On Thu, 13 Jan 2005 07:32:23 -0500, Yousuf Khan <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:
>Tony Hill wrote:
>> All the desktop Sempr0n chips designed for Socket A (ie everything up
>> to and including the 3000+, but not the 3100+ or any of the mobile
>> chips) use the exact same heatsinks as AthlonXP chips. Generally
>> speaking if you subtract 300 points from the Sempr0n rating you'll get
>> the AthlonXP rating, ie a Sempron 2800+ is basically the same as an
>> AthlonXP 2500+. So, any heatsink that is listed as being good enough
>> for an AthlonXP 2500+ should work just fine on a Sempr0n 2800+ and
>> vice versa.
>
>I've been pricing them lately for some family, and my impression is that
>if you add 200 points to an AthlonXP rating you get its Sempron rating,
>not 300 points.
Well, actually it varies from one chip to the next. For example, the
Sempron 2400+ and the AthlonXP 2000+ are both available as chip with a
1667MHz clock speed, 333MT/s bus speed and 256KB of L2 cache. So in
this case you would add 400 points to the AthlonXP rating to get it's
Sempr0n rating. For the AthlonXP 2600+ though, it's only just a
little bit faster than a Sempr0n 2800, probably about the same as a
2900+ if such a chip existed.
Basically the rating is more than a bit arbitrary and, like with the
AthlonXP, there are sometimes multiple different versions of the
Sempron with the same rating but different specs.
Either way, they make a pretty darn good chip for someone looking for
a budget PC. Newegg.com carries a Sempr0n 2400+ for only $63, and
that is a "good enough" chip for the vast majority of users out there.
The closest Intel chip to that price point would probably be the
Celeron D 315 (2.26GHz), which is both a slower processor and few
dollars more expensive at $68. it's even better value if you crank
the clock speed up to 400MT/s (rather trivial with the Sempron 2400+
and results in nothing other than the processor being overclocked).
-------------
Tony Hill
hilla <underscore> 20 <at> yahoo <dot> ca
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