Intel Single Core/Midrange CPUs
While AMD's single core chips are still reasonably attractive given the high prices of the X2 lineup, the same does not hold true for Intel. If you plan on spending anything more than $100 on an Intel chip, you should clearly be looking at the Pentium D lineup. AMD's Athlon 64 chips also have a definite advantage in terms of price/performance, with the single core 3800+ outperforming pretty much any of the Pentium 4 offerings. About the only reason we would even consider a Pentium 4 chip at this point in time would be as a replacement or upgrade on an older motherboard that can't support Pentium D. Even in that case, we would give serious thought towards upgrading to a new motherboard and CPU instead. Here's a quick look at the Pentium 4 prices. (Note that the Extreme models that show up in this case are actually single core + Hyper-Threading models -- not that we'd recommend them at current prices.)
Other than the Pentium 4 506, all of the Pentium 4 prices bottom out at around $150. The 506 is also limited by a slower front side bus, and it has the same clock speed of the dual core Pentium D 805. An extra $30 will basically double your theoretical computational performance. If you really need a Pentium 4 processor and you can't use (or don't want) Pentium D, the best price/performance option is the Pentium 4 541 [RTPE: BX80547PG3200EK], priced at $168 for the OEM version. If you need a retail processor, on the other hand, go for the Pentium 4 631 [RTPE: BX80552631] for $173. It has a slightly lower clock speed but comes with 2 MB of cache. Flip back to the Pentium D prices and you'll see why neither of these is a great buy -- you can basically get the second processor core for free!
While AMD's single core chips are still reasonably attractive given the high prices of the X2 lineup, the same does not hold true for Intel. If you plan on spending anything more than $100 on an Intel chip, you should clearly be looking at the Pentium D lineup. AMD's Athlon 64 chips also have a definite advantage in terms of price/performance, with the single core 3800+ outperforming pretty much any of the Pentium 4 offerings. About the only reason we would even consider a Pentium 4 chip at this point in time would be as a replacement or upgrade on an older motherboard that can't support Pentium D. Even in that case, we would give serious thought towards upgrading to a new motherboard and CPU instead. Here's a quick look at the Pentium 4 prices. (Note that the Extreme models that show up in this case are actually single core + Hyper-Threading models -- not that we'd recommend them at current prices.)
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Calin - Monday, June 19, 2006 - link
The only reason you could have to buy an Sempron (AM2) over an Athlon would be the lower power use (35W TDP for the new Semprons compared to the 65W TDP of the Athlons64 AM2 (or 89W of the X2 versions).Could there be an evaluation of the difference in power use between the same frequency Sempron and Athlon64 processors? Thanks
johnsonx - Monday, June 19, 2006 - link
The low power Semprons aren't available yet, nor are the low power Athlons at the current time. Currently shipping Semprons and Athlons are all 65W TDP.Looking at the recent price lists, I'd make a bet that all the single-core Athlon64's are going away before long, with the possible exception of the highest performing parts. It's the same logic that applies to the 1Mb cache parts: single-core A64's cost AMD more to make than Semprons, yet AMD can't really charge more money for them because of their convoluted model numbering system.
Having an Athlon64 3000+ that is clocked the same but has 4x the cache as a Sempron 3400+ just makes a mess of things.
mino - Tuesday, June 20, 2006 - link
Well they are :)AFAIK pretty much any 90nm Sempron(doesn't matter which socket) is in the 20W-35W power consumption range.
Calin - Tuesday, June 20, 2006 - link
I saw on offers Sempron (AM2) processors with TDP of 35W, compared to the Athlon64 (AM2 versions) with TDP of 65W and the dual cores (again AM2) with 89W TDP.I suppose the low voltage versions are not here yet, but the power rating in offers still remains
JarredWalton - Monday, June 19, 2006 - link
You will also be able to get low power X2 and Athlon 64 chips in the near future. I will see about testing an Athlon 64 3000+ (AM2) compared to the Sempron 3400+ (AM2). My experience in the past is that AMD's TDP power numbers have been extremely conservative, so I would be surprised if Sempron chips are more than 5 Watts lower. That might matter for notebooks/laptops, but for desktops 5 W is basically meaningless -- you're looking at $5 (or less) for power costs over the course of an entire year, assuming the system is running 24/7/365.Calin - Tuesday, June 20, 2006 - link
Thank you very muchSonicIce - Monday, June 19, 2006 - link
I can't belive how cheap single core Athlon 64's have gotten. This is a very good thing! Hopefully dual cores will fall soon.jelifah - Tuesday, June 20, 2006 - link
That's what Jarred was trying to say in his article when he said 'if you can wait a month'July 24th AMD is expected to slash prices by around 50%. And yes that includes the pretty little X2 3800+, which should be available for $150. Now the only question is how quick NewEgg can ship them on that day, because I WILL place an order at that price.
I'm actually going to be paying LESS for a dual core than I paid for my socket 939 3000+ single core 18 months ago.
ChronoReverse - Tuesday, June 20, 2006 - link
I'll be watching prices very carefully in the upcoming months. Right now I'm still undecided as to getting an used s939 3800+, a new AM2 3800+ or getting the $160 Conroe.Great times ahead now that there's competition again.
Rebel44 - Monday, June 19, 2006 - link
Yeah they will - I´m just waiting for release of new Intel´s procesors because AMD announced to lower prices of X-2´s by up to 50%:-)