[ale] OT: AMD Athlon 64

[Steve Hamlin]

A few quick links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amd_athlon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_AMD_Athlon_64_microprocessors

http://www.anandtech.com/printarticle.aspx?i=2738
"Alongside DDR2 support, the new Socket-AM2 CPUs add support for AMD's
Pacifica Virtualization technology - AMD's answer to Intel's VT."

Looks like AMD virtualization is not out quite yet, but the AM2 chips are
supposed to be released in the next few months.

I seem to recall some recent discussion (Slashdot?) that some people liked
the AMD64 3800s right now for a good price point, but I don't know if that
was single or dual core, 130nm or 90nm,  etc.   I'd study the AMD64
Wikipedia page alongside NewEgg prices, and figure it out where your best
price/perf spot is.  I don't know about all of the differnence with Venice,
Winchester,etc. but the Wikipedia page explains most of it all.

The socket 939 is the latest and last of the current line before the AM2
socket, which I think is going to consolidate mobile,desktop and server
chips onto one platform (in addition to supporting DDR2 and VT).  If at all
concerned about upgrading the CPU over the next 3 years, you choices are:

(1) go with socket 939 and a cheap chip now, then upgrade to a (by then)
cheap 939-based AMD64 X2 (dual) 4x00+ - last of the line, or
(2) wait a few months, get a socket AM2 platform and the cheapest new AM2
chip, which will probably still be sorta expensive for a while (not expected
to be a huge premium for the AM2s, but they'll be 4x00+s at the low end,
which are currently expensive even as socket 939 form factor.

Hope that helps,

 - Steve Hamlin


On 5/5/06, Greg Freemyer <greg.freemyer at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On 5/5/06, John Wells <jb at sourceillustrated.com> wrote:
> > Guys,
> >
> > My brother-in-law is in the market for a new MB/Processor, and looking
> at
> > the AMD Athlon 64s based on price.
> >
> > I've been too long out of the hardware game to make sense of the various
> > types (Venice, Newcastle, etc).
> >
> > Anyone out there know of a good, easy-to-digest treatise on the subject?
> > What would you recommend?
> >
> > Thanks, as always!
> >
> > John
>
> I don't remember the AMD terminology name for the new Virtual
> Technology, but both Intel and AMD seem to be in the process of adding
> VT to their product lines.  VT is a big deal because it allows Xen
> line systems to have very low overhead even with Windows as a guest
> OS.
>
> Xen, VMware, MS Virtual PC, Vista?,  etc. are all adding VT support to
> their products.  I suspect a year from now a lot of people will be
> running a Linux Host OS with Xen and a WIndows Guest OS on VT enabled
> hardware.
>
> See the chart at
> http://www.intel.com/products/processor_number/proc_info_table.pdf to
> see which Intel CPUs have the VT feature.  I don't know if AMD has a
> similar chart.
>
> If your brother-in-law is interested in running Linux, but needs some
> Windows functionality, I would advise buying hardware that will let
> him take advantage of this emerging trend.
>
> Greg
> --
> Greg Freemyer
> The Norcross Group
> Forensics for the 21st Century
> _______________________________________________
> Ale mailing list
> Ale at ale.org
> http://www.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
>
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