Even though most of my friends and PC buddies are hardcore enthusiasts who want the latest gadgetry for their toys, there are nonetheless people out there who do not need the high-end and super pricey PC favored by the gamer or overclocker crowd and this review is really for them. The mid market madness or general usage group for lack of a better term do not need the $2000.00 price tag that accompanies high-end PCs as that is way too much PC for them as their budget and needs fall way below that spectrum. Believe it or not though, this is a very viable market that has many customers whose needs fit into this category and user group.
Intel has covered this market with their Celeron series CPU line for the last decade and now AMD is striking back at the heart of that market. Look out Intel, the Sempron has landed from the folks over in Texas. Now that AMD has put the squeeze on Intel in their high-end market with Socket 939 Athlon64 they have also began to tread on them in the mid-level market as well with the release of their new Sempron line. Currently there is an entire line of Socket A Sempron CPUs being introduced to market and a single entry in the form of the 3100+ for the Socket 754 platform. The Socket A CPUs enter the market offering speeds from the 2200+ (1.5GHz Actual CPU Speed) to the 2800+ (2.0GHz Actual CPU Speed) range and feature 256Mb of L2 CACHE and 128Mb of L1 CACHE.
The 462 CPUs are basically founded on an AMD XP based core that has been revved up and redesigned for the Socket A platform and run at a FSB speed of 333MHz. For the Socket 754 platform AMD is initially introducing the 3100+ (1.8GHz Actual CPU Speed) that is based on 130 nanometer SOI (silicon on insulator) technology and has a built in 64-bit integrated memory controller that operates at 3.2 GB/sec running with a FSB speed of 1600MHz. The 3100+ has a larger 68.5 million transistor design and supports single link HyperTransport technology allowing up to 6.4 GB/sec, per link of I/O bandwidth.
If you include the HyperTransport plus memory bandwidth you have an effective data bandwidth of up to 9.6 GB/sec. The 3100+ also has a larger die size of 144mm2 and creates more heat than its Socket A cousin and requiring better thermal protection as well. The lowest entry of the Sempron Socket A 2200+ sells for around $40.00 US and the 2800+ for about $110, and on the other side the Socket 754 3100+ hit the market at around $120.00. The new Sempron line will be Intel?s only competition in a market that for the last few years has been solely controlled by the Intel giant. This is a good thing for the consumer, as it offers up a serious product alternative for the mid level market and at prices well within the competitive range of the Celeron line evening the playing field. I would like to thank Trey at Monarch Computer for providing the Celeron 2.8D processor for this review and they sell the new line of Sempron chips as well if you want to buy them.
