Jumping onto Sempron but...

[Kayote]

Hi,

Ive decided to upgrade my current AMD 1700+XP CPU and go for AMD 3100+ Sempron for gaming purposes. However, Im confused (and getting confusing answers from many people).

1- As I donot wish to OC the system immediately as it will be powerful enough for the current games. However, come next year, I would very much like to take it as far as possible. Is Sempron really the better choice than Athlon 64 processor. In my case, price is quite important and as I will not be making use of 64bit instructions anytime soon, so I settled on Sempron. Do you agree?

2- Is the fan that comes with the CPU good enough for overclocking or its useless and I should settle for some other fan for Sempron? Do note, price is an important factor...

3- For Motherboards, Ive settled upon 'EPoX (EP-8KDA3J) Motherboard' because it is quite a bit overcloackable. It was ePox or 'Gigabyte GA-K8NS Pro Motherboard' but in the end I settled upon ePox one. Agreed?

4- PSUs - Someone's said that my existing generic 300W PSU will not cut it for the new system. So Ive settled upon 'Q-Tec Power supply ATX 450W Gold PFC Power supply PIII/AMD/P4, Dual Fan (UK)'. Is 450W enough (or maybe an overkill). The reason I want to go for this much is that if I upgrade my graphics card next year (currently - Radeon 9600pro), it will require more power. Any opinions on this please?

5- RAM - I was really hoping to transfer the current RAM to my new system (RAM - Crucial 2 256 PC266 DDR Dimms) but have been told, its going to be a severe bottleneck. Bearing in mind the overclocking to be done next year, is settling upon 'Crucial PC4000 BallistiX DDR 512MB CL2,5 Non-parity, 2.8V, 32Meg x 64, 184pin' a good idea or should I just go for the PC3200 RAM as most people do?

Many thnxs
Kay

 

[Zebo]

Hi and welcome

1. why waste your money on semiporn when the real deal is only $3 more? (i.e. A64 2800 for $127 retail at newegg.com)

2. Yes, 2.4 is the average OC on stock HSF with either semiporn 3100 or A64 2800

3. DFI LANPARTY UT nF3 250Gb period. $99 best OCing board and highest quality by far.

4. You should'nt care about marketing watts. The 12V rail is most important in modern systems as the video card, processor, drives, fans get thier power from it. Enermax 350 is nice with heafty 26A.

5. Ballixtix PC 3200 is $129 per 512 and is identical to the 4000. Best ram period. You could run your old until you can upgrade.

 

[Kayote]

Originally posted by: Zebo
Hi and welcome

1. why waste your money on semiporn when the real deal is only $3 more? (i.e. A64 2800 for $127 retail at newegg.com)

2. Yes, 2.4 is the average OC on stock HSF with either semiporn 3100 or A64 2800

3. DFI LANPARTY UT nF3 250Gb period. $99 best OCing board and highest quality by far.

4. You should'nt care about marketing watts. The 12V rail is most important in modern systems as the video card, processor, drives, fans get thier power from it. Enermax 350 is nice with heafty 26A.

5. Ballixtix PC 3200 is $129 per 512 and is identical to the 4000. Best ram period. You could run your old until you can upgrade.

Many thnxs Zebo.

1- Is the A64 2800 the same processor (plus the 64bit instructions) as Sempron 3100+ performance wise? Here in UK, the price difference can be upto £10!!! betwen the two.

2- Ahem... whats a HSF (heat ...)?

3- Just checked but unfortunately DFI have not been able to ship there DFI LANParty UT (or ANY nForce3) motherboard to my island (UK)!

4- Your number 4 answer totally went past me. I could not find Enermax PSUs either. Is Q-tec not a reliable manufacturer? And is 300W ok for this OC-able system or I MUST get a PSU450 atleast...

5- After reading your response on RAM, I decded to do a bit of hunting and am quite surprised & confused (yet again). As follow:

* - Corsair XMS3200XL DDR-DIMM 512MB PC3200 32Meg x 8, CAS 2-2-2-5, 400MHz - £88
* - Crucial PC3200 BallistiX DDR 512MB CL2 Non-parity, 2.8V, 64Meg x 64, 184pin - £82
* - Crucial PC3200 DDR-D 512MB CL3 5ns Unbuffered, Non-parity, 2.5V, 64Meg x 64 - £59 !!!
* - Crucial PC4000 BallistiX DDR 512MB CL2,5 Non-parity, 2.8V, 32Meg x 64, 184pin - £87
* - TwinMOS PC4300 TwiSTER DDR-DIMM 512MB CL3 Chip = TSOP, (DDR-PC533MHz) - £71
* - Corsair XMS4400C25 DDR-D 512MB PC4400 64Meg x 64, CAS 2.5-4-4-8, 550MHz - £89

Now from above, all of these being 512MB modules, the most tempting seems to be the £59 Crucial one. Its way cheaper. But if I do go for one of the more expensive ones, then the TwinMOS PC4300 seems quite a nice buy at £71. Please advise...

Thanks a lot.
Kay

 

[Zebo]

Hehe I appologise for the acronyms...

1. The real Athlon 64 is much better. Is about 2-5% faster due to more level 2 cache on the chip 512kb vs. 256kb. It also has an nX bit built in which prevents malicous code and viruses. It also has 64 bit compatability for not to distant future of 64 bit enviroment of even now with 64 bit linux. IMO it's well worth the extra $ is you plan on keeping for one or more years.

2. HSF = heat sink fan. I'm talking about the stock HSF that comes with the A64 o Sempron 3100 is good for an average overclock to 2400mhz from thier stock speed of 1800mhz.

3. Sorry. For inexpensive the Chaintech VNF3-250 is excellent. For quality the ASUS "K8N-E Deluxe" is where it's at... course nothing is better than DFI's

4. Basiscally don't pay attention to the watts since it's trival to give high numbers by pumping up cheaply the 3 and 5 V rails while negecting the 12 volts rail.. Pay attention to the 12 volt rail (should be above 18-20A). A= amps Quietness should be important too. Try tagan, seasonic, nexus, fortron, antec, ...they are popular in europe. A good quality PSU (power supply unit) is a nessesity for good OC (overclocking) results and long life.

5. Look for these model numbers Crucial Model#s: CT6464Z40B.8T or BL6464Z402
The first is overclcokers buget ram reaching 250Mhz, the second is again, the best ram you can buy capable of really tight memory timmings at even higher FSB.

 

[Jarhead7236]

depending on what you see your needs being down the road, i would probably bypass skt 754 and go w/ a 939 set up....skt 754 is already being shown the door by amd. i was gonna go 754, too but have finally been persuaded to save a litt e longer and go 939 instead.

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=347644

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=295328

 

[Elcs]

Kayote - if you dont mind me asking, where in the UK do you live?

There are a few active UK-er's surfing Anandtech forums and Im sure we can dig up a reputable retailer willing to ship better parts to you or perhaps just cheaper.

Ive had no experience with A64's but judging from what Ive read of Zebo's posts, Id expect he is doing a good job of steering you in the right direction.

 

[Kayote]

Originally posted by: Zebo
Hehe I appologise for the acronyms...

1. The real Athlon 64 is much better. Is about 2-5% faster due to more level 2 cache on the chip 512kb vs. 256kb. It also has an nX bit built in which prevents malicous code and viruses. It also has 64 bit compatability for not to distant future of 64 bit enviroment of even now with 64 bit linux. IMO it's well worth the extra $ is you plan on keeping for one or more years.

2. HSF = heat sink fan. I'm talking about the stock HSF that comes with the A64 o Sempron 3100 is good for an average overclock to 2400mhz from thier stock speed of 1800mhz.

3. Sorry. For inexpensive the Chaintech VNF3-250 is excellent. For quality the ASUS "K8N-E Deluxe" is where it's at... course nothing is better than DFI's

4. Basiscally don't pay attention to the watts since it's trival to give high numbers by pumping up cheaply the 3 and 5 V rails while negecting the 12 volts rail.. Pay attention to the 12 volt rail (should be above 18-20A). A= amps Quietness should be important too. Try tagan, seasonic, nexus, fortron, antec, ...they are popular in europe. A good quality PSU (power supply unit) is a nessesity for good OC (overclocking) results and long life.

5. Look for these model numbers Crucial Model#s: CT6464Z40B.8T or BL6464Z402
The first is overclcokers buget ram reaching 250Mhz, the second is again, the best ram you can buy capable of really tight memory timmings at even higher FSB.

1- OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooook, fine if its really 5% increase with £10, then I should go for it.

2- Ok, thats good but that that mean if I was to go for (NOT THAT I AM!!!) for a better cooling system I could ramp it up further?

3- Guess what! Chaintech is ONLY available with one online vendor in the whole of UK and they r out of stock with no further information available!!! Im looking into Asus...

4- I see Fortron is quite cheap so may go for that... I cannot find any information about the Volt rail on the PSU page... how do I find out?

5- Crucial it is then. Though someone at another forum is quite keen on the TwinMOS... looks tempting for the price too. Actually just noticed that Jarhead7236 is using TwinMOS, any insight Jarhead7236?

Originally posted by: Jarhead7236

depending on what you see your needs being down the road, i would probably bypass skt 754 and go w/ a 939 set up....skt 754 is already being shown the door by amd. i was gonna go 754, too but have finally been persuaded to save a litt e longer and go 939 instead.

The reason Im not going for 939 is the price. Not only are the processors more expensive but the motherboards as well. That would mean another 2-3 months saving and I want my gaming beast to be ready immediately after my exams (in 2 weeks time) for me own gaming pleasure.

Cheers guys
Kay