value box: compaq presario with sempron 3100+

HardwareCentral - Reports - Five-C Computers, March 2005 - The Mac Mini Meets Its Match
SIte reviews small form factors and cheap pcs... the compaq presario is about the least expensive box I've seen in awhile. I was curious what this processor was, and it turns out is an AMD64 crippled to 32 bits... interesting.

[...]in the AMD aisle, HP won the day with the Compaq Presario SR1320NX for $500 (after $50 mail-in rebate). Not only does this desktop have an AGP slot to bolster its SiS Mirage2 graphics, but it has a Sempron 3100 (1.8GHz) processor, the only Sempron built on Athlon 64-style Socket 754 instead of the old Athlon XP architecture.

It also comes with half a gigabyte of DDR400 memory, an 80GB hard disk, double-layer DVD±RW, a 9-in-1 flash-card reader, and IEEE 1394 FireWire as well as USB ports. We tried to top that with true 64-bit horsepower, in the form of a custom-configured Presario with Athlon 64 3200 , but in order to get it down to $500 (after rebate) we had to skimp with 256MB of RAM, a 40GB hard disk, a DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive, and no card reader.

Duron Successor: AMD Sempron

Sempron for Socket 754 is based on the Paris core, which again is nothing more than a Newcastle chip that does not know anything about 64 Bit computing.

AMD, however, has carefully prepared its weapon for a standoff against the Celeron. The Socket 754 platform won't stand a chance against Intel's dual channel FSB800 and FSB1066 clock speed monsters, so it's perfectly suitable as a value platform for future Sempron processors. This is why the Socket 754 Paris processor was born: It is an Athlon64 Newcastle without 64 Bit extensions, but with Cool & Quiet, NX bit, 256 kB L2 cache and 1.8 GHz clock speed. Users that have a system with a Sempron 3100+ will have the road paved for upgrades to Athlon64 3400+ and 3700+. Faster Athlon64 versions for Socket 754 are unlikely, but the Palermo core will continue the Sempron family at 90 Nm at the beginning of 2005.

AMD Sempron 3100+: The best value processor yet

The three main notable differences between the Sempron 3100+ and the rest of the Athlon 64 family concerns the amount of L2 cache, 256KB instead of the usual 512KB or 1MB cache, the fact that it has a single channel DDR memory controller and a single hypertransport Link and the fact that it has no AMD64 capabilities but will include the NX bit and Cool'n'quiet features. The Sempron 3100+ is built using a 130nm SOI process, like most new AMD processors, and it has been positioned against the Intel Celeron family.