Hey for a Value Chip

[orgoth]

What do you guys think of the semperon 3400 for a budget machine? I don't care to play games at a REALLY high resolution only about 1024x768 medium details is fine for what I need, I do play games that are 1/2 year old or so... wow and a couple others nothing super taxing. was planning on putting a NV 6800 PCI express card in it, just need somthing low to medium end to be good for C#Programming and some games (albit little older)

 

[mesarectifier]

I play CoD2 with only a Radeon 9200 and a socket A Sempron 2200+! You should be well off with a S3400 and a 6800.

 

[JonathanDeane]

I usualy stay away from all things Sempron/Celeron.... I usualy find that systems are faster useing the cheapest regular processor VS almost any of the "cheaper" ones. If its good enough for you then go for it and later on you can always upgrade to something faster

 

[steckman]

I just checked the prices on Socket 754 processors at NewEgg and the Athlon 64 3000+ Venice is slightly cheaper than the Sempron 64 3400+ Palermo. I can't say for sure, but I would imagine that the Athlon would outperform the Sempron since they are both running at the same frequency, but the Athlon has a superior architecture and double the L2 cache.
Also, I should note that the Socket 939 Venice is actually cheaper than the Socket 754 one now, so unless you are stuck with an older Socket 754 motherboard, I would go with Socket 939.
And my favorite 6800 PCIe card is the XFX Geforce 6800 XTreme which is $99 after a big rebate.

 

[ak47is1337]

What do you guys think of the semperon 3400 for a budget machine? I don't care to play games at a REALLY high resolution only about 1024x768 medium details is fine for what I need, I do play games that are 1/2 year old or so... wow and a couple others nothing super taxing. was planning on putting a NV 6800 PCI express card in it, just need somthing low to medium end to be good for C#Programming and some games (albit little older)

Without a lot of overclocking, Sempron/Celeron solutions are essentially terribly performers. For getting the best out of your money, I'd go with an AMD 3000 and a good, cheap motherboard for 939, let's say..ASRock dual-sata2, or Biostar TForce6100-939. Secondly, I don't really recommend the 6800 as a 6600gt can often beat it, costing approximately the same.

 

[Seanreisk]

I'm not a fanboi. My main box is a 3700+ with 2G and a 7800GTX; my secondary box is a P4 3.4 with 1G and an X800XT.

If you're looking to build an inexpensive computer today, spend the extra $20.00 and buy the Pentium D 805 ($120.00 from NewEgg).

Yes, it's a P4. But its a dual core with the full cache. Yes, it's only 2.66Mhz on a 533 bus, but if you think about it, thats its advantage and thats what makes it such a great deal - Intel isn't selling you a crippled product, they're selling you a full-sized Pentium D dual core that they've underclocked so that they don't cut into their mid-range processor sales. An idiot could figure out how to clock it up, just changing the FSB gives good results, and I haven't met anyone who can't get it to 2.8Ghz+ on air (I know someone who is running at almost 3.4 without liquid cooling).

Mad Shrimps has a great article on overclocking this processor.

It has EM64T support. Not nearly as nice as the Athlon 64-bit support, but it's still nice because you don't have to sit on the sidelines when 64-bit Windows Vista applications start to show up.

Does it have the punch of the AMD processors? No. But its a solid processor, and when Vista comes out and the game / application developers start optimizing for threads you'll be happy that you have that extra core.

If you had unlimited funds, I'd tell you to buy a nice, fat X2. But if you're looking for a cheap rig with good potential, this month the D 805 is your price premium.

 

[ak47is1337]

I'm not a fanboi. My main box is a 3700+ with 2G and a 7800GTX; my secondary box is a P4 3.4 with 1G and an X800XT.

If you're looking to build an inexpensive computer today, spend the extra $20.00 and buy the Pentium D 805 ($120.00 from NewEgg).

Yes, it's a P4. But its a dual core with the full cache. Yes, it's only 2.66Mhz on a 533 bus, but if you think about it, thats its advantage and thats what makes it such a great deal - Intel isn't selling you a crippled product, they're selling you a full-sized Pentium D dual core that they've underclocked so that they don't cut into their mid-range processor sales. An idiot could figure out how to clock it up, just changing the FSB gives good results, and I haven't met anyone who can't get it to 2.8Ghz+ on air (I know someone who is running at almost 3.4 without liquid cooling).

Mad Shrimps has a great article on overclocking this processor.

It has EM64T support. Not nearly as nice as the Athlon 64-bit support, but it's still nice because you don't have to sit on the sidelines when 64-bit Windows Vista applications start to show up.

Does it have the punch of the AMD processors? No. But its a solid processor, and when Vista comes out and the game / application developers start optimizing for threads you'll be happy that you have that extra core.

If you had unlimited funds, I'd tell you to buy a nice, fat X2. But if you're looking for a cheap rig with good potential, this month the D 805 is your price premium.

Pentium D 805's have atrociously bad performance stock. Plus, because it's basically 2 Prescotts, they are HOT as hell. HKEPC got it to 3.7 on air, but noted that it was one of the most thermally strong chips they had ever touched. If you're not overclocking, stay away from the thing. But yes, it is a great overclocker.

 

[jaguarskx]

I usualy stay away from all things Sempron/Celeron.... I usualy find that systems are faster useing the cheapest regular processor VS almost any of the "cheaper" ones. If its good enough for you then go for it and later on you can always upgrade to something faster

You know I might have made a similar comment like this at the beginning of this year, but then I decided to really take a look at the Sempron 64. Based on some synthetic benchmarks and games it does perform on par with a S939 Athlon 64 3000+. The Sempron beats the Athlon in some benchmarks and loses at others.

If you don't care about having the option to upgrade to dual core, then I'd say buy the Sempron you won't be disappointed. In fact when overclocked to 2.6GHz it can beat the Athlon 64 3800+ in some tests.

Sempron 3400+ Review

Not too shabby.

 

[ak47is1337]

I usualy stay away from all things Sempron/Celeron.... I usualy find that systems are faster useing the cheapest regular processor VS almost any of the "cheaper" ones. If its good enough for you then go for it and later on you can always upgrade to something faster

You know I might have made a similar comment like this at the beginning of this year, but then I decided to really take a look at the Sempron 64. Based on some synthetic benchmarks and games it does perform on par with a S939 Athlon 64 3000+. The Sempron beats the Athlon in some benchmarks and loses at others.

If you don't care about having the option to upgrade to dual core, then I'd say buy the Sempron you won't be disappointed. In fact when overclocked to 2.6GHz it can beat the Athlon 64 3800+ in some tests.

Sempron 3400+ Review

Not too shabby.
I still doubt the performance of Sempron's. Plus, a 3000 at 2.7 would annhilate that

 

[jaguarskx]

I still doubt the performance of Sempron's. Plus, a 3000 at 2.7 would annhilate that

True, but there are some people out there who embraces the Sempron 64 just to save $30 - $40 on a S754 CPU & mobo combo.

Like I said it's performance is not too shabby, but that's not a solution I would opt for.

 

[orgoth]

I actually made a mistake its not the 3400 Semperon but the 3500 which is a different chipset all together, the 3400 ran on the 754and the 3500 was made to work with the 939 chipset being the same speed as the previous ones just using a different chipset. making it upgradeable

I paid $320 for a compaq presario(sp?) thats running
semperon 3500
PCI express
512 Ram (2x 256) upgradeable to 4g
160Gig HD,
Dvd Burner/Light scribe
and some other misc junk
oh yeah and XP pro


im thinking this is great for a low cost upgrade box...

 

[dvdpiddy]

What do you guys think of the semperon 3400 for a budget machine? I don't care to play games at a REALLY high resolution only about 1024x768 medium details is fine for what I need, I do play games that are 1/2 year old or so... wow and a couple others nothing super taxing. was planning on putting a NV 6800 PCI express card in it, just need somthing low to medium end to be good for C#Programming and some games (albit little older)

I played cod2 with a socket a sempron 2200 at 1.5 ghz and a 6800 agp at 50 fps on medium so ya its okay.

 

[jap0nes]

I play BF2 on my socket 754 sempron 2800 and a GF6600 at 800x600 medium (cant set to high coz i have only 512 of ram), pretty smooth.

you should be fine with a 6800 and a 3400+, but as someone pointed out, the venice 3000+ is about the same price, and is should perform equal or better, as it has double the L2 and dual channel memory. also, you have a better upgrade path going 939

 

[jap0nes]

cool, i've heard of these 939 semprons not reaching retail market. 320$ and you got a pretty good machine. just put a good video card and you're done

 

[shabodah]

No, socket 754 does not support dual channel regardless. The 3000 athlon for 754 is 2.0ghz single channel, the 939 3000 is 1.8ghz dual channel. Performance of 754 stock is better than 939 stock, both overclock pretty well, but I've never heard of a 754 having trouble reaching 2.5ghz. Sempron performance is not very different than venice, despite what people believe. The old Duron and first semprons are not like the current ones. The 754 64bit semprons are the same architecture as the athlons, just with smaller L2 cache. L2 cache does not bring a huge boost in performance in this architecture. That said, it does NOT make sense to pay more for the Sempron 256 L2 than the Venice 512. NOR does it make sense to move up the the 2.2ghz venice for 754 that was just released, it costs WAY too much for the 200mhz improvement.

 

[jap0nes]

That said, it does NOT make sense to pay more for the Sempron 256 L2 than the Venice 512. NOR does it make sense to move up the the 2.2ghz venice for 754 that was just released, it costs WAY too much for the 200mhz improvement.

what are you talking about? he asked about a sempron 3400 being good, and i said it is... but it's better going to a 939 venice

thanks for your explanation on socket 754 and dual channel, but i already knew that...

i'll write again if you didnt read well

you should be fine with a 6800 and a 3400+, but as someone pointed out, the venice 3000+ is about the same price, and is should perform equal or better, as it has double the L2 and dual channel memory. also, you have a better upgrade path going 939

venice 3000+ -> 1800mhz, 512kb L2 dual channel
sempron 3400+ -> 2000mhz, 256kb L2 single channel

oh, by the way, when i meant venice, i was referring to a 939 venice...
you can get 200mhz from a 939 venice, but you cant get 256kb of cache from a 3400 sempron... cache size may not make much of a difference, but if someday i need, it is there

Also, he said it's a 939 dual channel sempron, which actually exists, but not for retail market.

that said, i dont know what's your point with your statements

 

[shabodah]

ok, so you said some things I already knew, I said some things you already, but hopefully anyone else who is reading this has everything straight.

 

[steckman]

I looked up your computer (which I believe is a Presario sr1720nx) and I have two suggested upgrades.
The first is the video card, which I think a 6800, 6600GT, or 7600GT would all be fine.
The second is memory. According to Compaq's website, you have 2 available DIMM slots. I would suggest slapping two 512MB sticks in there and bringing your total to 1.5GB. I don't play WOW, but I've been told that it benefits from a 512MB to 1GB RAM increase, so 1.5GB should do nicely.
I think your current CPU is fine for your needs. I misunderstood earlier and thought you were contemplating buying a Sempron 3400 (or 3500) as an upgrade.
Here is the link I was using to get information about your computer.

 

[orgoth]

I ended getting the 3500 semperon
which CPUZ describes
Number of CPUs 1
APIC ID 0
Name AMD Sempron 3500+
Code name Palermo
Specification AMD Sempron(tm) Processor 3500+
Family/Model/Stepping FF2
Extended Family/Model F/2F
Brand ID 38
Package Socket 939
Core Stepping E6
Technology 90nm
Instructions Sets MMX, Extended MMX, 3DNow!, Extended 3DNow!, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, x86-64

Features NX
Clock Speed 2000.8 MHz
Clock multiplier x9.0
P-Rating 3500+
L1 Data Cache 64 KBytes, 2-way set associative, 64 Bytes line size

L1 Instruction Cache 64 KBytes, 2-way set associative, 64 Bytes line size

L2 Cache 256 KBytes, 16-way set associative, 64 Bytes line size

L2 Speed 2000.8 MHz (Full)
L2 Location On Chip
L2 Data Prefetch Logic yes
L2 Bus Width 128 bits

my only problem seems to be that my clockspeeds changing all the time instead of staying at 2000 it moves around " depending on how much is needed for your application" there is a way to shut it off i just can't for the life of me remember how for that matter does it even matter? or should I leave that feature on?

 

[jap0nes]

if it can be disable, you'll have to do it in bios, but i dont know if compaq's bios allow you to do it.
if it's working that way i guess it's safe to leave it on...

 

[ak47is1337]

I ended getting the 3500 semperon
which CPUZ describes
Number of CPUs 1
APIC ID 0
Name AMD Sempron 3500+
Code name Palermo
Specification AMD Sempron(tm) Processor 3500+
Family/Model/Stepping FF2
Extended Family/Model F/2F
Brand ID 38
Package Socket 939
Core Stepping E6
Technology 90nm
Instructions Sets MMX, Extended MMX, 3DNow!, Extended 3DNow!, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, x86-64

Features NX
Clock Speed 2000.8 MHz
Clock multiplier x9.0
P-Rating 3500+
L1 Data Cache 64 KBytes, 2-way set associative, 64 Bytes line size

L1 Instruction Cache 64 KBytes, 2-way set associative, 64 Bytes line size

L2 Cache 256 KBytes, 16-way set associative, 64 Bytes line size

L2 Speed 2000.8 MHz (Full)
L2 Location On Chip
L2 Data Prefetch Logic yes
L2 Bus Width 128 bits

my only problem seems to be that my clockspeeds changing all the time instead of staying at 2000 it moves around " depending on how much is needed for your application" there is a way to shut it off i just can't for the life of me remember how for that matter does it even matter? or should I leave that feature on?

Turn off AMD Cool'n'Quiet.

 

[orgoth]

is it worth it to do that, or will my system run games and other apps just fine without doing that my worry if it does do that would be it slowing my clockspeed during a quiet moment in a game and then causing lag when it has to kick up again

 

[ak47is1337]

is it worth it to do that, or will my system run games and other apps just fine without doing that my worry if it does do that would be it slowing my clockspeed during a quiet moment in a game and then causing lag when it has to kick up again

it could happen, im pretty sure it detects when to remove voltage and clockspeed when it hits a low cpu moment, but the game might still be taking up 5%+ during a game. is it lagging after sitting in a spot for awhile?