AMD Socket AM2 Reviews

[dbarrow]

http://www.hardocp.com/news.html?news=MTkwMzksLCxobmV3cywsLDE=

*for you AMD fans, here is a list of links to various recent AMD reviews.

and another article:
NEW AMD AM2 Tested @ [H] Enthusiast
http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTA2NSwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==

[casey]

Is this just another class of motherboards, I really can't tell if this will take a 940 CPU or it's a completely different
class. I see some Abit motherboards mention 940 but am under the impression that the AM2 will only take AM2 chips. I must admit I am confused, and will these be the first AMD boards that will allow the use of DDR2?
I also wonder if there is a way they will be able to modify the present boards to allow DDR2 to be used?
So many questions.....

[athomsfere]

Oh Casey...
AM2 is a 940pin socket, however the 940 socket CPUs can not be physically fitted into the 940 slot. This was done to prevent confusion and people putting 940 CPUs into the AM2 boards which have different voltages and chipsets and thus damaging components
Yes the AM2 is the first AMD board to accept DDR2.
No there will and can not be 939 boards that accept DDR2,nor AM2 boards that can accept DDR.
With all AMD 64 CPUs (Sempron, Athlon, Opteron) the memory controller was taken off of the northbridge and built into the CPU itself, changing the type of RAM required means changing the memory controller. Since the memory controller is on-die, the only way to upgrade it is to upgrade the CPU.

Did I make this clear enough????

[casey]

AM2 is a 940pin socket, however the 940 socket CPUs can not be physically fitted into the 940 slot. This was done to prevent confusion and people putting 940 CPUs into the AM2 boards which have different voltages and chipsets and thus damaging components.



That was a very good explanation and cleared up a lot of questions in my mind. It all made sense except for the above paragraph. Maybe it's my comprehension but why would you make a 940 socket where a 940 CPU would not fit. I have already read where the socket is being referred to as 940 and this cannot do anything but cause confusion.. But thanks for the explanation as it did clear up a lot of things for me...

[jcampi]

I'm still confused with the whole AMD issue. At one time intel had a huge advantage because the motherboards included intel chipsets. How did AMD overcome this issue? Do new motherboards include a AMD chipset?

[mylanta]

I'm still confused with the whole AMD issue. At one time intel had a huge advantage because the motherboards included intel chipsets. How did AMD overcome this issue? Do new motherboards include a AMD chipset?

That is a matter of opinion. Actually years ago AMD was making chipsets for some boards but not any more. I think Nvidia entry into the fold is what made the difference. When board manufacturers were no longer dependent on Sis and Via garbage. Ati are supposed to be pretty good to as a new entry.

[athomsfere]

AMD is again making chipsets, the Crossfire boards are all AMD chipsets.
Nvidia was what started giving AMD the edge. They were the first to bring Dual Channel to AMD. AMD's architecture relies very much on high memory bandwidth and low latency RAM to get the performance needed to compete with the older Pentium brand.

That was a very good explanation and cleared up a lot of questions in my mind. It all made sense except for the above paragraph. Maybe it's my comprehension but why would you make a 940 socket where a 940 CPU would not fit. I have already read where the socket is being referred to as 940 and this cannot do anything but cause confusion.. But thanks for the explanation as it did clear up a lot of things for me...
Reply With Quote

Imagine you have your standard power cord for the PSU in your case with the three prongs. Now imagine Antec decided they didn't like that design anymore. What they could do is move all prongs to be in one horizontal line. No standrad three prong cord would fit in the PSU, but the cord would still be a three prong cord.
Take this same concept, and imagine the standard PSU takes 940 prongs (We'll call this the socket 940) and again Antec comes along and decides they don't like this design, so they redesign the socket so that the "socket 940" doesn't physically plug into it anylonger, even though there are 940 "Prongs" or "pins" in the CPU. (We'll call this new socket the AM2)

Does this all make sense now?

[casey]

This was done to prevent confusion and people putting 940 CPUs into the AM2 boards which have different voltages and chipsets and thus damaging components.



I understood what you were saying about the change but didn't understand how they cannot believe that this isn't going to cause confusion. I already am reading the 940 socket in the specifications. People are going to read that and feel as long as it's the 940 socket it will work..

[athomsfere]

Well, in that case I hope these vendors are preparing for the not fully aware buyers and builders returning these and asking WTF?

[athomsfere]

Bummed too...

Here I thought I wrote this great analogy to help clear something up, and I just didn't understand YOU!

LOL, well, maybe I'll copy that and try to get it published ;)

[mylanta]

AMD is again making chipsets, the Crossfire boards are all AMD chipsets.
Nvidia was what started giving AMD the edge. They were the first to bring Dual Channel to AMD. AMD's architecture relies very much on high memory bandwidth and low latency RAM to get the performance needed to compete with the older Pentium brand.



Imagine you have your standard power cord for the PSU in your case with the three prongs. Now imagine Antec decided they didn't like that design anymore. What they could do is move all prongs to be in one horizontal line. No standrad three prong cord would fit in the PSU, but the cord would still be a three prong cord.
Take this same concept, and imagine the standard PSU takes 940 prongs (We'll call this the socket 940) and again Antec comes along and decides they don't like this design, so they redesign the socket so that the "socket 940" doesn't physically plug into it anylonger, even though there are 940 "Prongs" or "pins" in the CPU. (We'll call this new socket the AM2)

Does this all make sense now?


I thought Crossfire is ATi chipset?
http://www.a1-electronics.net/Graphics_Cards/ATI/2005/ATI_CrossFire_June.shtml

[athomsfere]

That is a matter of opinion. Actually years ago AMD was making chipsets for some boards but not any more.

Yes they are. I saw this in an earlier post and was trying to clear things up.