AMD Sempron: A Fresh Take on Budget Computing
by Derek Wilson on July 28, 2004 12:01 AM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
Two Flavors are Better than One: Socket A
First in line today is the socket A Sempron based on the K7 architecture.
Socket A Sempron 2800+
If the familiar rectangular shape of the core looks a little too familiar, that's probably for very good reason. The K7 Sempron is actually a 166MHz FSB 256KB Thoroughbred-B core.
Sempron's Secret
Upon first learning this, we were a little worried that we would see overlapping parts where new Semprons would actually be old Athlon XPs. Fortunately, this is not the case.
The slowest Athlon XP 166MHz FSB Thoroughbred-B was the 2600+ with a 12.5 multiplier (2.083GHz core clock). The highest K7 Sempron clock speed is 2GHz with a 12 multiplier.
What this does mean is that higher model numbered Semprons will be slower than "equivalent" Athlon XP processors. This does make a little bit of sense in that Sempron denotes a budget processor, which will be slower than the mainstream line. This is the same type of thing that we see when looking at a 2.8 GHz Pentium 4 versus a 2.8GHz Celeron. They have the same "speed", but different performance.
In our opinion, this is a problem with marketing by clock speed, and we are disappointed to see AMD recreating a problem with artificial model numbers. So now, we have 4 different 2800+ CPUs (AXP Barton, AXP Tbred, Sempron Tbred, A64 Newcastle) and really no reason why this situation should have to exist. Hopefully, future model numbering plans will be better able to handle situations such as this.
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Lonyo - Wednesday, July 28, 2004 - link
No edit feature on comments?Also, you can get an 865 for $56 at Newegg (new, ASRock "P4I65GV" i865GV Motherboard for Intel Socket 478 CPU -RETAIL)
So that means that the gap between systems is really only going to be $17 between a Sempron 2800+ system and a Celeron 335 system.
Lonyo - Wednesday, July 28, 2004 - link
Another point, the Sempron prices you quote are in 1000 unit quantities, so on the penultimate page, there is no point if comparing the cost of a system, unless you remember that the Sempron will be $10~$15 more expensive than the price you quote.Celeron 335 is $117 in 1000 unit quantities (on launch) and $127 at Newegg.
The Sempron will probably also be $10 more than the 1000 unit price.
Lonyo - Wednesday, July 28, 2004 - link
Pages 9 and 10 both make reference to the Celeron 225.I think this may be a typo for 335, as there is no 225 in the review ;)
Calin - Wednesday, July 28, 2004 - link
I was thinking - what is the electrical power (in relation with the other Athlons)? I am somewhat interested in a small and silent computer (socketA based) , and I would like to know which of those processons would be the happiest in crammed conditionsCalin
clarkey01 - Wednesday, July 28, 2004 - link
DerekWilson, yeah any chance you could have an 2.4Ghz Sempron going against a celeron @ The same speed.sandorski - Wednesday, July 28, 2004 - link
I might get one when they come out for Socket 939, just because of cost issues. The SocketA versions certainly sucks when compared to the 754 version and with the limited future for Socket 754 there's nothing tempting for me.Spacecomber - Wednesday, July 28, 2004 - link
I assume that the overclocking write-up will include the new Celerons, since I think that was skimmed over in the article covering their launch.When discussing the value of the new Celerons (assuming the this will be part of the overclocking write-up), backward compatability with older chipset motherboards would be helpful, too (e.g., 845E).
I mentioned this in my comments to the Celeron write-up; so, my apologies for being repetitive.
Stlr23 - Wednesday, July 28, 2004 - link
Sempron huh?.....Nice.LeeBear - Wednesday, July 28, 2004 - link
One 'budget' chip you didn't include in the roundup is the 2.4A Pentium 4 (Prescott, FSB533, 1MB Cache). It's cheaper then the Celeron 335 and with overclocking it may provide some interesting results.-LeeBear
DerekWilson - Wednesday, July 28, 2004 - link
We will be working on the overclock article over the next couple days -- is there anything you guys would particularly like to see?