TD: ASUS K8V SE Deluxe + Athlon 64 (754) 3700+ $259.97* AR

[g_goo_goo]

WOW. that's the best price I've seen so far...

not bad considering that the 3200+ is still selling at CC for $245 and the MB itself is $119.

link (http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/searchtools/item-Details.asp?EdpNo=1178956&sku=MBM-K8V-A643700&CMP=EMC-TIGEREMAIL&SRCCODE=CANEM430)

[Blehh]

Wow?

[tetris]

Its a good deal.

[bug]

$40 rebate on the motherboard, $50 on the cpu. :(

[shuffle]

Would jump on this if it wasn't for AGP...Need Pci X for my next rig.

[bionicbadger]

good deal but socket 754 and AGP....

[etherboy]

This would complete my current PC's upgrade... but... how to convince the wife :(

[neo1973]

This would complete my current PC's upgrade... but... how to convince the wife :(
That's the tough part. :lol:

[guanghot]

This would complete my current PC's upgrade... but... how to convince the wife :(
As long as you can find a way to show the wife your current one is broken. ;)

[duckdown]

Great deal, I'd be highly skeptical of the rebates though

[neo1973]

Great deal, I'd be highly skeptical of the rebates though
Yeah $90 is a lot. :)

[guest3721]

If you got to TD's processor page, you won't even find this chip listed there anymore. All of the Athlon 64 desktop chips which are NOT in the Sempron line fall under the socket 939 interface, even the later model 3700+(replaced the predecessor in March 2005).

I did a bit of research and this is what sharky extreme had to say about the 2 different interfaces and this was from June 1, 2004.

http://www.sharkyextreme.com/hardware/cpu/article.php/3261_3361881__11

Throughout the review and benchmarking process, one thought kept coming to the fore: Socket 939 is where the Athlon 64 belongs. The flexibility of standard DDR and the power of an integrated dual-channel memory controller make for a potent combination, and the enhanced upgrade possibilities are also great news. The only real issue is the cost of entry, but this is a factor with any high-end platform, and mainstream buyers will still get a lot of value out of Socket 754. Our only wish is that Socket 939 had been here since the introduction of the AMD64 line, but as they say, better late than never.

Here's another article, titled, "Athlon 64 3700+ Review. End of the Socket 754 Line?"

http://www.penstarsys.com/reviews/tech/amd/a64_3700/

With this said, that is still a great price for an athlon 64 3700+, socket 754. I couldn't find any prices even close to that even in U.S. dollars. So for the moment it's still a good value imo performance wise, but as long as you don't have intentions of upgrading the chip on this motherboard because its the highest-end chip supported by the socket 754 interface.

Personally I'm going to refrain from this purchase and wait for a sale on their 939 board or processor. I know that no matter what you do, there will always be better things on the horizon, but buying an athlon 64 with a socket 754 is taking a step backwards imo, this combination is pretty much obsolete as amd no longer supports it.

[Duo64]

socket 754 isnt quite dead yet....even if they stopped making 754socket a64s, they're now making 754socket sempron64s.....u can get these cpus at pretty damn good prices, and not to mention they can do 64bit....in other words, its a value cpu with 64bit instructions, not to mention that intels have *just* started going into 64bit business...and thats only on some high end 775 p4s, their celerons havent even began touching it....for less than a hundred bux for a 64bit cpu looks very alive to me!

[guest3721]

True, but from what i gather the Semprons are like the Celerons of the Intel world being budget cpus, they're not meant for super performance. So basically, with this combination you're pretty much limited to the performance of the 3700+ since Semprons will never surpass this.

I don't mean to deter anyone from buying this combo, because its still a pretty good deal but just to inform people that they won't be able to upgrade with this motherboard, the 3700 is pretty much the highest it'll go for socket 754, not to mention the other peformance issues between a 754 and 939 socket, plus AGP vs. E-PCI video. Say a year or two down the road when the FX processors become affordable, you wouldn't be able to pop out this cpu and upgrade it, but then some people may not want to, so this choice you'd have to decide.

Right now some of the 939 boards are also on sale with $40 MIR but unfortunately not the processors. I wouldn't mind upgrading when both of those go on sale, then my next upgrade would simply be a chip swap to an FX series when they drop to $200 or $300, they're currently over $1000. This is just my way of thinking, but you never know cause maybe then there'd be an interface way better than the 939 which then I'd be running into the same dilemma all over again :)

[s.m.c]

So basically, with this combination you're pretty much limited to the performance of the 3700+ since Semprons will never surpass this.
That's a pretty bold statement. Can I quote you on it in a couple of years?

[LaZeRACED]

Looking at the price and comparing it to some of my distributors (Supercom, Eprom, Ingram Micro), I would say that this deal is quite decent. Mobo: It's an ASUS - never ever will you have to defend it, hands down quality product. PCI-E vs AGP (No SLI): Take a stroll on google and you hardly see a difference, I mean miniscule, in performance between the two and you'll find the 7800GT in AGP, 'nuff said. Via K8T800 chipset vs. Nvidia NF3 same thing as above. Socket 754 vs 939(SLI capable): well if you want to upgrade the cpu, yeah you're up the creek. Mind you the question that should be asked is when? Things change so quickly in the industry forcing incompatiblities that make you upgrade, yet at shallow impovements. Look at Intel and the amazing Dothan, say 'Pentium 3 processor' that kicks some serious arse. Here's a link to Tom's Interactive CPU charts: http://www23.tomshardware.com/index.html?modelx=33&model1=65&model2=115&chart=27 This should make the deal seem much clearer and the thought of upgrading much more distance minded.
Of course, buy for what you desire. I buy for performance verse price, I sell while my old stuff is still worth something and gradually implement the new. Heck, I'm running a chaintech (stable) NF2U with a XP barton 2900+ with a 400mhz bus. With many years of selling computers, which I do on the side now - changed from an armpit industry to something better - I can't see the point of pinnacle buying when a few steps down still gives me a strong view of things below at a much better price. Really how fast does one open WORD, unzip a file, rip a movie, etc? What is the gain of a few seconds at how many times you may do this in a day? For me that's just not enough of a reason to buy high-end. Honestly, ask yourself when your not playing games, watching DVD's or listening to music, generally don't you find yourself just screwing around on the internet? Ninety percent of the time I'm surfing the net. Lot's of built systems later and disappointment with the hype, I found myself buying to what I do and enjoy the most. Now I choose system and part stability - no PCChips, Syntax, or other no names, I can handle Chaintech, but if I was an overclocker (waste of money and loud) I wouldn't even look their way - the soft nuances of a good sound card with quality speakers, the clarity and brillance of a nice monitor which I stare at for hours on end, the graphical game strength of a decent video card, and the transfer speeds of a raid system. In a week, I'll have received this deal from TD + a PM'd BFG 6600GT OC from stooples, another 35gb 10,000rpm raptor drive for my raid system, and a fanless heatpipe cpu cooler. Much, which I will have gotten on deals. And for the former system, well that's already sold at a good deal because I have friends that believe that if I said sticking a piece of turd in your computer makes it run faster, they'd be dropping their drawers in a hurry. Whatever you do, I hope you ask yourself what you want and what you expect from the money you possess. A good deal on hard earned money makes you proud that you didn't have to blow it on excess.

[l0thar]

LaZeRACED, excellent post.

I follow the same philosophy, did run a small biz building, selling and fixing computers in the past, and agree to all you said.

The industry depends on people running to upgrade frequently, there are computers everywhere now - I have a couple spare systems that are over a GHz sitting around. Good to dispell the Need from the Want. :D

Well done. :)

[LaZeRACED]

LaZeRACED, excellent post.

I follow the same philosophy, did run a small biz building, selling and fixing computers in the past, and agree to all you said.

The industry depends on people running to upgrade frequently, there are computers everywhere now - I have a couple spare systems that are over a GHz sitting around. Good to dispell the Need from the Want. :D

Well done. :)

Well then you and I are on the same page. When you're building systems and testing them you realize, darn, what's the big difference? Certainly, not much for the extra few hundred. Frustrating to know it, but my customers believed that they needed the latest because Mr. Jones has the same down the street and he said that his was FAST, and X Computer is offering a 2.4GHZ for so much dollars and that's the latest thing yada, yada, yada. Okay there, whatever you say, your the boss, makes no difference to me. Didn't make much more money on the high-end stuff anyways. Just glad I stopped doing it when I did, too much work for so little. Anyways, glad you got the post, if you're still in contact with your suppliers, don't you agree that the price is pretty darn good? Yeah, the rebate sucks, but I always file them and I have yet to be burned, knock on wood. Take it easy :)

[Cisco KId]

imho that board is average and NF3 offers more performance for the overclocking enthusiast (it can be quiet and does produce if you know what you are doing a sizeable and worthwhile performance increase), Asus tech support sux imho having had 2-3 issues with them in past.

The 3700+ is a great chip I agree in the slim performance diff between pci-e and agp as well as s939 and 754,, but possibility of limited to any upgrades and no dual core support which will be used in future games. TD rebates, well lets just say personally I would not even go near them, do a google and you will see you just may be wiser to avoid em.