Opeteron "lastability"

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dan Irwin
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Dan Irwin

hi,

I'm thinking of building a new machine\ revamping my old one. I was
looking around a I thought at which processor to look and a I thought
about it: of all the processors the opterons line and the motherboards
seem to be very scaleable and will be for a while (if buy a mobo today
I can still be upgrading it 2.5-3.5 years from now, where as with
every "break through" in Intel you have to get a totally new mobo and
everything else ). How much truth is there to this?

Thanks for the help,

dan

p.s.

if it helps i'm looking to get the tyan k8w (either s2885 of s2775)
 
hi,

I'm thinking of building a new machine\ revamping my old one. I was
looking around a I thought at which processor to look and a I thought
about it: of all the processors the opterons line and the motherboards
seem to be very scaleable and will be for a while (if buy a mobo today
I can still be upgrading it 2.5-3.5 years from now, where as with
every "break through" in Intel you have to get a totally new mobo and
everything else ). How much truth is there to this?

Thanks for the help,

dan

p.s.

if it helps i'm looking to get the tyan k8w (either s2885 of s2775)
Click to expand...

I don't see AMD having the funds/resources/support to change their
sockets/chipsets/designs as often as Intel can and does, so I would just
expect a AMD board to be better for possible future CPU upgrades as AMD
will want to release the fastest CPU possible without having to change
much if anything for as long as they can.

AMD kept Socket-7 alive long after Intel dumped it and AMD's (1999)
Socket-A still has companies releasing new boards based on it.
Cheers,
Ed
--
AMD and Intel's Dual Core Demonstrations
http://www.anandtech.com/tradeshows/showdoc.aspx?i=2203
AMD Rev E Dual Core CPUs Info
http://www.vr-zone.com/?i=1123&s=1
New socket in 2006 for the Opteron 166, 266 & 866
http://www.x86-secret.com/?option=newsd&nid=767
AMD Picking Up Speed, CEO Says
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1574331,00.asp
 
I don't see AMD having the funds/resources/support to change their
sockets/chipsets/designs as often as Intel can and does, so I would just
expect a AMD board to be better for possible future CPU upgrades as AMD
will want to release the fastest CPU possible without having to change
much if anything for as long as they can.

AMD kept Socket-7 alive long after Intel dumped it and AMD's (1999)
Socket-A still has companies releasing new boards based on it.
Click to expand...

Times have changed since the grand-old days of Socket-7. At that time
Intel ruled the oceans and everyone had to buck-up to Intel's whims. When
Intel went to Slot-1 it caused everyone to re-think the issue. Socket-7
and its extensions lived long enough to convince the chipset
and board manufacturers that there was life outside Intel. Of course
Intel didn't help their cause by cutting off the chipset manufacturers
from their FSB, but...

The fact is that there is far less momentum in processor sockets than
there was with socket-7. It's really a non-issue these days. If there is
a good reason to abandon a package, it'll be done without too much
fanfare. Note that Socket-939 has ramped up fairly quickly.
 
I'm thinking of building a new machine\ revamping my old one. I was
looking around a I thought at which processor to look and a I thought
about it: of all the processors the opterons line and the motherboards
seem to be very scaleable and will be for a while (if buy a mobo today
I can still be upgrading it 2.5-3.5 years from now, where as with
every "break through" in Intel you have to get a totally new mobo and
everything else ). How much truth is there to this?
Click to expand...

Very little

It doesn't much matter what you buy today, in 2-3 years time you will
almost certainly NOT be able to upgrade the processor to the latest
and greatest that is out at that time. Some might be slightly better
or worse than others, but if you base your buying decisions on upgrade
options more than 6 months down the line, chances are you are going to
be disappointed.

It's HIGHLY probably that Opterons released in late 2005/early 2006,
at the very latest, will cease to be compatible with existing Socket
940 boards, primarily due to changes in the power circuitry. Later in
2006 AMD will start shifting to their K9 core for processors as well
as 65nm manufacturing processes, both of which will break
compatibility. This is all scheduled for within the next 1.5 to 2
years time.

That being said, there is a strong possibility that any Opteron boards
you purchase today will at least be able to handle a dual-core Opteron
to be released sometime mid to late 2005. It's definitely not a
sure-thing until the chips are actually available, but it should work.
This is probably better than the upgrade options for most other
platforms.


Trust me, buy what you need *right now*, it will serve you much better
than trying to guess what might be available down the road.
 
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