Sempron

[Martyuk39]

I can't get my preferred Athlon XP 2500 for budget systems at all now - lowest I can get is a 3000 which isn't really budget enough, so I'm having to go with Sempron (ugh). Anyway, here's a question. If I buy a motherboard which needs a bios upgrade to work with a Sempron, will it "sort of" work with the Sempron out of the box and boot to a floppy? Or would I have to install an Athlon, upgrade the BIOS then remove the Athlon and install the Sempron. Which is right?
Thanks

 

[LTC8K6]

Newegg still has several different AXP's in stock, including a Barton 2600 and several slower ones. Maybe one of them will do?

 

[21Outlaw]

Marty I can't be 100% sure but I beleive that my mobo's BIOS would have supported my Sempron right out of the box IF I would have had the jumper's set correctly when I first booted up. I did everything to try and figure out why my computer wouldn't recognize the Sempron, even did a Live BIOS Update using MSI's LiveUpdate software. Still didn't recognize it. But once I change those jumpers it noticed the Sempron right away.

Figured I'd chime in and let you know my experience. So far I love my Sempron 2500+ to death, no complaints.

 

[imported_Kensai]

Semprons are ok for socket a. They're just Thouroughbreds. I might get a Sempron 2800+ for my little media server. Not too much of a hit from an AMD XP 2800+ with basic productivity applications.

 

[Martyuk39]

Thanks for your help - it's a relief that I won't have to mess about too much.

 

[Shenkoa]

The 2700+ can be had for around the same price as the Barton 2600+

Tbred 2700+ for applications - It actually can match the Barotn 3000+ in most app benchmarks because of its high clock speed, because of this, I bought one when I built my GF's rig, she does not play games.

Barton 2600+ for games

 

[Cheetah8799]

Originally posted by: Martyuk39
I can't get my preferred Athlon XP 2500 for budget systems at all now - lowest I can get is a 3000 which isn't really budget enough, so I'm having to go with Sempron (ugh). Anyway, here's a question. If I buy a motherboard which needs a bios upgrade to work with a Sempron, will it "sort of" work with the Sempron out of the box and boot to a floppy? Or would I have to install an Athlon, upgrade the BIOS then remove the Athlon and install the Sempron. Which is right?
Thanks

I just went through the same thing. Couldn't find any 2500+ bartons in the FS/FT forum, so picked up a 2400+ sempron. I built it in a Biostar 200V sff rig. The mobo had to be flashed, just like you are describing, to get Sempron support. It worked fine before the flash, just didn't show as a "Sempron" cpu. The speed and multiplier was all fine though. All the flash did for me was make it say "Sempron"...

 

[daveybrat]

I've tried Semprons on 2 different brands with different results. On Gigabyte brand motherboards, the sempron will post and boot, but the cpu will not show up properly, so you just have to boot to a floppy and flash the bios.

On the ECS brand motherboards with a sempron installed, i got no video at all. I had to put an old Duron in the system to flash the bios then put the Sempron back in and then it worked fine.

Much more of a pain on the ECS.

 

[21Outlaw]

Originally posted by: daveybrat
On the ECS brand motherboards with a sempron installed, i got no video at all. I had to put an old Duron in the system to flash the bios then put the Sempron back in and then it worked fine.

Much more of a pain on the ECS.

My original Sempron 2500+/ECS mobo was a PITA!!

I then decided to go get a MSI K7 Delta board and works as described above.

 

[plummer66]

Same issue was with me and a Soyo board and a Semp2500. The machine will post(and boot into windows) like an Athlon 2200 or something. Then once you apply the bios update.......it will show the correct Sempron 2500. No worries.

 

[patsfan33]

whats wrong with this one? http://www.newegg.com/app/View...=19-103-401&depa=0

 

[Martyuk39]

Thanks for all the help. I'm in the UK so I can't use Newegg. I'll take my chances with the Sempron. Or try and persuade the purchaser to get an Athlon XP 3000 (which is available) for a few more pennies