Sempron faster than Athlon XP?

[marshahu]

I am building a budget small form factor PC preferably to play games, watch TV and use as a Media Center PC basically (I intend to use Windows XP MCE 2005). Because of budget I am using a Socket A motherboard in anticipation to use an AMD Sempron processsor or perhaps an AMD Athlon XP.

Is it worth me hunting round to find some rare Athlon XP processors for the extra performance or will the Sempron offer exactly the same if not better performance than Athlon XPs?

PC Spec: AMD Athlon XP 2000+, ECS K7S5A Motherboard, 768MB SDRAM PC133, Sparkle nVidia Riva TNT2 M64 32MB AGP Graphics Card, Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 6.1, Windows XP

 

[sturm]

Sempron will soon support 64 bit. not sure when but thats the plan. I would go with the 939 socket to open up future upgrades if you want

 

[GyRo567]

And just so you know, you can still easily find Athlon XP CPUs on NewEgg.com for a decent price. I haven't checked in the last two weeks, but I know my Athlon XP 2700+ was like less than half the price I bought it for in 2003... >_>

 

[Crashman]

Isn't the board you're using right now Micro ATX? I'd get a Micro ATX desktop case, one that resembles a home stereo, and slap that whole system into it. Then after getting it how I liked...I'd probably swap out the video card and add a TV tuner.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[addiarmadar]

I just really hate those Semperons for that are T-Bred wannabies with a higher price tag.



<i><font color=red>Only an overclocker can make a computer into a convectional oven.</i></font color=red>

 

[marshahu]

My current ECS board is a full ATX board - also it is rather slow when compared to the Micro ATX board I plan to get. What's worse is that the maximum processor my current board can take is an Athlon XP 2000+ - so I'm just looking to get an AMD Athlon XP 3000+ or 3200+ processor to give my new setup some decent power.

Only thing I don't like about Micro ATX motherboards with a Socket 939 processor are the ATi Chipsets used instead of the traditional Via or nVidia chipsets. Are ATi chipsets better than nVidia or Via chipsets?

Anyway back to the main question - issit worth me spending extra on Sempron processors or shall I just hunt around for some Athlon XPs?

PC Spec: AMD Athlon XP 2000+, ECS K7S5A Motherboard, 768MB SDRAM PC133, Sparkle nVidia Riva TNT2 M64 32MB AGP Graphics Card, Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 6.1, Windows XP

 

[RichPLS]

Intel Centrino mobile CPU's are about as fast as Athlon 64 CPU's clock for clock, and maybe a little faster...

<pre><font color=red>°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°`°¤o \\// o¤°`°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°
And the sign says "You got to have a membership card to get inside" Huh
So I got me a pen and paper And I made up my own little sign</pre><p></font color=red>

 

[Crashman]

Well, I'm not sure if there's a Sempron verion using the latest core technology (Venice, San Diego, but with a different name of course). But these new core run very cool, which is a great feature.

There are nForce4 chipset Micro ATX boards, I have the Foxconn NF4K8MC here. But the ATI chipsets are fine too.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[danizaken]

Yeah i have an IBM Pentium M Centrino based laptop but it has an ati mobility radeon with only 16mb lol.

 

[marshahu]

Sweet, any idea where I can get that motherboard in England. The usual websites (overclockers.co.uk, scan.co.uk, komplett.co.uk) don't seem to stock that particular board.

What are the basic specs of the board? Does it contain the usual features of a typical NF4 board? (e.g. 4xUSB2 ports, 6 Channel Realtek Audio Sound, 10/100 LAN, AGP 8x slot, Legacy Ports, 3 PCI slots)

PC Spec: AMD Athlon XP 2000+, ECS K7S5A Motherboard, 768MB SDRAM PC133, Sparkle nVidia Riva TNT2 M64 32MB AGP Graphics Card, Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 6.1, Windows XP

 

[Crashman]

Yes, it has the usual features...including two PCI-Express (1 x16, 1 x1) and 2 standard PCI slots.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[marshahu]

Cool, what are the exact specs of this board then?

Doh, how stupid of me to expect an AGP slot from a NF4 motherboad especially since they discontinued using them after NF3 boards!

PC Spec: AMD Athlon XP 2000+, ECS K7S5A Motherboard, 768MB SDRAM PC133, Sparkle nVidia Riva TNT2 M64 32MB AGP Graphics Card, Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 6.1, Windows XP

 

[Crashman]

You can look up the specs at Foxconn.com, I'll put a review up in about 11 days at Sysopt.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[marshahu]

Thanks for your suggestions. The link btw was foxconnchannel.com not foxconn as the foxconn was a website with electronics and stuff and was frustratingly slow! However with a little help from google I eventually found the correct site.

I checked out the specs of the motherboard althought it came in two "flavours", one with firewire the latter without. Otherwise the features look incredibly impressive. 4x SATA ports seems pretty good although I doubt I will use more than two unless I can afford to get DVD Writers that are SATA! It says that it has a header with SPDIF output but it doesn't state whether it includes a bracket like it does for the extra USB 2.0 ports or whether it is just there for those with ladidah cases that have Coaxial output as well as headphone/mic/USB 2.0 ports. Did yours ship with a bracket for coaxial output so you could connect the soundcard digitally to a home cinema receiver? Also, with only one line out I assume that the Realtek soundcard relies on those versjacks where you have to sacrifice the rear mic port and line in port if you want 5.1 sound - I understand that I can use the Mic 2 ports while the 5.1 setup is active but where the hell does the TV Tuner's line in cable go?!? Call me stubborn but I am NOT sacrificing center or sub channels everytime I watch TV - is there a way of internally connecting the TV Tuner to the soundcard (e.g. using the Analogue CD Audio input for TV Tuner audio rather than for Analgoue CD audio, esp as all programs play CDs digitally through the IDE cable now)

One other little quibble, there is a blasted chipset fan - I know I'm being picky, but if this was any old PC I wouldn't give a toss about noise. However this is designed as a Media Center PC where the noise has to be kept to a minimum. And since I intend to keep this PC on overnight in my bedroom and I am a light sleeper, the annoying hums have to be eliminated! Do you know any other motherboard like the one you suggested which has NO fans on it watsoever?

Other than those quibbles it looks like a fairly decent board.

PC Spec: AMD Athlon XP 2000+, ECS K7S5A Motherboard, 768MB SDRAM PC133, Sparkle nVidia Riva TNT2 M64 32MB AGP Graphics Card, Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 6.1, Windows XP

 

[Crashman]

BTW, I'm fairly certain the MSI RS480 board uses a passive chipset cooler.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[addiarmadar]

The Socket A and socket 754 semp 3100 are a joke! If your in the market for Socket A, go find a T-Bred Athlon XP.

If you dont wanna look around then go for the Semps but dont expect them to do more than what they are rated for.

<i><font color=red>Only an overclocker can make a computer into a convectional oven.</i></font color=red>