Sempron 64 3200+ vs Athlon 64 3400+

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iyzmi

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I'm new to the whole "building my own PC" thing an I decided to make a very cheap media PC. I will mainly be using it as a DVR. I won't be doing any video editing, just capturing. I need to decide between the 2 proc's that I mentioned in my title. Here are the stats for both:
http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/ProductInformation/0,,30_118_11599_11604,00.html
(Socket AM2)
http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/ProductInformation/0,,30_118_9485_9487%5E9492,00.html
(Socket 939)
The main problem I see is that the Athalon 64 socket 939 doesn't support DDR2 memory...

On a side note, I'm was also thinking about a Celeron D (330, 335, and 355) but from the benchmarks I've read, the Sempron has them beat.

Any help on which proc to go with would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance!
 
E

endyen

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It's been a while since I looked, but the sempron was about the same price as the A4 3200, even though it had 1/2 the cache, and ran 200mhz slower.
Go with an AM2 A64 3200.
 
A

ajfink

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Wait, why would you be going with an A64 3400+? April 9th price cuts should bring the X2 3600+ to about $70. Dual core 65nm, my friend. Should make a very nice addition to your system.
 
Dahak

Dahak

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I recommend going with the Athlon64.Stay away from the semperons as well as the celerons.And by saying Athlon,I mean go for the AM2 as this will give you some future proofing,allowing you to upgrade later on.Although the S-939 cpu's are great workers,they are getting difficult to find and will no longer be manufactured before long.And going with a dual core is the best option.Goodluck.

Dahak

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robmurphy

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AMD have stopped making S939 CPUs. Check out how CPU hungry the PVR card is. I have an AMD 3400+ S939 semperon machine with a Hauppauge wintv150 card. That seems OK, but the wintv150 card does the MPG2 compresion. Some tv cards require the CPU to do that, and for that the semperon will probably strugle. The extra cache on the Athlon will help, but get an AM2 athlon not an S939 one.

If you go the celeron route make sure it is one with 512K cache, some come with 256K cache and they are best avoided. Try to get a motherboard that will allow you to use a Core 2 duo later on. This may cost a little more but will leave you with an easy upgrade later.
 
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iyzmi

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Let me rephrase my question: What is the best proc I can get that is under $50? I am willing to wait till April 9th but newegg currently has a $10 off coupon so the savings from me waiting should exceed $10. They also have a combo deal for a Athlon 64 3400+ 939 and mobo for $90 so keep that in mind too.
 
gOJDO

gOJDO

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there is no s939 Athlon64 3400+, but there are 3200+ or 3500+ models. Any Athlon64 s939 with any DDR is faster than the Sempron64 3200+ with any DDR2.
Like others recommend, if you can buy a X2 3800+ for $80, that is the best choice and the "best bang for the buck" of all x86 CPUs, right now.
If you must choose between the two that you have listed, than the Athlon64 is they way to go.
 
I

iyzmi

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If you are wanting to do your own media pc on the cheap look no further than here. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131014
This is one of the boards used in the x2 3600+ combos and if you look at the bottom of the page it shows the combo special. It even comes with onboard video and with the hardware for TV out so you would not even need a video card unless you absolutely wanted one. Since overclocking is not going to be done on such a system any athlon 64 approved cooler that uses the onboard heatsink brackets will work. The ones I would really recommend for such a system you can find on ebay are the ones that people are selling that came boxed with dual core opterons and some of the x2's. These had a copper base and heatpipes and are really good for a stock fan and can cool as well as some aftermarkets. This makes it easier for picking a case since you get good cooling without having to worry if your cooler will fit in a small case.
Click to expand...

A GeForce 6150 seems a little bit low, son't you think? I was planning a 7300LE.
 
I

iyzmi

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there is no s939 Athlon64 3400+, but there are 3200+ or 3500+ models. Any Athlon64 s939 with any DDR is faster than the Sempron64 3200+ with any DDR2.
Like others recommend, if you can buy a X2 3800+ for $80, that is the best choice and the "best bang for the buck" of all x86 CPUs, right now.
If you must choose between the two that you have listed, than the Athlon64 is they way to go.
Click to expand...

This is the proc I'm reffering to:
http://www.newegg.com/product/Product.asp?item=N82E16819103023
 
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iyzmi

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I understand costs are a factor, but I do have a suggestion....

AM2 will be the way to go since it gives you some flexibility for future 'upgrading' in my opinion.

Next, skip over the single core (though they are very cheap right now) and look into getting a dual core. AMD is dropping prices almost daily, and soon they will have a significant number of their dual core prices under 100 bucks. It would be worth the extra 30-50 bucks over a single core to go dual core..... my reason, over time cheaper HD DVD or Blu-Ray drives will appear, and it will be pretty straight forward so just add in a drive and get an HD DVD-Blu-Ray player out of your HTPC.... and in most cases, higher quality and cheaper than a set top box.

Finally, when putting together your system, look for video output that supports HDCP at the minimum, most all cards now support DVI which will make them DVI or HDMI compatible.... however, without the HDCP certification will not play on most HD TVs if this is in your future.

Jack
Click to expand...
Will this work, if not what's the cheapest card I can get that to work with my 40" 1080p LCD?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127269

The PC will be mainly used for watching online videos and acting as a DVR for recording TV. I need the cheapest system I can get to do this. (hopefully around $300)
 
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iyzmi

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there is no s939 Athlon64 3400+, but there are 3200+ or 3500+ models. Any Athlon64 s939 with any DDR is faster than the Sempron64 3200+ with any DDR2.
Like others recommend, if you can buy a X2 3800+ for $80, that is the best choice and the "best bang for the buck" of all x86 CPUs, right now.
If you must choose between the two that you have listed, than the Athlon64 is they way to go.
Click to expand...

This is the proc I'm reffering to:
http://www.newegg.com/product/Product.asp?item=N82E16819103023

This is one I would recommend -- per my reasons above.... but depends on what you want to do exactly.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103729

$100 is way out of budget and I really am not planning to upgrade this PC. As long as it does what I need it to do, the only upgrade I see in it's future is a Blu-ray drive maybe. Upgradability really is not an issue here, price is.
 
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iyzmi

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Well, I will also be buying a TV tuner seperate from the video card and it will be low res for now. I'll wait till there are more HD channels available at which point I'll upgrade to a HD tuner card. Here is my revised list of questions, keep in mind that price is the MOST important aspect:

1. What is the best proc I can buy either now or after april 9 for prefferably under $50. As mentioned before I need it to work well as a low res DVR and in the future as a high res DVR.
2. What's the best vid card I can buy for the lowest price that will do what I mentioned in 1. I am willing to buy a seperate TV tuner but if there is a card that includes one right off that bat and will save me money then that would be best.
3. Do I absolutely need an SATA HD to work as a DVR fluently?

I'll probably have more questions later.
 
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iyzmi

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Yes, high def will be in the future of this PC. If it's possible to make it high def right now for a low price then that's great. If not then I can always make it low res now and upgrade it when I need high def. At that point I'd assume the parts needed to make it high def will be cheaper, right?
 
gOJDO

gOJDO

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there is no s939 Athlon64 3400+, but there are 3200+ or 3500+ models. Any Athlon64 s939 with any DDR is faster than the Sempron64 3200+ with any DDR2.
Like others recommend, if you can buy a X2 3800+ for $80, that is the best choice and the "best bang for the buck" of all x86 CPUs, right now.
If you must choose between the two that you have listed, than the Athlon64 is they way to go.
Click to expand...

This is the proc I'm reffering to:
http://www.newegg.com/product/Product.asp?item=N82E16819103023
NewEgg has screwed something in their specifications, as always.
According to the image of the CPU it is a s754. ADA3400xxxxxx is a s754 2.2GHz 1MB L2. The 3700+ is the s939 2.2GHz 1MB L2 model.
So, it looks like they are selling a s754 Athlon64, and I'll not recommend you to buy it. Their Athlon64(singlecore) s939 & sAM2 prices are too high. If you want to buy form newegg, you better wait few days, while they reduce their prices according to new AMD pricecuts.

Than if you can afford $20 more and wait 2-3 weeks, you'll be able to get a 3600+ for around $70(right now the X2 3600+ retail is $89). It is a much better deal than any singlecore and will last you longer.
 
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iyzmi

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In that case:
1. Whats the cheapest CPU I can get either now or in a couple of weeks that will work well with low res recording and will be upgradeable to high def? Either Intel or AMD, whichever is cheapest and will get the job done.
2. What's the cheapest video card that will work with HD? (I still don't quite understand this concept.)
3. Which TV Tuner should I buy?
4. What type and how much RAM do I need?
 
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iyzmi

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But that won't be HD...

How will I benefit from buying a HTPC now instead of waiting till they get less expensive and going with a normal card for now?
 
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robmurphy

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You need to look at the PVR card more carefully. HDTV taxes a dual core processor for playback, encoding i.e. recording will probably need something in the high end Core 2 Duo range. If you are going for normal resolution TV then get a card that does the MPG2 compression in hardware, the Hauppauge wintv150 is an example of such ar card, though I would not recomend it as it does not work well with MS media centre.

You need to decide on your OS and the PVR software you are going to use, the software may only work with certain PVR cards. Most of the PVR software requires you to pay them every month (at least here in the UK). MS media center does not require this. Have a look at the following link

http://www.hauppauge.com/pages/compare/compare_pvr.html

This shows the different cards, but as I said the wintv150 media center edition would not work with MS media center. Hauppauge could offer no fix other than using their wintv application.

If you are going to just replay these recordings and watch live TV then any graphics will do. If you want to playback HDTV, and blue ray you will need a much higer spec system. The graphics card will have to be HDCP compliant, and may vendors still do not show this information. If HDCP is not there then windows, at least in theory, will only allow the playback in low resolution.

If all you want is PVR functionality the semperon or above will cope provided that the PVR card has hardware compression. The semperon CPU would probably cope with the MPG compression, but there may be skips, dropouts ect. The hardware encoded MPG is much more reliable.

Rob Murphy
 
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uwisuwerme7

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I had to put one of that Happauge cards on a 1.8 P4 and it skipped like crazy. Make sure you get a card that does the compression itself. Though all of the listed processors are superior to the P4 I put it on, I still wouldnt want my computer 75% usage due to recording some video.
 
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iyzmi

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I've decided to build a computer for low res DVR for now then later, when the upgrades get cheap, get a higher CPU and vid card to support HD. Will 512mb RAM be enough for both high and low res recording? Do I need a sound card for either of the two or will the mobo's built in sound be fine?

Oh, and I'll be using regular old XP for now and possibly upgrade to Vista when they work the bugs out. If XP does what I need it to do well, then I'll probably just stick with it for a while.

So you guys are saying this is the cheapest card I can get for good low res recording?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16815116633&ATT=15-116-633&CMP=OTC-Froogle
 
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