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AnandTech: Socket 754 Roundup: Comparing Generation 2 _Review of the mature 754 boards. These are going to be good buys when the 939 boards come out next week since they are about the same performance, but an older generation_

Based on features, implementation, value, overclocking performance and flexibility, the Epox 8KDA3 emerges as our Gold Editors Choice as the top Socket 754 motherboard. Users who require Firewire will need to look at another board or plan to use a Firewire card, since it is not included on the Epox.

The MSI K8N Neo Platinum is a truly excellent motherboard that competes in every way with the best of the Socket 754 motherboards. Its performance is virtually identical to the Epox board, and the feature set is second to none. If Firewire is a requirement, the K8N Neo Platinum belongs at the top of your shopping list. If you want a board that makes top performance easy, then the MSI is also the top choice.

Next week will represent the launch of the new Socket 939 processors from AMD. The new Socket 939 chipsets are the same chipsets that you see here: nForce3-250 and K8T800 PRO. The move to Dual-Channel and Socket 939 will be very important to some, but it will not represent the quantum leap in performance that some are expecting. Dual-Channel, after all, did not make a huge difference in the performance of FX and A64 chips when they were the same clock speed with the same cache

Now that Anandtech is doing a monthly review of hardware, it sure is easier for me to do my guides. They are basically references to Anandtech now. Good recommendations are there. Here is my high end system recommendation. First point of course is that the ship of the Athlon 939 socket (Newcastle) slipped into June, so this is if you want a 754-socket board now (main reason is that you can’t wait). The 939s are supposed to be a just a little bit faster (5%).

(See “Anandtech”:http://anandtech.com/guides/showdoc.html?i=2061&p=1). The Athlon 64 again wins the test if you want to game. The main thing here is that you can overclock up to 24% now (so a 2GHz 3200+ goes to 2.4GHz) if you have fast enough memory

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| Part | Cost | Comment |
| AMD Athlon 64 3200+ | “$270″:http://anandtech.com/guides/showdoc.html?i=2061&p=2 | Need a late model for better 25% overclocks |
| MSI “K8N Neo”:http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.html?i=2036&p=15 | $132 | First nForce 250 Pro chipset board out |
| OCZ “PC3700EB”:http://www.anandtech.com/memory/showdoc.html?i=2057 | “$349″:http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_getprod.php/masterid=2707066 | Can use for 250 FSB, 8x multiplier for 5% higher speed |
| ATI “Radeon X800 Pro”:http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.html?i=2044 | $400 | 2x faster than 9800 Pro |
| Antec True Power 430W | $68 | Most important thing you can buy really! |
| Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10K RPM | $250 | Plus Hitach KT400 for backing storage |
| Lian Li PC-V1000 | “$199″:http://www.xoxide.com/lianlipcv1000.html | Mid-tower case, very quiet |

The first sets of drives that support dual layer are coming. Here are some with good reputations:

* BENQ DW822A.
* NEC ND-2510A
* Lite-on SOHW-832S.

Also some older drives can be firmware upgraded with the usual caveats as The firmware page :: View topic – The Double Layer Upgradability Thread explains.

Short story is the NEC ND-2500A has a 70% success rate in upgrade. The BENQ DW822A will have an official upgrade.

“Anandtech”:http://anandtech.com/memory/showdoc.html?i=2057. An interesting piece about how the combination of the Athlon 64, plus locked PCI/AGP motherboards like the nForce 250 Pro really perform when using a new variant of memory called enhanced bandwidth done by OCZ. The new recommendation is the OCZ 3700EB available at “SVC”:http://www.svc.com/ocz466512ebdcpe-k.html for $183/512MB, Athlon 3200+, K8T800 PRO with nForce3-250 chipset is the current recommendation. Will be interesting to see how next months new dual channel socket 939 chips perform.

Apparently many of the problems with Athlon 64 are due to incompatibilities with Hynix memory (a big Korean OEM manufacturer). With Intel, they were able to jump the RAM voltage to 2.85V from the standard 2.5V and with the new OCZ3700EB (DDR466), they got timings to go to 3-2-3-6. A big performance boost from DDR400 in doing this. From 322 fps on Quake 3 to 415 fps. This is running on a way hot Dual RAID 10,000 RPM drives, ATI 9800 Pro, Pentium 2.4 GHZ process on ASUS P4C800 motherboard

With the Athlon, you can raise performance by leaving the processor overclocking at 2.1GHz (from 2GHz) standard, but jamming the ram to higher speeds. So with a 8×250MHz, you get much great performance than the stock 10×200MHz.

bq. With AMD, 3700EB is an outstanding performer over a very wide range on both the Intel and AMD platforms. It certainly belongs on your short list if you are looking for Intel DDR memory. Frankly, for Athlon 64, we would be hard-pressed to choose any other memory over 3700EB or 3500EB for the nForce3-250/K8T800 PRO or other boards that support working PCI/AGP locks on Athlon 64. 3700EB is simply astounding on Athlon 64.

bq. When Dual-Channel arrives with Socket 939 next month, we should see a 2% to 5% increase in these already outstanding performance results. We will then see if OCZ 3700EB is the same brilliant performer in Athlon 64 Dual-Channel that we have seen on the Single-Channel Socket 754.