Page 1 of Sempron 64 Bit Architecture

Hey there,

I`ve been looking for a CPU for a computer I`m building for my sister to take to Uni with her when she goes in September, and had decided on an Athlon 64 2800+ using a socket 754. However I was just looking at ebuyer and came across this, an AMD Sempron 3100+ 64 Bit Architecture which is cheaper than the Athlon 64 I was looking at.

I had a look at the AMD website but there is no mention of a 64 bit Sempron there at all. Has anyone got any idea about this chip? Which do you reckon would be the faster of the two? Is there any real advantage at this time of a 64 bit processor, or would i be better off just buying a 32 bit chip?

Any help would be greatly appreciated, Thanks

Welsh Tom

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"The most overlooked advantage of owning a computer is that if they foul up there`s no law against whacking them around a bit."

My DVD Collection

It`s a misleading quote. The Sempron 3100 does have 64 bit instruction set but it is deactivated hence "64 bit architecture". Yes it has the architecture but it is unusable for 64 bit applications.

Also it only has 256 MB L2 cache. The other half, once again, is deactivated. It`s only advantage is that it is socket 754 which means you can upgrade to a full blown 64 bit Athlon. However, a socket 939 motherboard is much more future-proof and offers better performance but you will need a fully-fledged Athlon 64 for socket 939.