AMD Socket 939 Athlon FX-53 and 3800+ Review :: Introduction

AMD has had a string of new releases so far this year and the trend seems to be continuing as the year matures. I am quite surprised at AMD for keeping up their steam and continuing their efforts to bring us some variation in our CPU diet, as choice is a key factor when considering your options. I have been watching and toying with AMD CPU's since the early nineties and I have seen that company evolve over and over again in an attempt to make a name for themselves in the mainstream market. The key thing that I just could not ever warm up to was the Athlon's very finicky design that had a raised bit that could damaged with just a bit to much pressure applied when installing a cooling solution.

I actually have a stack of about fifteen dead AMD Athlon/Duron CPU's here in my lab. This accumulated stack is due mainly to a crushed bit that resulted in a no posting chip. This is something that happened when an over zealous technician was just changing form one CPU to the next harmlessly enough, and then without warning, the CPU was dead. This factor alone I will have to admit was something that made me pissed off more and more every time it happened again, as I could only imagine how many innocent people suffered this same fate. In my book, just changing the way the CPU's innards are not blatantly at risk anymore makes AMD more appealing as it will take a lot more than just a little extra pressure form the heatsink to put it out of commission.

939-Pin configuration

940-Pin configuration

Since the onset of the Athlon 64 in both the 754 and 940 line, I find myself reevaluating AMD in its entirety. I mean c'mon for once AMD really has something that Intel doesn't, A true 64-bit environment that Intel on the surface seems to just brush aside as if was just media hype with no real bearings on reality. Is this the case? At first I thought this as well, but as time has passed and I have seen Microsoft and others flocking to make this a reliable platform, I have changed my mindset and feel that not only did AMD grow giant balls to make such a bold move, I think they are now being true pioneers of CPU technology.

Intel as a company has not been idle either, mind you, but their roadmap is going along a different path that has the advancement of their chipset platform and I/O taking a giant leap in technological advancement in lieu of radical CPU changes. It is now time to take a look at what AMD has cooked up for our pre-summer meal and this comes in the form of the new Socket 939 platform. The 939 replaces both the Socket 754 and 940 platforms as their mainstream top of the line product and will support both the Opteron and Athlon 64 CPUs. AMD made good on their promise albeit a bit late in the delivery, so let's see what all the hype is all about, and if AMD has continued to evolve in a positive direction.