Building first system: advice on AMD Sempron + MOBO

[plampione]

I am building my first system, and after some research,
I am looking at the following CPU/mobo combination:

Gigabyte K8NS-Pro motherboard
AMD Sempron 3100+ (Socket 754)

Any reason why this would not work?
Any general advice?

- raid (both IDE and SATA),
- gigabyte ethernet
- quiet: good fan control
- no reported problems with linux
(which is what I will use on it)

My only concern is that it does not seem
to support all AMD processors (especially
slow Semprons); on the other hand, I will
most likely not change the processor once
the system is built.

Thanks,

Peter

 

[johns]

I don't recommend it. For about $40 more you can get the Athlon 3000, and
there is quite a difference.

johns

 

[Tweek]

The 3100+ is a great budget processor, however the Athlon 64 2800+ is less
than $10 more and gives you the 64-bit capability and 512k cache. The A64
3000+ is only about $30 more than the Sempron. Don't let the PR rating fool
you. The Sempron is rated in relative performance to the Celeron while the
A64 is rated compared to the P4. As far as the board not supporting slower
Sempron's goes, the Sempron comes in Socket A and Socket 754 packages so the
Socket A ones will not work in the board you listed simply because they
won't fit. If you are looking to be somewhat future proof (no guarantee
though), an nForce 4 S939 board with a A64 3000+ is a very good choice . It
would run you probably $60 more than the combo you are currently
considering. Then you would have the ability to upgrade to a dual core
processor down the road. It is also PCI express so that upgradability is
available too.

 

[plampione]

Thank you all!
After reading this, and doing some more investigation,
I am undecided between:

Abit AV8 + Athlon 64 3000+ (socket 939)

Abit KV8 Pro + Athlon 64 3000+ (socket 754)

I will try to decide... I am not so much concerned about
$50 more or less; my main problem is which
system will run Debian 3.1 stable with the least
installation problems (an easier installation would be
well worth the extra cost!).

Thanks,

Peter

 

[dawg]

They will both run it equally well. Socket 939 has the better upgrade path.
You'll be able to plop in a dual core chip if you want to later.