[mythtv-users] sempron 3100 v. 64 3000+

[Rich West]

Raphael wrote:
> Gabe Rubin wrote:
>   
>> On Jan 31, 2008 3:17 PM, Tom Greer <trgreer at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>     
>>> Fry's regularly advertises motherboard/CPU combo deals.  I recently picked
>>> up a ECS AM2 socket motherboard with built-in nVidia graphics and an AMD
>>> BE-2350 Althlon X2 CPU for about $80.
>>>
>>> I'd pursue a deal like that rather than invest any additional money in a
>>> socket 754 system.
>>>
>>>
>>> Tom
>>>       
>> That is a good point, and indeed, is how I got this current system.
>> The only thing is that the deal was for a small form factor iDeq made
>> by biostar that included the CPU.  The computer is similar to a
>> shuttle.  So getting a new mobo is not an option here, although I
>> would certainly wait for a deal like this if I wanted a new system
>> completely.
>>
>> I guess the consensus is that I am not going to get much difference in
>> performance by simply plopping in the new CPU, or if I do, it won't be
>> $50 worth of difference.
>> _______________________________________________
>>     
>
>
> Well... the difference just has to be enough to turn off xvmc going by 
> your original post, if that's worth $50 to you. 2 GHz on an athlon64 is 
> definitely enough to watch HD w/o xvmc in my case. That was socket 939, 
> but the only difference in your case should be lack of dual channel 
> memory. I don't know how that affects media playback, I'd guess not 
> much. With the sempron do you peg at 100% with xvmc off?

I've got two AMD Athlon64 3000+ processors that I was going to list on
ebay.  One came out of my backend server (which ran fine, but I really
needed a dual core in that system) and the other came out of my machine
(which I just upgraded to a dual-core box for software-based MPEG2
encoding).

The Athlon64 3000+ worked great in my backend-only system, but it was
pretty heavily pounded by multiple recordings and a commercial flagger. 
It couldn't handle, however, flagging commercials while recording when
there were multiple recordings goign on (with only one mythcommflag
process allowed to run).  It was too much for the system.  I upgraded,
and, yes, I had a hard time finding a microATX system with enough PCI
slots for my 3 PVR150's.

Socket754 chips are definitely becoming harder to find.  I bought in to
them at the tail end of their availability (Dec. 2006).  The 3000+ was
popular, and it was right at the threshold from the Sempron to the
Athlon (hence the cross-over).  Oddly enough, I have Sempron 3000's in
my FE that are 64-bit and run rather well, not without XvMC's help,
though (yes, the Sempron pegs at 100% with XvMC off).

I'd swap from the Sempron to the Athlon, but I am not sure if there
would be much difference.. that, and for some reason, the motherboards
in my FE's don't seem to see the ability to slow up the clock speed on
the Athlon64 3000+'s when the system is not in use (trying like mad to
keep the energy use down a bit).

-Rich