AM2 35w availability??

paulesko · Post by **paulesko** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 7:58 am

Hi everyone from Spain!

IÂ´ve been thinking about changing or not my old PIII which I use for internet, emule, watch some films and "play" sometimes

Well, the fact is that IÂ´m not sure which to buy, if a turion mt-40 or A64 x2 3800 am2 those which have a tdp of 35w. A64Â´s are cheapest and I think thatÂ´s the way to go for me (core duo is also too expensive). BUT I canÂ´t find any 35w A64, do you know if itÂ´s fully available, or if it will be some day??

Thank you very much and, once again, excuse my english

s2

Post by **Rusty075** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 8:15 am

They're starting to show up in a few spots, but availability seems really limited right now. If you google for the 3800x2's part number, "add3800cubox" you'll turn up a couple of german and dutch webshops that are selling them. You can find the part numbers for the other 35w EE chips on AMD's site.

NCIX.com is Canada is taking orders on them. Atacom.com is the only US shop that I know of that has them in stock right now.

I've been keeping an eye out for them myself....I think they'd make a perfect htpc CPU, but I'm waiting for the price to drop. Right now they're about $410 US (300 euro's (?) )

paulesko · Post by **paulesko** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 8:24 am

Thank you very much, IÂ´ll search with that information and IÂ´ll post here what I find.

IÂ´m also waiting for the price to drop, IÂ´ve read somewhere that x2 3800+ will be 50% off in 24 of july just for conroeÂ´s release, so I think 35w ones will be that cheap as well... will see.

thanks

Tibors · Post by **Tibors** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 2:31 pm

Rusty075 wrote:couple of german and dutch webshops that are selling them.

You made me very interested for about a minute. Unfortunately for me .dk stands for Denmark. So it's german and danish webshops.
dutch -> from the Netherlands -> .nl

Post by **Rusty075** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 2:40 pm

Sorry Tibors....the last I looked there was a .nl site showing them too. I haven't cruised the non-English sites for them in a couple of weeks.

smilingcrow · Post by **smilingcrow** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 2:52 pm

Iâ€™m not clear from your post exactly what your requirements are, as you mentioned a single core mobile chip and a dual core desktop chip! Judging from your intended usage, dual-core is overkill so why not just go for a standard Athlon 64 3200 and undervolt it; that will easily come in at under 35W. Thereâ€™s no need to buy an expensive low voltage Athlon 64 AM2, as a regular Athlon 64 single core will undervolt nicely or if you want dual-core, an Intel Core Duo is better value than the 35W X2 3800 and at a much lower wattage. In the UK, a 1.67 GHz Core Duo is about Â£60 cheaper than a 2 GHz S939 X2 3800; the difference in price covers the difference in motherboard costs. Note: these are both currently the lowest price low power dual core CPUs from each manufacturer that have desktop support; Turion X2 currently has no desktop support.

If youâ€™re not in a hurry I would wait until the end of July as pricing is going to go crazy around that time. An undervolted entry level Core Duo 2 desktop chip (E6300), is likely to prove very competitive against the low voltage 35W AM2 X2 3800 in performance and wattage terms. Its price is estimated to be $183, which is about half of the current price for the AMD part.
Itâ€™s unlikely that the 35W X2 3800 will drop in price as radically as the standard X2, but only time will tell. The low power AM2 chips are due to be generally available in July from what Iâ€™ve heard.

paulesko · Post by **paulesko** » Sun Jun 25, 2006 2:24 am

What I am looking for is a low powered system, thatÂ´s why I am thinkin about turion and x2 am2, just because they have very low power consumtion.

On the other hand, IÂ´ve been searchin deeply these days (now that IÂ´ve finished my exams) and IÂ´ve realised that both turion and "x2 35w" are only standard chips with les vcore, so if I can undervolt by myself why pay more for the same thing???

So I think IÂ´ll follow your advice since IÂ´ve realised that itÂ´s the best solution. Biostar t-force 6100 amd 3200 venice E6 (I will search a good stepping) and I will undervolt it. Much cheaper, much better

Finaly IÂ´m in a hurry, so I canÂ´t wait for conroe, I will buy another thing by febrary next year, but that will be a hot powerfull computer, which IÂ´ll use for 3d rendering, photoshop, and those things...

Thanks everyone.

s2

jaganath · Post by **jaganath** » Sun Jun 25, 2006 5:45 am

Biostar t-force 6100 amd 3200 venice E6 (I will search a good stepping) and I will undervolt it.

Be aware that the E6 steppings seem to have a Vcore lock which prevents undervolting below 1.1V, you may be better off with an E3 or D0 stepping.

flokel · Post by **flokel** » Sun Jun 25, 2006 5:49 am

Nevertheless it's (E6) running very cool even with min. 1,1Vcore

smilingcrow · Post by **smilingcrow** » Sun Jun 25, 2006 10:13 am

The power consumption at idle for my Winchester 3200+ is 3 watts less if I reduce the voltage from 1.1 to 0.9V. I canâ€™t lower the multiplier below 5 for this CPU but thereâ€™s a Sempron in my house that will go as low as 800 MHz @ 0.8V. When I get the time Iâ€™ll measure the difference for the Sempron @ 800/0.8 v 1000/1.1.

BillyBuerger · Post by **BillyBuerger** » Sun Jun 25, 2006 10:41 am

paulesko wrote:On the other hand, IÂ´ve been searchin deeply these days (now that IÂ´ve finished my exams) and IÂ´ve realised that both turion and "x2 35w" are only standard chips with les vcore, so if I can undervolt by myself why pay more for the same thing???

That's not necessarily true. I believe the Turions have some internal differences (more efficient transistors?). And I think the AM2 chips are now binned by how well they undervolt. So if a X2 can undervolt well enough, it gets thrown in the 35W bin. If not, it's in the 65W bin. So your chances of being able to undervolt a standard X2 to 35W levels is not very likely. But if you spend the extra money and get the 35W version, you're guaranteed to get a good undervolt.

It's good that it takes away the guessing game of whether or not you'll get a good cool-running chip. But it's bad in that you have to pay for that guarantee.

smilingcrow · Post by **smilingcrow** » Sun Jun 25, 2006 10:54 am

smilingcrow wrote:When I get the time Iâ€™ll measure the difference for the Sempron @ 800/0.8 v 1000/1.1.

The difference at idle is 7W, but the lowest stable voltage is 0.85 and not 0.8 as previously stated.
It might be academic as this is a S754 Sempron 3000 32 bit; I'm not sure if newer revisions can under-volt this low.
Still, that's a useful power saving for those looking to lose every extra watt.

ShagMan · Post by **ShagMan** » Mon Jun 26, 2006 7:33 am

OK, so I just did the numbers, because I'm moving from s754 to AM2 next month... lemme get this right, my 3000+ newcastle actually uses up the same amount of juice that a current X2 4600+ does? So I can upgrade, and expect that there will be very little extra heat generated? That's great if true!