Athlon64 2800 vs Sempron 3100

[sbs321]

I'm building a medium budget system for office apps and light gaming. I have read up on the advantages and differences of the Athlon64 line and other AMD lines and have zeroed in on the Athlon 2800 and Sempron 3100 on the socket 754. I understand the core technology is the same, but the Sempron is limited to 32bit. I cannot see 64bit being an advantage for my usage, at least not until more OS/apps/games are written for it, and by then I would probably be upgrading the entire system anyway. I understand the difference in cache, 256/3100 vs. 512/2800, only translates to a very small percentage of benefit. HyperThreading is the same at 800MHz on the s754. The s939, with higher HT at 1000MHz, is only supported on Athlon 3000 and up and only affords a small percentage gain compared to the higher cost.

So, the 2800 is a little better with more cache and true 64bit support and only costs a few dollars more than the 3100. However, everything I have read about overclocking the Sempron 3100, burns cooler and is still fine with the stock HS, makes it sound like I could push the Sempron 3100 a lot more than the Athlon64 2800 and get more value for the money (assuming I get everything else right - good MB and RAM). Is this correct?

Thanks!
Steve

[vikeor]

Id personally go A64... Futureproof and all that. My 3200+ runs at a max of 50C OCed to 2.42ghz with a med class cooler running at 2000rpm

i say A64

[Peter M]

Go with the Athlon - the $4 price delta isn't even worth thinking about it.

[sbs321]

So, since A64 2800 and Sempron 3100 are native 1.8ghz, they both should overclock the same degree without any major differences in temp?

[vikeor]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sbs321

So, since A64 2800 and Sempron 3100 are native 1.8ghz, they both should overclock the same degree without any major differences in temp?

UNLESS... there is a 2800+ with a Winchester core.. those will run cooler but im not sure if they make them

Ye, temp wise they'll be moreless the same.

[HeadBand]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sbs321

HyperThreading is the same at 800MHz on the s754. The s939, with higher HT at 1000MHz

neither of these chips have hyper threading, hyper threading has nothing to do with the fsb either

i believe both sockets use a 200x4 bus to the memory and a 200x4 bus to the chipset

as far as overclocking goes the sempron seems to be overclocking a whole lot more

[sbs321]

Ah, thanks. I confused HyperTransport bus and HyperThreading.