teh_pwn said:
Sorry, I don't have time to read the entire thread, but i'll shoot anyway.
I'd go back to AMD 64 S939, or wait until a 3500+ is more reasonably priced.
The new sockets have double the memory controllers (like the FX series have) and perform quite a bit better than the S754s, especially in multitasking and applications.
As for the HDD, wait a bit and pick up a 200-400 GB SATA HDD with 16 MB cache and NCQ tech. I'm not sure if these work with the standard SATA 150 port, so you may have to look that up.
Here's one that's available now. Supposedly they perform on par with 74 GB Raptors (which are faster than the 36 GB one you plan on getting). But it actually has decent capacity:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=22-144-359&depa=0
I read this post at Anandtech a few minutes ago...
However, if you (like me) want a good comp for 2 years or so, socket 939 doesn't really make any sense. Its upgradeability is advertised and preached but the truth is that at current pace of PC market and tech, it's extremely unlikely that you'll be able to do anything reasonable with your 939 mobo in 2 years (DDR[?], SATA [?], PCI-E, etc.). That's why I think that socket 754 is a very good choice if you want a solid comp for a longer time. For many people, socket 939's "future-proofness" is an illusion.
It was in response to a guy who was looking at a similar upgrade that I'm going for (though he was going for a 3400+ and not 3000+). Like him, I simply do not upgrade all that frequently so getting something that's more expensive now just so it'll be easier to upgrade in 6-12 months doesn't mean much to me. I very likely won't be replacing the CPU or motherboard at least 18 months but likely longer than that.
There was a similar post that said something very similar. IE, If you upgrade frequently, get a 939. If you don't, pretty much any high end CPU will work for a good 2 years.
Like I mentioned before, I'm still running a 1.3ghz CPU. When I bought it, it wasn't the best of the best at the time either but rather the best price/performance, not unlike the 3000+ I'd like to get now.
So I think I'll stick with the 754 for now. I may read up a little more for the next day or two though before I put an order in.
As for the HDD, the 36.8gb will basically serve as a "system" HDD as I already have two 120gb drives that serve as data storage. I just need a really, really fast system drive and !~40gb is all I need. A 200gb+ primary is probably a little excessive for me.
Btw, would you happen to have any benchmarks that compare 939 vs. 754 CPUs?
*edit*
Just a quick thanks for all the advice everyone is giving. I may not follow it, but it's still pretty valuable to me.
*edit x2*
God I hate you. I thought I was pretty firm on what to get but now I'm not.
