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Prices: CPU Intel P4 2.4C-800 P4 2.6C-800 P4 2.8C-800 P4 3.0-800 P4 3.2-800 AMD AthlonXP XP 1700+ XP 2000+ XP 2400+ XP 2500+ XP 2700+ XP 3000+ XP 3200+ Athlon64 Athlon64 3200+ Athlon64 FX-51 Opteron Opteron 240 Opteron 242 Opteron 244 Opteron 246 Memory Corsair Crucial Kingston Mushkin OCZ |
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| AMD Athlon64 3200+ - ASUS K8V Deluxe The Middle Grounds | |
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(Review by MS, November 3, 2003) |
| K8V Deluxe At: |
Athlon64 3200+ Quickie
The Athlon64, as it was originally planned, only features a single memory controller and a single hypertransport link. Otherwise, it is essentially the same processor as the Opteron and, by extension, the FX51, featuring the same internal registers and 1 MB L2 cache. Likewise, the manufacturing process is identical, that is, the same 130 nm SOI interconnect is used.
The main difference between the Athlon64 "home edition" and the "-FX" and Opteron versions is the limitation of the memory bus to 64 bit width plus the extra eight check-bits for ECC. Naturally, this will cut down on the overall available bandwidth but it will also reduce the pin-count of the package, in this case, we are looking at 754 pins as opposed to the 940 pins on the Opteron -FX versions. On the up-side, the Athlon64 (non-FX) does not require registered memory and will, therefore, set the standards for low access latencies another notch higher - or lower whichever way one looks at it.
Athlon64 3200+: 200 MHz external CPU clock, 10 x multiplier, 2000 MHz clock speed, integrated "cap" for better heat dissipation and mechanical protection, 754 pins.
A single memory controller will cause a marginally lower power draw on the processor than two units running in parallel, keep in mind, however, that we are talking about the data buses here. Similar to most other single-channel controllers, the integrated memory controller of the Athlon 64 seems to have two individual address and control units, one of which is mapped to a single DIMM slot, whereas the second one is shared between slots 2 and 3.
As in the case of the Opteron and Athlon64-FX, the standard Athlon64 has a processor cap, often called a heat spreader, which, essentially is a misnomer since there is not much spreading going on if any heatsink is mounted. Rather it is a cap to protect the processor die from mechanical damage and to facilitate the correct mounting of the heatsink.
It goes without saying that the Athlon64 is a 64bit processor, and as such, it is waiting mostly for Microsoft to come out with a mainstream 64-bit version of Windows, along with porting of the necessary applications to run in 64-bit mode. Until then, most of the additional registers will not be put to use, however, the CPU will still benefit from its larger cache and the faster access speed of the memory controller.
Details of the Athlon64 architecture can be found in our Athlon64 FX51 Review.
next page: => Memory Compatibility and Performance =>
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