X-bit labs

A Secret Disclosed: AMD Sempron 3000+ for Socket 939 Review (page 12)

Category: CPU

by Ilya Gavrichenkov

[ 10/12/2005 | 09:43 AM ]

Conclusion

The first value processor for the Socket 939 platform is, without a doubt, a success. And we call it a success not only because the Socket 939 Sempron has all the advantages of AMD’s senior CPUs like 64-bit AMD64 extensions, a dual-channel memory controller and a 1GHz HyperTransport, its single disadvantage being a smaller L2 cache. And not only because it is faster than its Socket 754 counterpart which costs the same money. The main success of this product is in bringing the Socket 939 platform closer to more users.

The budget Socket 939 Sempron 3000+ is about $55 cheaper than the cheapest Socket 939 Athlon 64, so a Socket 939 mainboard plus CPU kit will cost you a mere $150-200. It means that economical users will have an opportunity to invest into a modern and future-proof rather than into an obsolescent platform.

We could find some faults with the Socket 939 Sempron, if were asked to. The processor we tested was not very good at overclocking, for example. It is possible we just had a not very overclockable sample, yet we don’t want you to foster any hopes to increase the performance of a Socket 939 Sempron through overclocking.

A second and much more distressing fact about the reviewed processor is its limited market availability. As far as we know, AMD doesn’t plan to ship value Socket 939 processors in mass quantities until the end of this year. So, if you want to have such a CPU for yourself, you should keep a watchful eye on your nearby shops and get one before others do!