I realize that C2D is generally the consensus for performance per $$, but some of the AMD CPU's are very cheap and I am on a tight budget for upgrading one of my crunchers this summer from a Sempron 2500+.

Does anyone have any experience or thoughts regarding the 65nm X2's (Brisbane)? The 4000+ is only $100 right now... Are they significantly cooler than the 90nm choices?

Thanks for any opinions,

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Team Starfire World BOINC

I would still go C2D. You can get an E4300 for only $115. And they are *very* OC friendly.

Also, if there is a chance you ever will want to crunch for Folding@Home, you need at least 2mb/core. Otherwise the crunching time doubles. That rules out all current AMD chips. And the minimum C2D would be the E6320 for $166.

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Reno, NV
Team: SETI.USA

Brisbane's are socket AM2. I don't think Sempron 2500's are AM2, but I could be wrong. What socket do you have?

FWIW: Intel is significantly dropping prices around July 22. (see may 15 posting)

Intel QuadCore will be $266, down from $800+ initially.

I would assume that AMD would be doing something then, or shortly thereafter...

I'm guessing the original poster doesn't want to have to upgrade the motherboard, so it's not just the cost of the processor that they are concerned with...

If you can hold off until after July 22nd, or after Barcelona is released, you may want to try that. Maybe you can get a higher speed X2 then?

What socket is your motherboard? Then I would check the motherboard to see what processors it can support. Some will support the new CPUs that AMD will be releasing. I tend to check forums at www.anandtech.com and reviews on www.newegg.com.

In general 65nm should run cooler & use less power than a 90nm version of the same chip.

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A Sempron with that rating should be socket A/462, there are no new CPUs coming for that socket anymore, so I guess he needs/wants to upgrade mainboard aswell.

The 4000+ is rated with 65 watt, my 4000+ is 90nm, rated 89 watt, and i hardly get it over 44°.

I was about to get a x2 5600+ , but dont think its worth it atm. I´ll just wait the Barcelona core, and have a look if upcoming games will have any significant advantages on dualcores, but thats just my personal preference..

Dont know how good the 4000+ will crunch tho, a friend of mine had a 4400+ (socket 939) running rosetta, and it was returning 2 times ~30 credits in 3 hours, so far from beeing a crunching monster.

I would suggest to wait the release of the Barcelona core, as this will drop the prices of the actual x2 cores again a lot.

While I don't think anything new/current from AMD will assist the op and his sempy 2500+, for anyone else interested:

AMD readies 50% Opteron price cuts

On June 4th, the firm will cut Opteron 100/1000 prices from between 10 to 50 per cent.

I'm guessing the original poster doesn't want to have to upgrade the motherboard, so it's not just the cost of the processor that they are concerned with...

Yes - I will get a new MB. There is no way for me to upgrade without doing so.

Looks like there is a lot coming up, so I will probably re-evaluate at the end of the summer.

Regarding the quad cores. My E6600 is giving me ~900 credits per day. The quad core at the same frequency (2.4 GHz) gives another team member ~1400 per day. I found that kinda disappointing, but it will still be good for under $300 later this summer. I was hoping it would at least push out 1500 - 1600.

Thanks for the replies.

Dont know how good the 4000+ will crunch tho, a friend of mine had a 4400+ (socket 939) running rosetta, and it was returning 2 times ~30 credits in 3 hours, so far from beeing a crunching monster.

I have one of these, and was really frustrated when AMD went to socket AM2 shortly after I bought it. Not really any upgrade paths without replacing the board now. grr...

Still, it's a good chip for the money. Runs a little hot though.