Which gives more bang for your buck with Boinc? Anyone have some semperon results to post?

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<img src="http://www.setisynergy.com/images/stats/comb-556.jpg">

Probably neither. They are both cut down versions of real chips sold for marketing purposes. I would think a AMD barton core chip would be the best for the money, but the hyperthreading on the newer pentiums and the higher fsb may make up for the extra money. Personally my next computer will either be a dual AMD machine or a HT pentium (if I get any spare money before the dual core chips come out).

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BOINC WIKI

BOINCing since 2002/12/8

> Probably neither. They are both cut down versions of real chips sold for
> marketing purposes. I would think a AMD barton core chip would be the best for
> the money, but the hyperthreading on the newer pentiums and the higher fsb may
> make up for the extra money. Personally my next computer will either be a dual
> AMD machine or a HT pentium (if I get any spare money before the dual core
> chips come out).
>

P4 (w HT) is much more expensive than a sempron, or celeron. The worst choice is celeron. I rather prefer sempron, but it hasn't got 64-bit support, and i think a 64 client will be.. So, buy a cheap A64, almost at the poor celeron's price... ;)

Dual core CPUs.. Hmm, with a 2P board.. ;)

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<b>X</b>

> Probably neither. They are both cut down versions of real chips sold for
> marketing purposes.

Semprons are Athlon64 CPUs without the 64bit support (& smaller caches from memory).
Considering the lack of 64bit OSes, let alone software, and the fact that AMDs aren't sensitive to cache sizes the way P4s are a Sempron CPU is a good CPU if you can't afford an Athlon64.

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Grant
Darwin NT

Id say that Semprons are in fact Athlons XP with Thoroughbred core, working on higher FSB. Therefore they will be acting as the original Athlons do or a bit faster because of the faster memory access. Anyway they (Semprons) would be a bit slower than Bartons because of the L2 size. And finaly - the are good for overclocking as Thoros did.
P.S. Comparing Celeron to any Duron/Athlon/Barton/etc. makes no sense to me - Celeron is the worst choice but it isnt the cheapest one.

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Both Grant and Quantum are right:
There are Semprons for socket-A, with Thouroughbred and Barton cores (seen both, but officialy the Barton version doesn't exist), and there are Semprons for socket-754. These have the clawhammer or winchester core, with all the goodies from the Athlon64, but with 64bit disabled, and only 256kb cache.

I think both are better then the Northwood Celeron (128kb cache and 100/400MHz FSB), but I think Prescott Celeron (256kb cache and 133/533MHz FSB) is about equal to socket-A Sempron. They can't beat the socket-754 Sempron.

So in the end it comes down on the CPU-price....

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Join team BOINCstats

> Both Grant and Quantum are right:
> There are Semprons for socket-A, with Thouroughbred and Barton cores (seen
> both, but officialy the Barton version doesn't exist), and there are Semprons
> for socket-754. These have the clawhammer or winchester core, with all the
> goodies from the Athlon64, but with 64bit disabled, and only 256kb cache.
>
> I think both are better then the Northwood Celeron (128kb cache and 100/400MHz
> FSB), but I think Prescott Celeron (256kb cache and 133/533MHz FSB) is about
> equal to socket-A Sempron. They can't beat the socket-754 Sempron.
>
> So in the end it comes down on the CPU-price....
>
Yes, you're absolutely right - there are two kinds of Sempron - my fault :))

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Thanks for the info. Just after a cheap box for the kids to play not too demanding games on. And run seti on the side.

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<img src="http://www.setisynergy.com/images/stats/comb-556.jpg">

> ... And run seti on the side.
>
lol :))))))))))

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> Thanks for the info. Just after a cheap box for the kids to play not too
> demanding games on. And run seti on the side.
>

Let me refrace this:

I'm looking for an excuse to get another SETI-machine, so I convinced my wife the kids need their own PC to learn and play games. As soon as they have it, I forbid every form of CPU hungry game (3D shooters and the like) because it's bad for them.

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Join team BOINCstats

Don't buy a Sempron (I did - Bought a Sempron 2,4GHz socket 754 - cache 256 )
You'll be dissapointed in the crunching times...(lost money)
Certainly do not buy a Celeron (even worse - throw money out of the window is more fun) you grew a beard long enough to make Santa jealous in waiting for the Workunits to finish...

Advice : Wait a little longer buy AMD 64 socket 754 - with 754 socket, you'll be much, much, much more satisfied. For example 2.8 GHz, 3.2 GHz on a Gigabyte K8NSPro board or so...

By the way I did became so depressed by the speed that I threw all Celeron/Sempron thingies in the garbage can, for intensive arithmetics round the clock I would not even sell them to my mother in law...

Greetings from Belgium ;-))

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>
> By the way I did became so depressed by the speed that I threw all
> Celeron/Sempron thingies in the garbage can, for intensive arithmetics round
> the clock I would not even sell them to my mother in law...
>
> Greetings from Belgium ;-))
>
You must like your MIL more than I do, I made a machine for a specific price a few years ago and all she got was a Celeron.
She would NOT spend the money for the regular chip! She does not run Seti anyway but it was a waste of money. She is happy so maybe that is okay, but she would have been MUCH happier with a non Celeron/Duron/Sempron chip.

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> You must like your MIL more than I do, I made a machine for a specific price a
> few years ago and all she got was a Celeron.
> She would NOT spend the money for the regular chip! She does not run Seti
> anyway but it was a waste of money. She is happy so maybe that is okay, but
> she would have been MUCH happier with a non Celeron/Duron/Sempron chip.
>
>
What does your MIL do with this computer? Im sure she doesnt play CS :)))

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At the moment she has the blessed age of 87...
She still dances rock and roll, and uses the computer to statistically analyse her chances to get on living up to 110?

No, no, ... I don't think my DNA is that good of construction.

Greetings from Belgium ;-))
I wish you all the latest Athlon or Pentium with the biggest cache ever, as a present for the upcoming hollydays.

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If you are looking to build a "farm" or a small cluster of computers to run BOINC on, there is an alternative strategy.

Buy/build your first computer with the best available processor/MB/CPU/Graphics card. Wait one or two years and then repeat, though it would not be necessary to upgrade the graphics card, get a cheapie and put that in the older machine. Rinse, repeat.

If you want to do it on the cheap you can look for CPU/MB specials, buy a decent case (I like the "Antec" style) and over time build up the stock of cases with steadily improving MB/CPU.

That is what I did over a decade (though wife made me give away 4 of my computers, I don't know why, no one else was using the guest bedroom... ).

At the moment I have:

1 Each 2.8 GHz Intel CPU & Soyo MB
2 Each 3.0 GHz (HT) Intel CPU & Intel 875 MB
2 Each 3.2 GHz (HT & 1 M cache) one on a Gigabyte MB and an El-cheapo MB
1 Each 2.0 GHz Dual G5 Apple

All of the non-Apple computers are in Antec cases so I can swap in new MB and CPU as I have money can desire to upgrade them (though my next computer is going to be a 2.5 or 3.0 G5).

The drawback to using cheap MB is that the speed will be slower on the cheapie. There is a noticable, though not huge difference between the processing on the 3.2 machines that can be subscribed to the lack of dual channel memory.

I only have one each WU to compare at the moment so I am not sure that it is relevant to discuss the current timing deltas. If you want to delve, you can look at my7 computers and the returned results.

Note, that I play games on the machine named EQ-2, and do most work on the G5, so, for the most part the machines only do BOINC, at the moment only SETI@Home and cp.net models. When the other projects start up I will be adding them (usually with equal shares).

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Maybe one of you gentleman can assist me. When my Dell 866MHz PIII died recently, I bought a non-branded computer with an AMD Athlon XP 3100+, L2 Cache is 512KB, running at 1.7 GHz, 512MB RAM. It's on a PCChips K7 motherboard (M825G), apparently with a Socket A 462-pin processor socket, and in a generic case.

I could not find any information specifically on the AMD Athlon XP 3100+ on the AMD site but in one of the threads in the fora on the AMD site, I think I saw a reference to this processor as a Sempron. Somewhere else I found something that said this is apparently a 'Barton' core (0.13 micron).

I'm just curious, anyone know what this thing really is, and what the specifications are? I works okay for me right now, even when I'm using Photoshop to edit images, it still finds plenty of time to run the BOINC projects. It seems to currently be averaging 4:50 to 5:30 hours:minutes per SETI WU.

Cheers,

Stephen

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<P>"I want to go dancing on the moon, I want to frolic in zero gravity!....", and now, I might be able to go someday! Thanks, SpaceShipOne and crew!<BR><a><img src="http://69.93.59.107/stats/banner.php?cpid=26cbd89db7fb85cbfe580729d76705c1"></a>

> > Both Grant and Quantum are right:
> > There are Semprons for socket-A, with Thouroughbred and Barton cores
> (seen
> > both, but officialy the Barton version doesn't exist), and there are
> Semprons
> > for socket-754. These have the clawhammer or winchester core, with all
> the
> > goodies from the Athlon64, but with 64bit disabled, and only 256kb
> cache.
> >
> > I think both are better then the Northwood Celeron (128kb cache and
> 100/400MHz
> > FSB), but I think Prescott Celeron (256kb cache and 133/533MHz FSB) is
> about
> > equal to socket-A Sempron. They can't beat the socket-754 Sempron.
> >
> > So in the end it comes down on the CPU-price....
> >
> Yes, you're absolutely right - there are two kinds of Sempron - my fault :))
>
well i been doingseti sence 2002 and i did it on a celeron 2.00ghz times were slow theni did it ona amd 1700 a lot faster and then i am on a labtop now in the army and keep seti fgoing on a amd64 3000+ And times are about 4 to 5 hrs so i have seen times get faster as i got a better computer.
>

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> I'm just curious, anyone know what this thing really is, and what the
> specifications are? I works okay for me right now, even when I'm using
> Photoshop to edit images, it still finds plenty of time to run the BOINC
> projects. It seems to currently be averaging 4:50 to 5:30 hours:minutes per
> SETI WU.

Being a 3100+ it must be a Sempron, the only similar model numbers for Athon XP CPUs are 3000+ & 3200+.

Having said that- From what i can find if it's a SocketA CPU, then basically it's an Althon XP, now called a Sempron. If it were a Socket754 CPU then it would be based on an Athlon64.

However- also from what i've found the Sempron3100+ is meant to be a Paris core (an Athlon64, without the 64bit support) & will only run on a Socket754 motherboard.
And that motherboard (M825G) will only support Semprons upto 2800+ or AthlonXPs upto 3000+


So there's a bit of a paradox here- that CPU won't run in that particular motherboard.

I'd suggest you get a copy of SiSoft Sandra- it will let you know exactly what motherboard you have (or pull the case off & have a close look- although model numbers can often be rather difficult to find) or CPU-Z & it will report what type of CPU it actually is (along with other interesting info).


I'm curious to know just what it is that you do have.
:-)

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Grant
Darwin NT

> Maybe one of you gentleman can assist me. When my Dell 866MHz PIII died
> recently, I bought a non-branded computer with an AMD Athlon XP 3100+, L2
> Cache is 512KB, running at 1.7 GHz, 512MB RAM. It's on a PCChips K7
> motherboard (M825G), apparently with a Socket A 462-pin processor socket, and
> in a generic case.
>
> I could not find any information specifically on the AMD Athlon XP 3100+ on
> the AMD site but in one of the threads in the fora on the AMD site, I think I
> saw a reference to this processor as a Sempron. Somewhere else I found
> something that said this is apparently a 'Barton' core (0.13 micron).
>
> I'm just curious, anyone know what this thing really is, and what the
> specifications are? I works okay for me right now, even when I'm using
> Photoshop to edit images, it still finds plenty of time to run the BOINC
> projects. It seems to currently be averaging 4:50 to 5:30 hours:minutes per
> SETI WU.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Stephen
>
Because all the data you quote is obviously messed up (there is no Sempron with 512K L2 cash), Id recommend you to run a tool to identify exactly your CPU. I think both CPU-Z and Central Brain Identifier will give you correct info. You have to unzip the files in a folder of your choice and start the .exe - there is no installation needed. Im curious too to know what they are saying bout the CPU :)

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> well i been doingseti sence 2002 and i did it on a celeron 2.00ghz times were
> slow theni did it ona amd 1700 a lot faster and then i am on a labtop now in
> the army and keep seti fgoing on a amd64 3000+ And times are about 4 to 5 hrs
> so i have seen times get faster as i got a better computer.
> >
>
Well it looks like abit slow to complete a WU in 4 hrs on AMD64 3000+.

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