Athlon XP V Sempron

Azza

Looking at the moment to pick up a cheap Athlon XP in the performance bracket of 2200-2600 either Thoroughbread, Barton or Mobile Barton. Unfortantly I've had no luck so far on boards and I can't seem to find the athlon xp's in stock anywhere that has the lower speed athlon's in stock so I'm looking at a Sempron 2800 2.0Ghz. How would your reckon that would preform compared to the athlon XP's I'm looking for?

Woden

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2139&p=1

good round up here, anandtech seems to put it around the same as the 2500-2600+ mark. but recommend the 2600+ over the sempron as is should be cheaper but if you can't find the athlon i suppose the sempron is the way forward.

personally i'd take a look at the mobile chips if you can still get your hands on one

[edit]check out www.jes.de atm they have the sempron in stock and the mobile 2600+ and have the regular 2400+ and 2600+ on order [/edit]

Azza

Not for me. For someone with no interest in overclocking so I'm not sure.

Kavs

Semperons preform very well for the bracket there in.
I got hold of one for a day and it stood up very well to the XP if not better.
Also they overclock like a mutha, I had a 2400 @ 1.66ghz if I remember correctly and was able to get it running stable at 2.15ghz on the standard cooler.Thats equivelent to a 3200 xp or more.
Definitely a good bang for buck chip! I'd highly recommend it for a budget PC.

Azza

Yeah I think I will opt for the sempron. He's got a good overclocking board if he was interested in doing it but I doubt he is.

RicardoSmith

All the semprons except the 3000 and the 3100 are the same as the AthlonXP's with 256 L2 cache. The later AthlonXP's are called Barton and have 512 of L2 cache and so will be faster than a semperon of the same clock speed.

The Sempron 3000+ has 512 of cache so its the same as Barton AthlonXP. The Sempron 3100 is a completely different socket (754) and is a cut down 64bit cpu.

The mobile AthlonXP's have 512 L2 cache and run much cooler and with less volts, so you can run a quieter cooler. Great chip but more expensive.

But the semprons are cheaper and if you are not overclocking, or too bothered about wringing the last drop of performance out of the chip then they are good basis for a cheap machine. A new celeron is about the same but the motherboards tend to be dearer, so if you are trying to save money don't bother.

OcuK is as good a place as any to buy them.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/AMD_CPUs.html

secret_squirrel

Its also worth mentioning that Semprons tend to easily outperform Celery's too.

Azza

I won't ever be buying from overclockers.co.uk .....bad experiences with them as had a couple of my friends and they have a terrible reputation as well.

RicardoSmith

secret_squirrel wrote:

Its also worth mentioning that Semprons tend to easily outperform Celery's too.

Not really. Compare the Semperon 2800+ with the Celeron 335 here..
http://www.hexus.net/content/reviews/review.php?dXJsX3Jldmlld19JRD04MjcmdXJsX3BhZ2U9MQ==
Not much between them, but socket A boards tend to be cheaper.

Azza wrote:

I won't ever be buying from overclockers.co.uk .....bad experiences with them as had a couple of my friends and they have a terrible reputation as well.

I've had bad experiences with all the online retailers at one time or another. So thats why I say ones as good (or as bad) as the other. They used to be a lot better a few years ago. What terrible reputation have you heard?

HungryJoey

Sempron is going to owne around march time. Sempron are changing to S754. They really are gonig to do well for them selves when they go to s754 and they will be extreme overclockers...Celeron are really going to be screwed,

secret_squirrel

I've had nothing but good experiences from OCuk - as long as you dont try their phone lines they are grand.

Azza

There is a website called www.romulus2.com or that co.uk that has user feedback area regarding online computer component retailers in the uk and overclockers.co.uk got very bad reports. I have tried ordering from them as have a couple of my friends but there was always some problems with them.

secret_squirrel

They are rated 21st out of >200 hundred retailers - thats hardly a bad placing - especially considering some of the big names that are below them. Like Dabs and simply

Azza

Look at the comments. Things is many website need to get 15 comments before being ranked. So many sites with higher reviews but less comments aren't ranked. I assume most of those comments where negative about them.

RicardoSmith

Azza wrote:

.... I have tried ordering from them as have a couple of my friends but there was always some problems with them.

Tried and failed ...how?