Sempron X2, a new overclocker toy?

[DanceswithUnix]

How come I didn't notice this chip before, is it new? Seems to be a Phenom II X4 C3 stepping with most of the chip disabled (for now, bwahahaha!).

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/amd-s...mhz-45w-retail

If just the L3 cache turn back on OK, that could be a stonking little chip for 30 notes.

Soooo tempting. One might just slip into the basket on my next order

Edit to add: Reminds me of the X2 5000 & X2 5200 that were such fun even with a lower base clock.

http://forums.hexus.net/pc-hardware/...ilable-uk.html
http://forums.hexus.net/motherboards...fx-5200-a.html

[scaryjim]

Frankly even the original A II-based Sempron was good value. I'd heard rumours of this but they're few and far between AFAIK. If I hadn't bought a Phenom II 905e off Zak recently I'd be tempted, but I've already got a 2.5GHz Quad with L3 cache, so I'm good

[mikeo01]

According to CPU world it was released Q3 2011?

http://www.cpu-world.com/news_2011/2..._surfaces.html

Semprons are a bit old, wonder how well it is. New budget processor at a very cheap price is quite appealing good little chips though!

Seen some Sempron 140s running at high overclocks over at overclock.net, they seem to be tough little cookies

[scaryjim]

My Sempy 140 happily unlocked to an Athlon X2. Never tried overclocking though, just didn't need to. I eventually dropped it back to stock, then underclocked it to max 2GHz.

But yeah, they're good chips. If these are genuinely X4 dies, they could end up being extremely bargainous

[mikeo01]

£30 for a maybe-unlockable, that is cheap. As cheap as good budget cheapness can go.

Whilst taking advantage of the newest AM3 technologies. Motherboard + Sempron 190 + RAM all for under £100. Appealing for the lower end budget market.

[DanceswithUnix]

Had another look at this before I pulled the credit card out (they were on Today Only on Scan yesterday for another quid off).

Not seeing reports on the internet of people unlocking these so held back, and cpu-world thinks they are Athlon chips with some cache disabled.

Did AMD actually make any dual core chips at 45nm? I thought they only made Athlon X4, Phenom 2 X4 and Phenom 2 X6.

[mikeo01]

Thought it was only the Althon II and Phenom II series that were 45nm. Before that was the old Athlon 64 X2s

http://www.bitsandchips.it/9-hardwar...uore-si-rivede

Apparently Semprons still have their own little name and an Italian review shows a nice overclock coming from it.

According to that review its based on Athlon II 2xx series, Regor core.

[scaryjim]

Yeah, the Athlon IIs were split between 2 dies, one with the full 4 cores and one with only 2. The Sempron 140/145 were Athlon II X2 dies with one core disabled. The main difference (apart from size ) was that the x2 die featured 1MB L2 cache per core, whereas the X4 die featured 512MB L2 cache per core. If these are harvested Regors then the absolute best unlock would be an extra 512MB of cache per core, and tbh I can 't see them harvesting dies unless there was a genuine problem with the cache.

Still, given the specs, and the IPC improvements they made in K10, it's almost certainly faster than an Athlon FX-62, which I believe was a $999 processor when it launched.... If I was doing an office full of basic boxes I wouldn't hesitate, tbh (that said, the last office-full of boxes I did had Semprons in them ... bit of a running theme for me ).

[mikeo01]

Three dies, Regor, Rana and Propus.

Athlon II x2 (Regor) was one on its own, where as Rana was Propus with one core disabled?

Correct me if I am wrong!

[scaryjim]

I'm pretty sure Rana and Propus were the same die, just different code names - that is, they used exactly the same silicon, just binned for speed/functionality. Regor used different silicon. The single-core Sempron code name was "Sargas", but that was the same silicon as Regor but with one core disabled. The 180 and 190 are apparently sticking with the "Regor" code name, suggesting that they're native dual-core silicon with some cache disabled.

So perhaps not quite such a good deal, although a 45W 2.5GHz dual core for £30 certainly isn't a bad deal

[DanceswithUnix]

The only couple of "Rana" core machines I have come across unlocked to Phenom II X4.

I know there was a 4 core with 1MB L2 cache die, not that I ever used one. So if you get 1MB per core of L2 cache then you know it can't unlock to a Phenom.

They were rumoured to have made a 2 core die, but again I never actually used one.

Wonder if they are still actually making these things, or if they are just selling whatever they can find at the warehouse at this point.

[mikeo01]

Ahh that makes sense

So basically the Sempron 190 is really just a rebadged Athlon II x2 with cache disabled.

Not really a bad deal though considering its performance and power efficiency for today's budget AM3 performers. Good old Athlons back in the days!

[scaryjim]

Wonder if they are still actually making these things, or if they are just selling whatever they can find at the warehouse at this point.

Are AMDs chipsets 45nm now? Otherwise there must be some 45nm capacity going spare at GloFo, I'd've thought - perhaps they just run a batch every now and then to feed into the low end AM3+ market to ty to keep motherboards selling? Or perhaps they pull old binned silicon out and work out a way to get it running well enough to make a product out of - won't run at 2.8GHz with 1MB/core? Let's turn down the clock speeds and core until we can find a combination that works!

[DanceswithUnix]

CPU world back up 4 distinct dies.

http://www.cpu-world.com/info/AMD/Un...es_and_L3.html

[scaryjim]

There's Thuban based Athlon II X4s? That'd be one hell of an unlock

[=assassin=]

Wow, I didn't realise processors could still be found this cheap. I've not really looked for years tbh, surprised me. It's almost tempting just to build a budget box for the sake of it But, alas, I'm not rich enough to do that for 'fun' though.