[rescue] Hardware failure

[nate at portents.com]

> Phil Brutsche wrote:
>> Pshaw, Socket 754 and Socket 939 are passe; Socket AM2 is a 940-pin
>> socket designed for DDR2.  *All* new consumer-oriented setups will be
>> AM2 in the next 6 months.
>
> o/" Meet the new bus, same as the old bus .... o/"

All AM2 does is bring in DDR2, and with the increased memory latencies of
DDR2 (and DDR2 hasn't gone down much in latency since it was introduced,
and the few sort-of low latency sticks out there are absurdly expensive
and don't bring the performance gains you'd expect), it really doesn't
make much difference. In the real world it turns out that doubling memory
bandwidth when you also double latency makes next to 0% performance
improvement for AMD64.

BTW, be *very* careful about memory compatability with AM2 - I tried
Mushkin DDR2 667, OCZ DDR2 800, and finally had to get Patriot DDR2 667
(which was actually tested and guaranteed on AMD as well as Intel) before
I got DDR2 memory that would work with AM2. Beware most DDR2 memory, which
is only tested on and will only work on Intel motherboards, even now.  In
general I highly recommend Patriot brand memory for AMD (have had good
success for years now with them on AMD).

It won't be until next year, with HyperTransport 3, quad core, and *maybe*
the introduction of DDR3 (or another memory type) that AMD64 is going to
improve significantly.

Meanwhile, Intel has pulled ahead with their Core 2 line of CPUs, and will
stay ahead for the rest of the year for the non-server market (their
shared bus designs continue to hurt them in the server market).

>> Socket 754 and Socket 939 non-Opteron CPUs are almost totally gone from
>> the retail markets (but they'll live long on eBay), and (non-server)
>> motherboards will follow shortly.
>
> Kinda sucks, really.  It makes it a much bigger economic proposition to
> upgrade.

Hmm?  Performance-wise, no point in upgrading from 939/940 to AM2.  From
754, sure, you get dual-core support and dual channel memory controllers,
but otherwise, no point.  If you need more performance now, go with Core 2
on July 27, or just wait until next year (unless AMD has some major ace up
their sleeve no one knows about).

- Nate