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AMD Athlon 64 Socket-939 DIY Guide
By CPU-zilla
Category : DIY Guides
Published by Lim Chuan Jer on Wednesday, 14th July, 2004


Introduction

By now, you've probably heard of AMD's latest Socket-939 processor which promises better performance as it offers built-in dual-channel DDR400 memory controllers. If you've always wanted to build a system with 64-bit computing capabilties, there's no better time to do so than with AMD's latest range of Socket-939 processors. Offering excellent performance and features at an affordable price range, AMD's Athlon 64 and Athlon 64 FX processors will give users what they have always wanted - a revolutionary piece of technology for tomorrow's computing needs

In this DIY guide, we will cover the necessary basics and steps to successfully build your own Athlon 64 system. Since this is a new platform, we're pretty sure most beginners would find a guide useful. Of course, basics like how to mount and install a DVD-ROM drive or floppy drive will not be covered as we will assume that you already know how to do them - at least from our previous guides. You'll only find all the essential information needed pertaining to building a system based on the new Socket-939 processor and they should be adequate to get you started.

Before we begin, let's run through some of the available Socket-939 processors available from AMD. Note that the list here is not exhaustive since AMD will release new processor speeds from time to time. What is provided in the table below is correct at the time of publication.

Technical Specifications of Socket-939 Processors
Processor Athlon 64 Athlon 64 Athlon 64 FX
Model No. 3500+ 3800+ FX-53
Processor Frequency 2.2GHz 2.4GHz 2.4GHz
L1 Cache 128KB 128KB 128KB
L2 Cache 512KB 512KB 1024KB (1MB)
Memory Type Unbuffered dual-channel DDR400, DDR333, DDR266 or DDR200 memory
Memory Bandwidth Up to 6.4GB/s @ 400MHz
HyperTransport Bandwidth Up to 8.0GB/s @ 2.0GHz - bi-directional
No. of HyperTransport Links 1 non-coherent HyperTransport link
3D and Multimedia Instructions 3DNow! Professional technology, SSE2
Instruction Set AMD64 (64-bit) and x86 ISA (32-bit)
No. of Transistors 68.5 million 68.5 million 105.9 million
Process Technology 130nm, SOI (Silicon-On-Insulator) technology
Voltage 1.50V 1.50V 1.50V
Thermal Design Power 89W 89W 89W
Pricing* US$500 US$720 US$799
* Pricing as at 1 June 2004 for 1,000-unit tray quantities.

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