use a socket A board could be fine for you. But it you insist on being able to do a processor swap in two years, chances are you won't find any new offerings that fit those boards.

Honestly though, with the way prices drop on hardware components if you buy a socket 939 or 754 board and processor now and then upgrade the processor again in the future you will probably end up spending more than buying a socket A board and processor now, and a new board and processor in two years.

Prices of socket 754 and 939 boards will fall in a couple years to levels that are more comperable to socket A boards today.

 

Yeah, I've been thinking about that. And the reality-based side of me is really liking the total cost of an XP + Socket A board... It's more than $100 less than the Athlon64 setup I've been eyeing, and both are relatively inexpensive as it is.

I keep flip-flopping back and forth, but in the end I'll probably end up going with the Athlon XP and save the rest of the money for a vacation or something. From what I hear they're still awesome performers. I'm not out for a killer system (otherwise I wouldn't be looking at the bargain items ^_^), I just want to update to something faster than the 1.2 Ghz Tbird I've got now. Pretty sure an XP can do that.

Thanks for the input.

m19

 

If anyone's interested, I ended up going with...

• Athlon XP (don't know exactly which yet)
• MSI K7N2 Delta-L (motherboard)
• Geil 512MB PC3200 (RAM)
• Thermaltake TT-420AD (power supply)

...to a) replace my theoretically failing power supply and b) update my 2 1/2 year-old computer. Price was my biggest concern along with performance and a low noise level. I don't do any overclocking so that was never a big deal. Whee!

m19