Original Link: https://www.anandtech.com/show/1434
Price Guides August 2004: CPUs and Motherboards
by Anand Shimpi & Cara Hamm on August 13, 2004 5:34 PM EST- Posted in
- Guides
Prices have continued their downward spiral from AMD in relation to their Athlon 64 lineup. With these drops comes the urge to run out and grab the latest and greatest processor and, in many cases, a new motherboard. We'll go over the offerings from both AMD and Intel to see what processors hit the price to performance ratio sweet spot this week.
Be sure to visit our RealTime Pricing Engine for the most up-to-date prices on motherboards, processors, and more before you drop your hard-earned cash.
AMD Processors
AMD just doesn't seem to be letting up on their push to get Athlon 64's into as many systems as possible, and this week is certainly no exception. You might recall that the last time we touched on the subject of processors that AMD had just announced huge price cuts on their A64 line. Luckily, these new prices seem to be here to stay and are only getting lower.
If you're into heavy gaming, video editing, or just plain want the fastest machine your budget can afford, Athlon 64 is now the processor of choice from AMD. This week the Athlon 64 2800+ comes to us with the lowest price we have seen from a 64-bit processor. Sporting a 512KB L2 cache and a stock clock speed of 1.8GHz this chip will certainly throw the framerate limitation back at your video card. It wasn't very long ago that you could barely find an Athlon XP 2500 for this price so it's certainly plausible that the jump to 64-bit computing is a good idea right now. Of course, you'll still have to wait for Microsoft to bring their 64-bit version of Windows XP out of beta, but if you're daring you can always try the beta or even load up one of the numerous 64-bit implementations of Linux. It's also worth noting that the Socket 754 platform is already on its way out the door as Socket 939 makes its way to center stage. This platform is slated to only reach the A64 3700+ mark, so keep that in mind when considering how long you plan to use this socket for.
For those who don't want to take the plunge just yet, or aren't interested in having to purchase a new motherboard to accommodate the A64 2800+, Athlon XP's are still (barely) around for now and can work just as well for a lot of users and purposes. Specifically, the Athlon XP 2700+ is priced this very nicely this week, but be warned all XP prices are on the rise. Don't forget, Sempron's start shipping this week as well.
Since the last CPU guide Intel has brought out a few new weapons from its arsenal, although most (read: Nocona, Iriwindale) won't be hitting retail store shelves for a while to come. On top of that, being the newest bleeding-edge products, they won't be easily affordable by most until they've been on the market for at least a few months.
In the meantime fear not, as there are still a good number of options available. While AMD is busy pushing A64 Intel is simultaneously banking on solid name recognition and raw clock cycles to earn your money, and earn it they do. This week, as with our last CPU guide, the Pentium 4 (478) 2.8GHz 800FSB 1MB processor tops the charts for our Intel recommendation. Paired with a solid overclocking motherboard this chip can take on a new façade and tear through CPU intensive tasks quite easily. The Prescott core is known for its ability to scale performance and clock speed in a linear fashion which is music to most overclockers' ears. However, if overclocking isn't your thing, the Northwood core of the 2.8 Pentium is also a great choice.
If you're building a new system and are planning on taking on an A64 there's no reason to skimp on the motherboard. This week price drops allow us to finally recommend MSI's K8N Neo Platinum board again. MSI went all out with this board and included all the bells and whistles you would expect from them such as NVIDIA's NF3 250Gb chipset, integrated gigabit LAN, built-in hardware firewall, and 8-channel audio courtesy of Realtek's ALC850. Throw in the capacity to handle up to eight hard drives natively, four SATA (RAID 0, 1, 0+1 capable), four PATA, and you have a powerhouse of a motherboard.
As an added bonus, the K8N is also capable of some pretty impressive overclocking which is a rarity among its A64 motherboard brethren. As with our AMD 64 recommendation, it's worth keeping in mind that this is indeed a Socket 754 board which will, much like Socket 754 processors, be phased out in a relatively short time frame. One major saving grace is the very low cost of adoption for this platform and the fact that this board will allow you to get some good overclocking in before you need to send it to the pile of hardware otherwise used as doorstops and paperweights.
Back to the 32-bit world. AMD still has lots of options for Socket A motherboards thanks to the amount of time it has had to be on the market and mature. Abit's NF7-S Revision 2 still hangs on as an amazing overclocker when paired with a Barton chip. To add to its allure, the NF7-S is also dropping in price. This model is definitely a good choice if you still have a fairly recent Athlon XP and need only a new motherboard but don't yet want to invest in an A64.
Via seems these days to only really make any waves in the A64 world ever since NVIDIA took over the Socket A arena. Thankfully, VIA is doing a very good job of producing chipsets for A64's and they're doing so at very good prices to boot. So, if you're looking for a motherboard to go with your shiny new A64 then look no further than Asus' K8V SE Deluxe. This board has every bell and whistle you could ask for including support for 10 hard drives (4 SATA, 6 PATA), firewire, gigabit LAN and more. One really nice feature found so far only on this board is the Marvell VCT, or virtual cable tester. This tool is extremely useful if you go to a lot of LAN parties since it can detect cable faults and mis-wiring on its own. Simply plug in the cable, launch the utility, and it will tell you exactly what's wrong with the connection making for an easy troubleshooting method and an easy fix. We can only hope that more motherboard manufacturers will include this feature down the road.
It's hard to miss some of the newer boards out there that sport Intel's new Socket 775 system. Unfortunately we have yet to see any that offer the same features for the same price as boards still using Socket 478. Additionally, the extremely fragile nature of 775 make us a bit weary of recommending it until it has had some time in the market and shown that it can withstand the kind of use that many enthusiasts will be throwing at it. This really isn't a big deal though since processors supporting the new socket aren't any different from the 478 variety except costing a couple dollars more, so there is currently no reason to make the jump until there are some performance or overclocking advances on the new socket.
For the second guide in a row Abit's IC7-G 875P motherboard takes the lead with it's superior overclocking abilities, features and support. Pair this up with a Prescott chip, overclock it and be ready for screaming performance. Of course Abit included gigabit LAN, firewire, support for up to eight drives (4 PATA, 4 SATA) and excellent overclocking support. Specifically, this model has enough FSB options to get your system running well beyond its stock specifications. While other boards such as the MSI 875P Neo-FIS2R can be had for slightly cheaper, we feel that the quality of the Abit board, along with the top notch overclocking, makes the Abit the best option for the money at this time.