Nudge said:
According to this page:
http://balusc.xs4all.nl/ned/har-cpu-amd-k8.php
All Socket-754 Semprons support FSB400.
Stepping E3 brings SSE3.
Stepping E6 brings AMD64.
Thus, I am looking for... SDA2800BXBOX (E6)
e.g.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819104245
$76 at Newegg.
I am still wondering: what king of video card do people put in
Socket-754 systems? Do they go for an expensive MB that supports
PCI-Express, or do they live with an AGP video card, with little
hope to upgrade in the future?
They make nforce 4 socket 754 boards, with PCI-E, Epox makes a nice
solution which has 3 dimm slots, of course MSI also makes a nice choice
as well. If your going to buy a graphics card I would go PCI-E, no need
to limit your self with agp.
I must admit that the other posters have a valid concern, if this is a
cheap box, then adding a graphics card might not be the best use of
money, but if you game once in a while it would not hurt to have one,
just make sure its like a 6200 based, or better card.
As you know now we are spliting hairs, if you decide to buy a graphics
card, you might as well get more memory. Games such as BF2 like memory,
it used to be that 512 mb's was great for gaming now its at least 1 gig
or more, bf2 likes about 1.5 gigs just to run good.
At this rate you might as well get yourself a 939 ati board, you can
have one for as little as 85 dollars, that would save the difference on
the graphics card.
So moral of story is, if the person is going to game, then you really
should consider a 939 board, your only talking about the difference
between the cpu's cost. If its a non gamer then socket 754 is ok find
one with igp. Even then you can find a 939 igp board that cost about
the same as a 754 board.
Also remember that igp boards usually have some sort of memory sharing
going on between main memory and graphics memory, so it would bewise to
get more memory anyway. This of course depends on your use, it is
possible to run Gnu/Linux *bsd with less then 256 memory nowadays. Most
people who want cheap boxes will not like this choice, if children will
be using this system they will want all the speed they can get.
I gave up long ago trying to give advice to people who think they know
what they want. As it turns out they want a system that cost twice as
much, and will gripe every chance they get because their buddies dell
plays game x faster then their box.
In a case like that its sometimes better to just tell them to go out
and buy a dell, that way they at least think they are getting a better
deal.
Rthoreau
