Computer Power User Article - AMD Athlon 64 3800+ & Soltek SL-K890Pro-939

AMD Athlon 64 3800+ & Soltek SL-K890Pro-939 2005 • CPU Special Issue Page(s) 68-69 in print issue Add To My Personal Library AMD Athlon 64 3800+ & Soltek SL-K890Pro-939 Last time we did a issue, we overclocked a slew of socket A and socket 754 motherboards with both 64-bit and non-64-bit AMD processors. For this round, we decided to dump the kiddie stuff and focus on AMD’s socket 939 CPUs. First up, the Athlon 64 3800+, which is built on the Venice core and features a 2.4GHz clock speed and 512KB of L2 cache, along with the ability to juggle both 32-bit and 64-bit apps. The Venice core, sometimes referred to as Rev. E, has a few new tricks up its sleeve, such as support for SSE3 instructions, improved memory mapping, and better memory loading. The 3800+’s first outing fell into the capable hands of Soltek. AGP was one technology that bit the dust since the last time we did our Case Studies. All of the AMD-compatible chipsets are also PCI-Express-capable, and the SL-K890Pro-939 is no exception. This motherboard sports VIA’s new K8T890 chipset for Athlon 64 and FX processors and, at $99, Soltek’s board is reasonable. Soltek threw in rounded IDE cables, a rear panel USB module, and