Price Guides, May 2005: Processors

Sempron

Sempron just keeps on chugging. The Socket 754, cache deficient, 32-bit processors have even more naming problems than their Athlon 64 counterparts. Several weeks back, we started tracking “BO” Palermo Semprons, as opposed to the “BA” ones floating around right now. The “BA” Palermos are essentially identical to the “BO” ones with the addition of SSE3. Unlike Intel, AMD’s budget chips do not have 64-bit support. Our RTPE admin Lawrence Hsieh mentioned something along the lines of, “I don’t really know what AMD did, but they named two different cores with the same name, but gave them different SKU designations.” Hilarity ensues.

Furthermore, we started tracking a new Socket 754 Sempron, the 2500+. AMD seems confused on this product as well as that the SKU designates the processor as a 128KB Palermo, but resellers and AMD documentation claim that it is a 256KB processor instead. If the chip ever shows up on the market, you can be sure that we will mention something about it then.


Even though the marketing direction seems off base, the socket 754 processors are still excellent values for the aspiring overclocker or Linux novice. The Socket 754 Sempron 2600+, 2800+ and 3000+ [RTPE: SDA2600AIO2BA, SDA2800AIO3BA, and SDA3000AIO2BA] all are great buys if 64-bit support is not something important. Judging by the number of problems with Windows XP x64, particularly driver support, it seems that 64-bit has some time to mature first anyway.

We are running out of nice things to say about Athlon XP, unfortunately. Prices are now inflated, and even the Sempron 462s are starting to climb in price as Barton cores inevitably dry up. Athlon XP-Mobile chips are still the well-kept secret of Socket 462, but your money is really better spent on an Athlon 64 at this point.