San Diego V. Veince

Post by **Kills On Site** » Sat May 28, 2005 3:01 am

Well AMD has release two new cores for the 939 socket lately, the Venice and the San Diego. As far as I can tell the only difference is the added L2 cache in the San Diego core. Now I know L2 cache is a very good thing, but are there any other differences between the two cores?

Post by **Psyche911** » Sat May 28, 2005 4:45 am

No, that's the only difference.
The cache helps with games and some other stuff. Not with encoding as much.

If you can, get the San Diego, but if not it's not a big deal.

Post by **bag0shite** » Sat May 28, 2005 1:01 pm

San Diego :icon31:

Post by **Kills On Site** » Sat May 28, 2005 5:17 pm

I'm thinking about the San Diego 4000+ later this summer, after I earn some money, and an ABit nForce 4 mobo, I don't think I will get SLI tho as I can't afford two 6800 GTs

Post by **Psyche911** » Sat May 28, 2005 5:30 pm

I wouldn't recommend SLi, but the good part is you can buy a second card once the prices drop. But by then you can buy a better single card for the same price after selling the first card. So good choice.

I would think there should be a price drop in 2-3 months. I'd wait for that, because on a high-end CPU like that, it could save you a lot of money. They usually drop 1 price bracket, so it would become the price of the 3700+ Venice. Which would save $151 with newegg's prices.

But who knows what will happen when the X2s start shipping.

As far as the mobo, there aren't any that I'm quite comfortable recommending 100%. Lots of them seem to have issues with the northbridge chip placement and fans. Either the graphics cards end up sitting on the NB HSF or the fans are extremely loud. Lots of people have had their DFIs boards just die. The OTES fans on the Abit ones are loud, lots of people just end up dissabling them. The fans on the ASUS nForce 4 boards are terrible and die quick, but I think they are now shipping the boards with an updated northbridge HSF unit that lasts longer and may be quieter.

I like the Abit Fatal1ty one a lot, but it's a good $40 more than any other nForce 4 Ultra board.

I'd probably either get that or the MSI Neo4 Platinum.

Post by **Kills On Site** » Sat May 28, 2005 5:39 pm

Well ABit is releasing some new mobos, and seeing as I won't have the money for a few months the whole waiting thing seems like a good idea :P. I don't know when the X2s start shipping, but it will most likely be at a high price. Seeing as X2s will most likely be 939 I could just wait till next year, well into next year, to get one. Hopfully though a 4000+ will provide me with plenty of performance

Post by **Psyche911** » Sat May 28, 2005 5:48 pm

Abit is?
Any details? I know they're coming out with SLi, is that what you mean?

The only upcoming feature I know of on their boards is the "Silent OTES." Which I'm all for, but I'd be surprised if they did an entire revision just for that.

And for the X2s, they aren't too far off, but you're right about the prices. The cheapest one will be 50% more than the 4000 San Diego costs now.

Edit:
Looking on their site shows the AN8 v2.0 & AN8 Ultra. Both use Silent OTES and a passive northbridge cooler with heatpipe. I'm liking the look of those...now I just need to know the price.

Post by **Kills On Site** » Sat May 28, 2005 6:13 pm

Yea, I want to know the price too, seeing as the only difference between the AN8 and AN8 V2.0 is the silent OTES I don't think it will cost too much more. I was also referring to the new Intel mobos, but they hold no use in this topic, just other new mobos from ABit.
If that is what the X2 is going to cost then there is no way I can afford one.
I just realized what the OTES kicks off the mobo's I/Os, seriel and parallel ports. While nobody uses seriel, a good many still use parallel for printing, of course this isn't an issue for me, just thought I would put that out there

Post by **Psyche911** » Sat May 28, 2005 6:18 pm

Yeah, but for me I want to be rid of that stuff. It's just clutter for me. I use a USB printer. I don't know that I've ever plugged anything into a serial port. heh

I believe the cheapest X2 at launch is six-hundred-something bucks.

Post by **Psyche911** » Sat May 28, 2005 6:28 pm

So, the AN8 V2.0 has SATAI, the AN8 Ultra has SATAII.

The V2.0 has 5.1 channel sound, the Ultra 7.1 channel sound.

The V2.0 does not have the nVidia hardware firewall that the Ultra has. Other than that, they are identical.

So, I'm guessing the V2.0 will take the price point of the regular AN8 at around $140, but I don't know what the Ultra will cost. Probably $160-170.

Maybe they can get both at a lower price? V2.0 @ $120 & Ultra at $140-150? I sure hope so, otherwise it's just pushing it for price.

Post by **dzjepp** » Sat May 28, 2005 6:39 pm

Get Chicago it gonna be the bomb yo

Post by **Psyche911** » Sat May 28, 2005 6:51 pm

Yeah, it runs cooler than the San Diego in the winter, but gets a little humid in the summer.

Post by **Kills On Site** » Sat May 28, 2005 9:30 pm

Well seeing as I have decided a core, which HSF should I go for? the Thermaltake XP-90 with a nice quiet, but good, fan on top of it; or a Zalman CNPS7700-CU 120mm fan. I have owned a few Thermalright's and been very pleased, I have not owned a Zalman, but I hear they are very good. So which is a better choice? I realize that the Thermalright is more expensive, but which is the better cooler

Post by **Psyche911** » Sat May 28, 2005 9:40 pm

I went from a Zalman 7000AlCu to an Arctic Cooling Freezer 4 (Freezer 64 is the A64 version) and my load temps dropped 12 degrees celsius.

I can't recommend the Zalman. Either the XP-90 or the Freezer. Both are good, I prefer the Freezer as it's dead quiet, comes with a fan, and hot air is directed towards the rear or top of the case instead of just outwards from the processor.

At stock speeds on this Northwood, I can't go above 40C. When overclocked (by over 600 MHz), I've never seen over 43. And I can't hear it.

I love it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6835185115
http://www.jab-tech.com/customer/produc ... tner=froog

I'd buy it at jab-tech, it's $8 cheaper there. I've bought stuff from them before.

Post by **Psyche911** » Sat May 28, 2005 9:43 pm

Edit: Wow, the XP-90 is $17 cheaper at jab-tech than newegg:

http://www.jab-tech.com/customer/produc ... 169&page=1

Post by **Psyche911** » Mon May 30, 2005 4:57 am

Jesus christ. There's this guy that posts over on one of my other forums that ALWAYS gets AMD processors weeks if not over a month before they're released.

Well, he's got an Athlon 64 X2 4600+ now, and he's hit over 3.3GHz with it! Not completely stable yet, but he's shipping it off to an overclocking pro. And he's only bumped the voltage up to 1.488. My Northwood's stock is 1.525.

Man, I thought I had kicked the desire for a new computer in the next year, but this is getting very exciting...

The thread is here:
http://xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=64143

I can't imagine 2 Athlon 64 cores at 3.3GHz each. lol

Stock is 2.4GHz, btw. A very healthy 37.5% overclock.

Post by **shaft** » Tue May 31, 2005 1:55 pm

http://www.ati.com/products/crossfire/index.html

Post by **Psyche911** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 1:43 am

Also:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813127207

The AN8 SLi is released with Silent OTES and 3.55 VDIMM!!!!

It's an SLI motherboard for $164 that should overclock great! I want I want I want I want.

I'm going to go try to ebay my current mobo & proccessor now. lol

Post by **Kills On Site** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 3:37 pm

Kick ass, I am definatly getting some version of the AN8, prolly that one

Post by **Kills On Site** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 4:49 pm

I was looking at the Freezer and I noticed that it would blow hot air from my 6800GT to my PSU. I might try it, if it doesn't work too well ill RMA it for the XP-90 Copper

I was looking at newegg for all the socket 939 compatible heatsinks and found this Thermaltake Tower112 I like shiny things and this thing is very shiny. Altho very expensive also. Being me I would like to know what I am going to get before I have the money, so I will most definatly be pondering over these HSFs

Post by **Psyche911** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 12:47 am

I wouldn't recommend a solid copper HSF. They weigh too much, and can bend the motherboard or crush the CPU if something goes wrong. Plus, all copper vs copper and aluminum usually only means the difference of 3-4 degrees at most.

The XP-90 regular is much cheaper, performs almost as good, and weighs a lot less...seems like an easy choice to me, but everyone has a different opinion.

I love my Freezer.

Also, I've just been reading about ATi's upcoming enthusiast board and it's tempting to wait. It sounds perfect...almost. But that wont be out for 1-2 months at least...

This is the latest thread I've read on it:
http://xtremesystems.org/forums/showthr ... ge=1&pp=25

This thread is on the AN8-Fatality SLI and non-Fatality SLI:
http://xtremesystems.org/forums/showthr ... ge=1&pp=25

I'm going to try to wait, I think. If I can wait 'till August, the new generation of GPUs will be out (probably wont be able to afford it though), the ATi board will be out, and hopefully prices on the Venice & San Diego will drop a little. I don't know.