yo, i have a question for someone with the wisdom & knowledge i seek, heh. ive picked up an old rig off a m8 of mine that im gonna pinch a few components out of to bring my rig slighty more upto date, anyway... i didnt think the sempron it was running would be of any use to me so i didnt give it a second look, ya know, but after checking out the bios i found out that it runs @ 166 fsb (333). Im currently running a Skt-A XP2000 @ 133 fsb (266) on the NF7-S2 with 512 of 400/3200 SpecTek Ram... people have told me that the semprons are pap because they have low L1/L2 cache ratings. correct me if im wrong, but doesnt the fsb govern the main speed of executions ? anyway, what im really after is to know which chip i'd benefit from running. there both the same speed, 1.66 ghz .. but the semprons bus speed is higher. im confused, lol. also.. after all that nonsense has scrambled through your brain, what kind of overclock, if any, would i be looking at from the better option of the two. think my rams good enuff to do it.. but my heatsink might let me down a bit, idles at about 36 and peaks at 48 give or take a degree (thats the athlon im using atm). it would be much appreciated if anyone can shed some light on this for me, have spoken to a bunch of m8s about it.. but havent found the answers im looking for really. cheers.

"Since the day Sempron CPU from AMD was released one of the most frequently asked question is "afterall, what is the difference between Sempron and Athlon XP?" Sempron is a slower Athlon XP (the exception goes to the Sempron socket 754 versions, which are an Athlon 64 with less L2 memory cache; these models use socket 754 pinout, thus requiring motherboards originally developed to Athlon 64, having a greater performance then socket 462 models). Originally Sempron socket 754 didn't have the 64-bit extensions available on Athlon 64, but since July, 2005, AMD introduced the 64-bit instructions on these processors. So, the socket 754 Semprons listed below can be found with or without the 64-bit extensions. The models with 64-bit extensions enabled have the letters "BX" as the two last letters printed on the CPU package. The difference in performance between Sempron and Athlon XP occurs due to the numbering system used to designate the processor's speed, which is differente for each processor. A Sempron 3000+ isn't faster than an Athlon XP 2800+, even though it has a greater number. The processor numbers can only be used to compare CPUs in the same product line, i.e. you can only compare Sempron to Sempron and Athlon XP to Athlon XP." Same stuff, different name..........pretty much. The Secret Letter From Iraq

**Note: The following info does not apply to the AXP/Barton** Both the Sempron & the AXP are based on the TBred core & have the exact same L1 & L2 cache. The only difference is the FSB & the PR rating. The majority of AXP/Tbred's run at 133MHz/266FSB, but ALL Sempron/Tbred's run at 166MHz/333FSB. So generally speaking, the Sempron/Tbred is better than the AXP/Tbred, as long as you don't compare the the two using PR ratings. As Sabertooth stated above: "The processor numbers can only be used to compare CPUs in the same product line, i.e. you can only compare Sempron to Sempron and Athlon XP to Athlon XP." A Sempron 2400+ will perform better than an AXP 2000+ because of it's faster FSB, even though both are clocked at 1667MHz. So if you have the choice, go with the Sempron 2400+.

BTW, you should have no problem running the Sempron 2400+ at 2000MHz (10 x 200MHz) on that board, but a slight voltage increase *may* be necessary.

cheers for your comments guys. ive digested all of that and had a think. lol sabretooth, hardcore name man, u a big fan of marvel ? i used to read the comics back in the day, deadpool was cool, cocky bast, but hees a dab-hand with guns & blades, heh... anyway yeh, the score: im gonna upgrade my bios first, im 2 revisions behind, then slap the sempron in and jack the fsb upto 180 for 1800 mhz, i would go for 2 thou like u said jam but with the voltage increase needed i doubt my coolings up to the job at the mo, so ill leave that as even more room for improvement. from the 133 ive run for an age to a hopefull 180... should run like a beast! cheers again.

Make sure you lock the PCI/AGP at 33/66MHz & disable all Spread Spectrum settings. Also, make sure your RAM runs at the same speed as the CPU bus. There's no point running your PC3200 at 200MHz if your CPU is running at 166MHz or 180MHz. If the CPU is as 180MHz, the RAM should run at 180MHz at well. Also, the stock Sempron cooler *should* have no problem handling the O/C to 200MHz. Try it (be prepared to raise the voltage) & check your temps...if you don't like what you see, simply back it off. Also, you don't have to update your BIOS in succession...the latest BIOS contains all improvements made in the BIOS versions before it. In other words, if your board has v.1001 & the latest is v.1005, you don't need to flash v.1002, then 1003, then 1004, then 1005....just flash directly to v.1005 & you're done.

jam your an apsolute legend m8. since my last post, ive upgraded the bios and switched chips over, aswel as the sempron stock cooler as u reccommended. feeling quietly confident, i dove straight in with the 200 bus on first boot - crashed approaching windows, upped the voltage 6% (the least i could) and its seems (touch wood) impressivly stable at the mo, its 400 fsb @ 2000 mhz ... YOU BEAUTY !!! with the small volt increase its slightly on the warm side, but far from danger territory idling comfortably for half an hour now at 39 degrees. oh yeh .. while i was there i downloaded that pcu-z (i saw u mention it to someone else in another topic) and i compared the chips before and after: athlon - palomino L1 - 2 way 64 L1 - 2 way 64 L2 - 16 way 256 0.18 um sempron - thoroughbred L1 - 2 way 64 L1 - 2 way 64 L2 - 16 way 256 0.13 um what they say about the cache isnt actually true, it matches the athlon on cache and beats it in micron tolerance. much appreciated for the help man. youve officially been crowned with the wisdom & knowledge award. nice one.