i'm looking to upgrade my motherboard and want to have the ability to upgrade it over the next 6-12months so the new one needs to be as futureproof as possible! what considerations should i give towards ddr/ddr2, socket type, fsb, chipsets etc.? I do a lot of 3d modelling and rendering. Gaming isn't a priority. any suggestions?
Socket 939 is being phased out, so while it's still a viable option, do know that CPU's faster than the FX-60 (which is no slouch) won't be an option. AM2 is not compatible with Socket 939 (Athlon64, Opteron 1xx) or Socket 940 (Opteron 2xx and 8xx). The only thing Socket AM2 does is make the jump from DDR to DDR2, due to AMD changing the memory controller on the Athlon64 design to DDR2. Both Socket 939 and AM2 support the X2 dual-core CPU's. Your best bet is going to be something based on an nForce 500 series chipset. The 550 is the basic unit, followed by the 570, 570SLI and the top-end 590SLI. There's also a few motherboards based on the older nForce 4 chipset, which is another option. The nForce 5 has more bells and whistles than the nForce 4 series, but outside of that, you're not going to notice a whole lot. Any board with at least 1 PCIe x16 slot will fulfill your needs. Foxconn, Asus or Gigabyte are easy to find and should be some of the easiest boards to drop in and go. While I know you're looking specifically at AMD, Intel has a nice CPU in the Core 2 Duo. Their E6400 is comparable to the Athlon64 FX-60 and is cheaper (unless AMD does a major price slash). Look at some reviews around the web and you'll see what I mean.
thanks for the advice.... would my best bet be an am2 socket if i stick with AMD - i was contemplating an upgrade to x2 dual core cpu anyway. i'll take a look at the intel cpu's too - i'm in no rush to buy so i may aswell check out everything!!
Yeah, AM2 would be, but only because AMD won't be releasing any faster CPU's on the Socket 939 platform. That's the only reason, so if you would go with a 939 setup over an AM2, you'd only have that as a disadvantage. If you don't have a Socket 939 and are upgrading, you'd just be better of with AM2, but if you have a Socket 939 box, it's silly to switch over to AM2.
