Full Review

After upgrading my linux server to an Athlon 64 3200 , I HAD to upgrade my windows machine. I was just that impressed. It really doesn't make sense buying a high end pentium 4, when you can buy an athlon 64 for a similar price.

This processor is covered in great detail in the first review of this product, so I'll just cover highlights.

Cool N Quiet is not supported by all motherboards, so make sure you get a motherboard that supports it. I got 2 K8V Deluxe motherboards with my processors, which are great boards, although a bit more expensive. This will save you noise and electricity.

Execute protection means that with release of windows XP service pack 2, only AMD64 processors (and Itanium) support this new security feature. It stops buffer overflows which accounts for about half of viruses.


64 bit is not something that has hit critical mass yet and it will be months before 64 bit windows is released. The real idea is to future proof yourself. 64 bit will be everywhere within the life of a new computer bought today. It means better capabilities that are available. About May a newer socket (939 pins) will be released, so if you aren't a major hardware nut like me, buy the later version.

socket 754 is single channel memory, which means slower bandwidth if using 3 memory slots, which is why most of these boards only have 2 slots. This product is the best price performance in any case. The best performance is the Athlon FX-53, but Athlon 64 3200 is the sweet spot in the price AND performance equation. It's only a bit more expensive than the Athlon 64 3000

Linux support is very good for this product. I tested Fedora Core 1 for AMD64 and it was feature complete and stable. I understand Suse is better because they keep a copy of the 32 bit libraries, which makes it easier when mixing 32 and 64 bit programs.