AM2 Build/ anyone have problems?

[ranchhand]

I am going to build my first AM2 setup using the Orleans 2.4GHz chip. Not sure yet which mobo. Just a question: anyone have any encoding problems with the AM2 platform? I am capturing analog camcorder and burning to DVD to preserve family movies.

I was going to build 64bit, but if I scout around I can go AM2 for the same money. So why not?

[redwudz]

I've put a couple of AM2 machines together. Just single processor CPUs, though. They are really not much different from the regular Athlons, mainly just a different chipset and they have much more memory bandwidth. It goes off the chart when running a SiSandra benchmark, compared to regular DDR.

The same as most AMDs, Nvidia chipsets seem to perform the best. ATI has a new chipset out for AM2 MBs that looks interesting also. Nvidia is easy to overclock. I would stay away from VIA at present.

I have a AM2 Sempron 3000 and a Athlon 3800 which I may upgrade to a dual core. The 3800 is for a HTPC with a Asus M2NPV-VM MB outputting composite video to my projector. The other is a Gigabyte GA-M51GM-S2G I put together for a friend. All the AM2 CPUs are 64bit, AFAIK. But I'm running XP 32 bit OS.

Depending on the motherboard, you may have to careful with your RAM choice. Some are very picky. Go to the MB manufacturer website to check on what they recommend.

Be ready for SATA also. Most of the MBs have 4 or more SATA connections. Gigabit LANs also, and often FireWire on the motherboard. A lot of nice features. I've used Micro-ATX MBs so far, as I don't really need much in the way of fast graphics and having the video built in saves a few dollars.

It's hard to tell on speed. I went from a Athlon 3200, so the 3800 is a fair bit faster. I run about a 7% OC on the CPU, but it will go higher. I need more stability than speed.

For economy and value, you might look at the AM2 Athlon 3800 dual core. About $150US. That's only $5 more than I paid for the single core processor a month ago. The AM2's seem to be displacing the 939 Athlons at present.