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Three Budget CPUs Tested
Steve writes "HEXUS.net are taking a look at three 'value' CPUs. The Sempron 2800+ and 3100+ from AMD (Socket A and Socket 754 respectively.) The price range of the three is fairly broad, the 3100+ coming out on top, also costing the most. Also, for those of you who enjoy cheap thrills, some overclocking has been thrown in, too." (The third chip reviewed is the Celeron D.)
Insightful, more than funny. Just take a look at the street prices for these processors, and compare to Athlons... You'll find the faster Athlons are cheaper in the same mhz rating. Add in double the cache on Athlon, and you'd have to be an idiot to buy a "budget" cpu.
"And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the World"
1 John 4:14
Semper ubi sub ubi
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
..to their more comfortable print version.
I don't do any scientific computing or anything involving too much math... if these CPUs make a few mistakes here or there it won't really bother me.
Now here, I'm a hardcore AMD user, I have 5 of thier athlon xp's sitting in various forms in my house. Now what is all this business about having an Athlon 64 that does not have 64 bit capability. I just dont get it. Wouldnt an athlon 64 without 64 bit capability be an athlon XP with a new core and new socket?
Sempron = new name for the 32 bit AthlonXP.
Athlon = `new' name for the 64 bit Athlon64.
Basically, Sempron isn't very different from the AthlonXP that we're used to (and in many cases. they're identical.) And now they'll reserve the Athlon name for the 64 bit versions. Unless I've misunderstood something ...
Well, this spoils the joke, but a word-for-word translation from Latin goes something like: "Always where under where." Think about it.
Karma: Segmentation fault (tried to dereference a null post)
Maybe I'm just too old school for this, but looking at the cost of a new Athlon 64 3000 and motherboard is so low that I wouldn't want to compromise and get the Sempron.
I'd prefer to spend the extra $20 or so and get the better chip.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
The other chip reviewed is the Celeron D.
In other words: HEY SLASHDOT, TWO NEW BUDGET ATHLONS ARE OUT...oh..and that other.. Intel thing..
Seriously though, did anyone else laugh immediately at the bias in this community? I thought it was pretty humorous...
I'll go back to my troll hole now..
"Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the President to explain to us what the exit strategy is." G.W.Bush
Why did you buy an entirely new PC and not just a new motherboard?
Even a bigger question, why a Compaq?
I just put together a Sempron 3100+ (i.e. A64 core) system for a mate. As an indication of it's use, it has a 9600XT - so "mid-level" gaming - Neverwinter Nights, Doom 3 on reasonable quality levels.
I was impressed by the performance. But I was blown away by the temperatures. After pushing it though 3DMark 2001 and Aquamark (12301 and 29381 respectively - highest score on any of our machines) it was running at 43 celsius. Ambient at the time was about 30 celsius. And this was in a system so quiet that I couldn't hear a damn thing, even with my ear right near the box (Antec).
The new core is *much* better than the Athlon XP core.
probably because his first computer was a compaq(i have no proof, but it's a good guess)
a budy of mine bought a dell, even though i and others told him not to. his power supply went out during warranty, got a new one. his power supply went out again, but this time he wasn't under the warranty any more. he couldn't drop a normal power supply in, because the locations were different and he would have to cut some metal. so he purchased a new case. the motherboard also had to be replaced as his old motherboard wasn't atx. he decided to buy a new sound card since his sound blaster live was proprietary. he also had to buy new ram, but that is because his old motherboard was rdram, not really a big issue, just sold the rdram to a friend.
anyways, when people buy these boxes that big companies like compaq, dell, hp, etc put together, they have little control of the components. thus when something dies they often have to buy an entirely new pc, and not just an individual component.
that's just my point of view, i have always built my own boxes, of course your experience may vary. i have seen some very good mass production boxes, but that was years ago when gateway made sweet pentium mmx/pentium II stuff.
"but money is the God of Algiers & Mahomet their prophet." - Rich. O'Bryen June 8th 1786
Is the Athlon XP-M 2500/2600. Unlocked multipliers, hand-picked cores, and cheap to boot. You're pretty much guaranteed that one will hit 2.3 GHz, and with good air cooling, 2.5 GHz is even possible.
What's better, because of the unlocked multiplier, you can throw fast memory on the board, and overclock the memory/FSB as far as the motherboard will go, *then* turn the clock speed up. I'll bet that one of those would have beaten the entire lot that they tested.
steve
Oh, you're not stuck, you're just unable to let go of the onion rings.
cheap labor conservatives - they want to keep you hungry enough to be thankful for minimum wage.