Athlon 64 Chip Guide

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SpodesAbode have thrown up their Athlon 64-Bit Chip Guide for Sempron, Newcastle and ClawHammer! Here's a snip.

Choosing an AMD processor can be very confusing, with varying cores, pin counts and strange PR ratings. With the advent of the new Sempron processor, we felt it would be a good idea to take a look at this subject with a focus on their new budget option.

Athlon 64's are available across three different platforms. Socket 754 is for the Athlon 64 and Sempron. Socket 940 is for Opteron and Athlon FX (recommended for those who have more money than sense). Socket 939 supports both Athlon 64 and FX chips.

Without a doubt, Socket 939 offers the best future protection being compatible with the latest Athlon 64 and FX chips. We also see support for dual channel memory, something Socket 754 doesn't support. Unfortunately, availability is currently quite poor - both of the boards and of the chips. Socket 940 is pretty much a dead platform as far as the consumer is conerned. The future of socket 754 s questionable, but at the moment it is certainly the best value for money and by far the most available.

Athlon 64 Chip Guide