Need upgrade CPU / Socket 939

Disciple · Post by **Disciple** » Sat Aug 21, 2010 5:06 pm

I have a DFI Lanparty SLI-DR NF4 with an AMD Athlon 64 FX-60. CPU out-of-the-box runs at 2.61 Ghz.

Yeah, this has been a fantastic CPU and was worth the $1K I paid for it new but I'd like a little more speed without replacing the whole box ... Do I have any faster CPU options here?

Thanks,
D

Heretic · Post by **Heretic** » Sat Aug 21, 2010 5:34 pm

Good luck on finding anything that that old. I think Socket AM2 replaced that socket back in 2006 and had since been replace by AM3.

Blaze · Post by **Blaze** » Sat Aug 21, 2010 6:32 pm

heh

Wasn't Athlon FX-60 the last 939 chip?

Isaac · Post by **Isaac** » Sat Aug 21, 2010 6:56 pm

I think I have one.

(Isaac is looking..)

edit:
I know I had one. The mother board died so I had put the chip back in its static proof case. Not sure where it is at the moment.

Krom · Post by **Krom** » Sat Aug 21, 2010 7:25 pm

Not a lot of options left in 939, you won't find anything in retail but you may have some luck on ebay. There should still be some 939 dual core Opterons or other FX chips that can handle up to 3 GHz with the correct cooling and memory floating around in auctions from time to time.

Although even the best dual core 939 chips at 3+ GHz do not compare favorably to more modern designs, a Core 2 processor near the same clock speeds will easily best it by a large margin and i5 chips by even more.

Disciple · Post by **Disciple** » Sat Aug 21, 2010 7:39 pm

I've been looking on Ebay but I don't really know what to look for ... that is, I don't know what would be significantly faster than the existing processor. I don't mind a used proc at all in fact, I'd prefer it so I don't spend a lot of money. Opteron huh?

Krom · Post by **Krom** » Sat Aug 21, 2010 8:47 pm

To be honest even going from 2.6 to 3.2 GHz on 939 isn't going to be *that* big of a boost. If you have to wait irritatingly long for something to load right now, you will still be waiting irritatingly long even if you totally max out the fastest and best processor you can possibly get in a 939 socket. At best you are talking a ~20% performance boost which in a lot of cases isn't all that perceptible.

On the other hand even the core i3 530 which is the cheapest current generation Intel dual core at $114 is consistently twice as fast as a 2.6 GHz Athlon dual core. You may just want to save up and spring for a new chip instead of trying to squeeze more life out of a dead end platform.

Disciple · Post by **Disciple** » Sat Aug 21, 2010 9:54 pm

$114 isn't all that bad ... Any recs on a mainboard for that proc?

Sirius · Post by **Sirius** » Sun Aug 22, 2010 1:11 am

\"The Opteron 185 and Athlon 64 FX-60, both featuring a 2.6 GHz clock speed and 1 MB of Level 2 cache per core, were the fastest dual-core processors manufactured for this socket.\"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socket_939

Basically: nope, you've got the best there is already.

Krom · Post by **Krom** » Sun Aug 22, 2010 2:03 pm

Well $114 for a faster processor is one thing, but you would also need a motherboard, some DDR3 memory and probably a power supply too which is why I suggest saving up a bit. If you get towards $500-750 saved up you should be able to easily put together a dramatically faster system. You can probably recycle your video card, case and optical drives to save a bit. Although I would retire the hard drive and buy a new one since newer hard drives are consistently faster than older ones and that can make a big difference in how fast the computer starts up and loads programs.

Disciple · Post by **Disciple** » Sun Aug 22, 2010 10:02 pm

Ok, gotcha ... I think I'll save my money and do just that. I should be able to come up with $700 to $800 in a few months. I have a GF 8800 GTS 512 video board and actually I have a relatively new 2TB WD2002FYPS disk I'll keep.

So I need to replace the following:
- Mainboard
- CPU
- PSU
- RAM

Suggestions welcome ... thanks for the help.