Sempron v Athlon 64

[peahouse05]

Hi All
I am currently crunching with three PCs -
1. Sempron 3400, Asrock socket 754 MB, 1 GB RAM, XP
2. Sempron 3000, Asrock socket 754 MB, 512 MB RAM, Linux OS 2007
3. P3, 650 MHz, some MB, 384 MB RAM, Linux OS 2007.
All run 24/7.
I have been thinking of repacing 3. for ages and considered a cheap AMDX2 CPU, AM2 MB, 1 GB RAM offer. However I would like to stick to socket 754 as replacement MBs are cheap andf I can swap stuff around in the event of a fault, despite limitations on upgrading the CPU with socket 754.
1. has a huge, very quiet 900rpm (min) cpu cooler and 3-fan PSU, also very quiet. It is my main PC, used in the bedroom.
Sorry, finally the question - is it worth buying an Athlon 64 3400 CPU for 1. - I would then build a cheap replacement for 3. using the Sempron CPU and a new MB, etc?
Have looked into this a bit on www.digit-life.com which does not seem to see much difference between Sempron and Athlon with most applications, but what about crunching? There is obviously a big difference in L2 Cache.
Thanks in advance
peahouse05

 

[Abarbarian]

Have a look at the cpu charts here its the 2005 one so have a quick look at that and the 2006 and 2007 ones to give you some idea of what the cpus perform like .

http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu_2005.html

 

[peahouse05]

Thanks Abarbarian
Plenty to study there - just what I wanted!
Cheers
peahouse05