I recently made somewhat of a sidegrade (yes, I made that word up just now). I moved up from a S754 Sempron 64 to an AM2 Sempron 64. At first I got a good chuckle as my S754 was a 2800+ and the new AM2 is a 3000+, yet they are the same clock and cache. But I digress. Anyway, the deal on the motherboard was good, I pretty much break even on the deal plus I get SLI and more upgradability for the future.
Anyhoo - I put everything together, clean the crap off the heatsink, apply some AS5 and off I go. However, it wasn't unit I took the old motherboard, CPU and heatsink apart to ship to its new owner that I noticed something. The heatsink for the S754 CPU - a stock AMD retail part was actually a better heatsink than the newer heatsink with the AM2 retail part. The bottom was smoother, and completely polished, as opposed to the dull anodized finish on the AM2 part. Not only that, but the fins on the AM2 part were thicker and there were a few rows fewer. I guess now we know why prices are going down.
And finally - yes, I know stock cooling sucks, but hey, it's a Sempron. It will be replaced hopefully with a Barcelona and something more appropriate for cooling soon enough.
Anyhoo - I put everything together, clean the crap off the heatsink, apply some AS5 and off I go. However, it wasn't unit I took the old motherboard, CPU and heatsink apart to ship to its new owner that I noticed something. The heatsink for the S754 CPU - a stock AMD retail part was actually a better heatsink than the newer heatsink with the AM2 retail part. The bottom was smoother, and completely polished, as opposed to the dull anodized finish on the AM2 part. Not only that, but the fins on the AM2 part were thicker and there were a few rows fewer. I guess now we know why prices are going down.
And finally - yes, I know stock cooling sucks, but hey, it's a Sempron. It will be replaced hopefully with a Barcelona and something more appropriate for cooling soon enough.
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