What's the best processor right now for under $125?

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HeXploiT

HeXploiT

Diamond Member
Jun 11, 2004
4,359
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My cousin is finally upgrading his system from an applebred 1.3 to the 64 bit platform. I've helped him find some sweet deals as he's on a tight budget and we're now at the final stage which is the cpu. His absolute cap is $125 shipped including the cooling unit. He seems to like the idea of a Sempron 3100+ because of it's overclocking capabilities(although he's never oc'ed before) and possibly being able to enable the extra cache. I want to help him find just the right cpu as he'll be using this machine for probably the next two years. He's an avid gamer and the system will be based on an Abit KV8 Pro Motherboard. Any tips/suggestions?
 
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Shimmishim

Elite Member
Feb 19, 2001
7,504
0
76
e6 venice from ewiz is the one to get.

updated mem controller from what i've read and overclocks pretty well compared to the week 21 to 24 chips.

e6 is week 26+ i believe but i could be wrong
 
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Furen

Golden Member
Oct 21, 2004
1,567
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I have a few tips that you can just ignore if you already have the motherboard:

First, get a socket 939 mobo.
Second, get a venice 3000+ (138ish dollars, so spend a little bit less on the motherboard to make up for it).

If you already have the motherboard then I'd get the sempron 2800+, since it has the same cache as the 3100 but is like 50 bucks cheaper. You could also get an athlon 64 2800+ but these are a bit on the hot side, for my taste. If you do get the sempron be sure to get a 64 bit enabled one, like the following:

Link

I havent been able to find any 64bit enabled sempron 3100s so be sure to get one with an E6 stepping core (the OPN should be something like this: SDA2800BXBOX, the bolded part is what you'll be looking for).

NOTE: from what I hear, that motherboard is not the best overclocker out there so you might actually want to get a cpu with higher multiplier if you really plan on overclocking (like the Sempron 3100 or the 3300--the 3100 is supposed to be $106 and the 3300 $126, according to AMD).
 
HeXploiT

HeXploiT

Diamond Member
Jun 11, 2004
4,359
1
76
The venice core chips are definetely out of his price range and he definetely won't be investing in 939. The 64bit enabled sempron is a great idea though as it's only $76 with the heatsink/fan. Not the best overclocker but it'll be better under Vista overall than the 3100+ and save him some dough for a better psu. Sofar i'm thinking that'll be the way to go. The nice price on this one makes it tempting.
 
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Furen

Golden Member
Oct 21, 2004
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Like I said, the motherboard will be the limiting factor to his overclock. A 2800+ will only get to around 1920-2000MHz, a 3100+ to 2160-2250ish. a 3300+ will get to around 2400-2500 since they have multipliers of 8, 9 and 10 and I doubt the motherboard will give you more than 240-250HTT.

Aside from this: does he already have DDR400 ram? If not then I'd think he'll need it, since Socket 754 K8s are (I believe) somewhat memory-bandwidth limited.
 
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Shimmishim

Elite Member
Feb 19, 2001
7,504
0
76
my bad... i didn't see the mobo...

so socket 754...

why not the 2800+ then? it's got more cache than the sempron and priced only a little higher
 
HeXploiT

HeXploiT

Diamond Member
Jun 11, 2004
4,359
1
76
He'll be starting out with some generic 266fsb memory. It'll probably be a couple months before he moves to 400fsb ram.

As far as the 2800+ A64 goes...it's $115 on newegg compared to $76. That's a big deal on his budget.
 
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Furen

Golden Member
Oct 21, 2004
1,567
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I dont think performance will be all that hot using DDR266, you can always try it and if it sucks too badly just upgrade to 512MB of DDR400 or something.
 
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brikis98

Diamond Member
Jul 5, 2005
7,253
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just thought i'd throw this out there since i'm not sure if you have the mobo already or not:

- AMD A64 Venice 3000+ socket 939: ~$118 shipped (ewiz)
- Thermaltake TR2TT TR2 M6 (K8) HSF: $12 shipped (newegg)
Total: $130

you can also get a 939 motherboard:

- Socket 939 motherboard with AGP 8x (some Chaintech brand): $70 shipped
or
- Socket 939 motherboard with PCI-E x16 (MSI Neo4-f): ~$82 shipped

for right around $200 you get a very nice system that OC's to 2.6Ghz easily on air. 2x512MB of PC3200 ValueRam can be had for ~$80, even better if you wait for hot deals.
 
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imported_wyrmrider

Senior member
Dec 6, 2004
204
0
0
Did we ever find out if he has the MB?
754 only
hot 754's are dirt cheap on ebay from those moving to 939
266 ram will work just fine even oc'ed with a divider (266) however even with a 1/2 (200) divider his oc will be limited to ONLY 33%
so he could hit 2.6 with several cpu's. 2.4 more likely with stock cooling with his existing ram -however as the poster above said the MB will be the limiting factor not the Ram. He needs to check, some Mb's do not like 1/2 dividers , not enough problems reported to cause fix in bios. I would think playing with the timings by hand would get around this.
As stated in the memory stickie the ram will not have a big impact on his performance
Save his $$ till he can get a pair of 1 gb sticks even if it's a year
how much memory does he have- if 256 k then rethink the above if running XP- W98 would fly W2k work ok
my 2cents
wyrmrider
 
Markfw

Markfw

Moderator Emeritus, Elite Member
May 16, 2002
27,284
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136
Most socket 754 boards do NOT have a working AGP lock. Does that one ? If not, you can only to up 5-8% OC or so.
 
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enwar3

Golden Member
Jun 26, 2005
1,086
0
0
yea its more like whats the only processor u can get under 125 and thats the venice. definite bang for the buck though..
 
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Pabster

Lifer
Apr 15, 2001
16,986
1
0
Just my opinion -- avoid the VIA chipset boards at all costs. The few bucks you save over the alternatives (such as NF3) will leave you miserable for a long time.

As for bang for the buck at the $125ish price range ... the Venice 3000+ is definitely the one.
 
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Fallengod

Diamond Member
Jul 2, 2001
5,908
19
81
As stated already, its the only one. :p Might hunt at ebay. I bought my 3200+ venice retail for $160 shipped on ebay. If you float around a while and watch auctions, you can get some good deals. Also, paypal sometimes has coupons going on which can drop prices another $15-$25.
 
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dguy6789

Diamond Member
Dec 9, 2002
8,558
3
76
The Nforce 3 250 is the only chipset on socket 754 to my knowledge that has working agp and pci lock.

The Athlon 64 2800+ is virtually the same performance as the 3000+ on s939.

There is almost no performance drop going from pc3200 to pc2700 on an Athlon 64, but I am not about pc2100.

 
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