Could someone explain the difference between these two chips and what to expect from them.

AMD Sempron 3000+ 1.61GHz

Intel Pentium 4 3GHz

Pros and cons please!!!!

Mog

 

P4 3ghz is a far superior chip to the sempron which is a budget cpu. That's all you need to know.

 

Is it as simple as 1.61GHz verses 3 GHz or am I missing something!!!!!!

Mog

 

Seconded. AMD Sempron is the equivelant to the Intel Celeron. The P4 3Ghz should have Hyperthreading technology.

This may help:
The Mother of All CPU Charts Part 2 | Tom's Hardware UK and Ireland

 

The main difference between the budget chips and the full fat versions is the amount of Level2 Cache. The Sempron will have 128K, the P4 will have 512K. Modern Core2duos have 4MB.


With regards to clock speeds - it's not quite as simple as that, hence why AMD use the "3000+" number (which correlates to the equivalent "thunderbird cycles count" or somethign similar) - Basically in terms of computing speed, they will be on a par, but the P4 will have a larger cache enabling more queued instructions to be stored in on chip cache thus meaning instructions get processed faster.

 

Looks like I've been stitched up a bit I still have the P4 Pc but bought a second one for the office with the sempron chip...can this be upgraded easily and if so at what cost...please

Mog

 

You should be able to get an AMD XP 3000/3200+ chip instead. These come with 512KB cache as well as all the extras of a full bread CPU.

 

if you have a sempron then to be honest it is out of date already (assuming socket 939) you really are limited in what you can upgrade to - not that you would want to upgrade on a new machine!

 

IMO both the P4 and Sempron are well past their sell by date. Depending on what one is after in terms of cost, but I wouldn't consider either in a new build or upgrade, unless they were "really" cheap.

If budget allows: Intel Core2Duo (e4300 onwards, although ideally e6300 onwards)..worth the £20 extra over a P4 imo.



Worst case is new board and new processor: £110 to 120. And maybe new RAM if whats there isn't good enough.

 

Ive just been looking at tweaking the last bits of power out of my 2.5yr old pc which has a socket 939 mobo. Ive just ordered an AMD 64 X2 (Dual Core) 3800 for £42 delivered!!! Runs 2.0ghz at stock (same as my current 64 3200) but is obviously dual core and most people are able to overclock them to 2.6ghz straight out of the box (decent fan and cooler).

Check what the latest CPU your motherboard supports via their website. I had to update my BIOS from 1001 to 1014 but with Asus you get a windows app that does it all for you so no messing with boot disks etc.

CPU was from Overclockers btw. Apparently not many 939 cpus around (I checked others like Scan, dabs etc and hardly anything on stock.

Cheers,
Simon