AMD Sempron - anybody use one?

CammanCamman NEW! England Icrontian
edited April 2005 in Hardware
I have zero experience with AMD Sempron processors, never even seen one. But I'm building a machine for someone and I noticed the Sempron is a lot cheaper than the Athlon XP equivalent, I assume this is because the supply of XP processors is starting to dwindle.

This computer is for a church secretary and it just needs to do things like word processing, designing a newsletter, email, some light web browsing so a high powered machine isn't needed.

I was thinking of going with an Abit NF7 and Sempron 2500+

The two together is about $140. Is this a good pairing? I figured the Sempron works in any motherboard that accepts socket A Athlon XPs am I correct?

Thanks for any info you can give me.

Here's the processor I'm looking at
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=80141

and the board
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-127-185&depa=0

Is there another board you could recommend me to go with a Sempron? I don't keep to up to date on motherboards but I know the NF7 is one that a lot of people use. I have a Soyo Dragon that I got on an RMA of a Gigabyte board so I dont have any personal experience with Abit motherboards.

Comments

  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited March 2005
    I have two semprons and they are great. I can't see any performance problems with them. My kids' computer uses a sempron 2500+ and they play UT2k4 and other games all the time. Performance is fine.
  • shwaipshwaip bluffin' with my muffin Icrontian
    edited March 2005
    If the machine is just going to be used for the low-end stuff you mentioned above, you may want to look for a board with integrated video, that way you won't have to buy a video card as well.
  • CammanCamman NEW! England Icrontian
    edited March 2005
    shwaip wrote:
    If the machine is just going to be used for the low-end stuff you mentioned above, you may want to look for a board with integrated video, that way you won't have to buy a video card as well.

    That's a good idea, I didnt even think of it, altho I do have some cheapo PCI video cards lying around.

    Is there any board you'd recommend for a PC like this? I don't want anything that is totally garbage (a friend of mine outfitted an office with some "ECS" boards that he got real cheap and it bit him in the ass cause half of them had problems) but nothing that's really high end, it looks like the NF7 might be a bit overkill for this computer.

    This one is an Asus with onboard video, slightly cheaper, maybe a better idea, anybody know anything about this board?
    http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-131-509&depa=0
  • lemonlimelemonlime Canada Member
    edited March 2005
    Also, AMD has released a bunch of lower end socket 754 processors. Might have to pay more for the board, but you'd probably get a quicker overall system with a more modern platform? (just an idea :D)
  • CammanCamman NEW! England Icrontian
    edited March 2005
    lemonlime wrote:
    Also, AMD has released a bunch of lower end socket 754 processors. Might have to pay more for the board, but you'd probably get a quicker overall system with a more modern platform? (just an idea :D)

    Thanks for the suggestion, I just think it looks like it will be cheaper to go with the Sempron and a Socket A board (which are plentiful at cheap prices) than to try and go with a newer platform. They're using a 355mhz system with a Pentium II I believe right now, so, cutting edge isn't that important :)

    My only concern with that board I posted, the ASUS, is it is "MicroATX" which I've never worked with before. This board will fit in a standard Mid-tower ATX case, right?
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited March 2005
    MicroATX will indeed fit in a normal sized case.
  • shwaipshwaip bluffin' with my muffin Icrontian
    edited March 2005
    in case prime saying "yes" isn't enough, here's the specs for mATX

    http://www.formfactors.org/developer%5Cspecs%5Cmatxspe1.2.pdf
  • MediaManMediaMan Powered by loose parts.
    edited March 2005
    Remember that "Sempron" is the remarked name for the ATHLON XP BARTON. Remember how we all used to lust after the performance of a 3200+ but two years ago?

    I have a Sempron 2800+ driving one of my music servers quite nicely.
  • botheredbothered Manchester UK
    edited March 2005
    MediaMan beat me to it. I was told the Sempron was just a rebadged XP as well. The kids PC need a new motherboard so it ended up with Abit NF7s and Sempron 2400, plays and does everything very nicely, oh, and folds 24-7.
  • TexTex Dallas/Ft. Worth
    edited March 2005
    so whats the differance in the socket 754 semprons versus a regular amd 64 socket 754 whcih costs a bit more then?

    Tex
  • drasnordrasnor Starship Operator Hawthorne, CA Icrontian
    edited March 2005
    Tex wrote:
    so whats the differance in the socket 754 semprons versus a regular amd 64 socket 754 whcih costs a bit more then?
    Semprons don't support AMD64.

    -drasnor :fold:
  • TexTex Dallas/Ft. Worth
    edited March 2005
    so they fit in a socket 754 but are not 64 bit?

    Tex
  • drasnordrasnor Starship Operator Hawthorne, CA Icrontian
    edited March 2005
    That is correct.
    AnandTech wrote:
    AMD has confirmed our suspicion that the NX bit and Cool'n'Quiet features of Athlon 64 will be available in K8 versions of the Sempron (3100+ and higher). The only A64 feature disabled in Sempron is x86-64.
    That article is available here.

    -drasnor :fold:
  • GHoosdumGHoosdum Icrontian
    edited March 2005
    You might want to check out the ASRock boards too, in the low-price category. They're made by Asus, but designed for budget use.
  • PressXPressX Working! New
    edited March 2005
    I sell Semprons in my entry level PC. We are on 2800 at the moment. They are great chips and do everything we/customers ask them to do. We tend to put them on the ASUS SKT-A A7S8X-MX S/V/L M-ATX 333FSB great value and fit in most cases. - To give you and idea we sell a system for 399 with the following spec:

    Semp 2800
    OB S/V/L
    17 CRT
    KB/M/Spkr
    Combo
    256DDR
    XP Home
    3 yrs Warranty

    I would say go for it.
  • muddocktormuddocktor
    edited March 2005
    I just got a MSI nf2 board for a friend's computer to replace his old Iwill KK266-R board that finally is going tits-up, Camman. If you can hold off buying until next week I'll let you know how the build went with it. The board was a K7N2 DELTA2-LSR , which is an ultra 400 board w/o integrated video, since he already has a vid card good enough for his usage. It also has NV raid capability too. I got it delivered from the "egg" for less than $60. They also make a mATX board using the nf2 IGP for around the same price.

    EDIT: MM, you weren't quite right on what the Sempron is; it's the same as a Tbred B core XP, not a Barton. It only has 256k L2 cache, not 512k. :D
  • CammanCamman NEW! England Icrontian
    edited April 2005
    Just wanted to update this thread and report that I went with the following

    ASUS A7V400-MX MicroATX (the board I posted above)
    AMD Sempron 3000+
    512mb Crucial PC2700
    80 GB Western Digital Special Edition (8mb buffer)
    and WinXP Home (OEM [hey, that's me now, right? :)] edition was only $88 and I see no reason why they would need pro)
    The computer they have now already has a brand new CDRW drive, wireless NIC, and 56k modem so I'll just be removing them and installing it into this machine.

    The guy who hired me to build this for them said that if I could get a faster processor for $20-$30 more than to go for it, so I upgraded from the Sempron 2500+ to a Sempron 3000+ (2ghz) and if the HDD could be upgraded then to do that so the 80gb Special Edition was only $5 more than the 40gb standard WD 7200rpm drive.

    I found a very nice Enlight case w/ a 350w power supply for $54 + 99 cent shipping on NewEgg. So after all is said and done, they will pay about $535 for all the parts + my labor fee for building and setting everything. Computer prices are just great now, especially for general computing!

    I'm really pleased with this board it's got integrated video, LAN, and sound, 4 USB ports on the back and the case has 2 on the front that I hooked up. But anyway, after messing with this computer for a little while I have to say this is a great mobo (the first ASUS brand one I've worked with) and the Sempron has some bite to it and is more than enough for a general use PC.

    AND they don't want me to bring it in for setup for like over a week so it'll get some good folding action for me. (we'll call it the stress test/burn in period :) ) so I'll be able to see what kind of production one of these can do. I'm thinking about ordering a couple of these ASUS micro boards and sempron processor for a 2 or 3 PC folding farm, seems like they would perform well and at a great price only $150 per node for a Sempron 3000+ and this board.

    But anyway, I must stop rambling, I just wanted to give an update on how the build went!
  • Omega65Omega65 Philadelphia, Pa
    edited April 2005
    :thumbsup:
  • 07mavribea07mavribea Perth, Western Australia
    edited April 2005
    This is not so much for Camman, but for any onlookers thinking of buying a semprom and overclocking. I have a semprom 2600+ and runs like a dream, but overclocking is locked and a low level and im having great diffuculty unlocking. Just a thought for curious onlookers!
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