AMD Sempron 3100+ Review - Conclusion
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First off, if you are looking for OC results, we are saving overclocking for another day. That's the main reason I got this processor in the first place. However, due to a malfunctioning water pump, any results we could give would be severely flawed and unreliable.
In the meantime, comparing the Sempron 3100+ to it's 1MB Clawhammer sibling showed some interesting results. For scientific work, it's pretty obvious now why Opterons retain 1024kb of L2 cache. Considering that was the only difference between CPU's, the difference in time is phenomenal for the computational fluid dynamics benchmark and SuperPi. However, for just about every other aspect of what I do with this computer day in and day out, the differences were minimal. And considering this is a "budget" part, that's simply astounding.
So where does this product fit in? If you are looking for a cheap way to get on the Hammer gravy train, this is your ticket. It has all of the good stuff, without any of the bulk. The only similar competition I can see it having is the 90nm socket 939 chips, once they actually arrive in volume, or the 90nm Sempron's themselves which reportedly are going to arrive shortly. The newer Semprons won't provide any different performance out of the box, and the s939 A64s won't be too far off, similar to what we saw today when comparing them clock for clock. The advantage to 90nm is cost. Not that $120 for a Sempron 3100+ @ 130nm is a bad deal, but prices on the new process should be even cheaper.
Still, Iprefer to deal in the here and now though, and looking at what's immediately available, I can't see a better deal around. If you are a big player making the big dollars, by all means stretch for the true A64/FX. But if you are thinking AthlonXP due to financial restrictions, think again. Thanks to this product arriving on point, there's now just about zero reason to buy into a new K7 platform.
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