R4000 Sempron or AMD64???

I was hoping some of you R4000 owners could help me with a configuration I'm trying to put together. I am a bit torn right now between what CPU to get. Right now I'm trying to decide between the Sempron 3200+ and the AMD64 3200+. Here are some factors running through my mind that might nudge me one way or the other:

1. 32bit performance
2. battery consumption
3. heat
4. "upgradability"

I intend to use the laptop for general use with ocassional gaming every now and then. There may be some traveling involved so I would like general power efficiency when on the go without the extra bulk. Having heard of the zd8000 and their noise issues, I don't want the fans to be constantly on so having a cooler cpu would be nice. If in the far future I decide to max this machine, it would be nice to be able to get the AMD64 4000+ and stick it in if I should "stumble" across one at a reasonable price.

64bit is nice but not all that useful at this point in time. Considering I would have to purchase another OS and 64 bit apps to take advantage of the benefits, it's a hard sell(unless I go linux of course :P). However, if there is a mainboard difference between a sempron equiped R4000 and a AMD64 equiped one, I might get the 3200+ instead for the "upgradability". I would like to get the 4000+, mainly because of the cool-n-quiet tech, but at $250 more than the sempron, it's a rather expensive addition that could equate to more ram.

As far as gaming, I'm planning to get the 128mb w/hypermemory since I am a casual gamer. If I can maintain at least 30fpm in games like Doom3, HL2, I'm good to go. Any gamers with a Sempron equiped R4000?

Having seen cheaper hardware outperform more expensive ones(without overclocking), I find myself wondering if this is the case. At $50 between the AMD64 3200+ and Sempron 3200+, cost is not a factor, I simply want the best cpu based on the decision factors. Any suggestions, criticisms, opinions are certainly welcome and appreciated.

Thanks for all your input. I'm also wondering if I could captilize on a 64bit enabled sempron as some have found. I'm not sure how many r4000's are affected, but there are rumors of some being equiped with a 939 chipset and having 64bit enabled.

http://img166.imageshack.us/my.php?i...sempron9zt.jpg

Also, I'm reading from retailers that cool'n'quiet technology are equiped on AMD64 3200+? Right now I'm going by HP's website which says only the 4000+ has cool'n'quiet. Anybody know a little more about this?

Thanks again for the input. I believe I will go with the Sempron rather than the 64 because:

1. I believe I will get a better chance getting the winchester(.90nm) core with the Sempron 3200+ rather than the AMD64 3200+.

http://www.notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=89307

From this thread, it seems as there are still AMD64 still based on the older newcastle(.13nm) core. Since sempron 3200+ is fairly new, I think its more likely to be the winchester.

2. It seems like AMD was already planning on having x86-64 instructions on semprons along with maybe SSE3?

3. The $50 could go towards ddr400 upgrades which I feel would improve performance more than the cpu upgrade.

4. It seems like the mainboards being used now are all 939 based boards so upgrading to the 4000+ in the future is a potential possibility. Even the Turion64 I think is also possible.

5. Thanks to miner, I found out even the sempron has cool'n'quiet technology so power and temperature should be comparable if not better.

6. CPU benchmarks have only shown a small margin of difference between 64's and semprons. As mentioned, putting the money saved towards more ram which will help me more when it comes to Photoshop work.

So far, I have configured:

Sempron 3200+
256MB ram
40gig HD
128MB Radeon Xpress 200M
15.4WXGA with Brightview
Wifi w/ bluetooth.

I expect to toss the included 256 and get two sticks of 512mb ddr400 for a nice 1gig total. Why 40gigs? Well, with all the external storage space devices I have, I think 40 gigs should do well. Plus I can always upgrade this later and possibly cheaper in the future.

Thanks pastkev. I just got back from Office Depot. Today was their last day for the special sale on the R4000. It's interesting that office depot even breaks down the pricing of the individual components rather than as a whole. For everyone's FYI, this is how the pricing of my laptop came up:


269576 - HP DeskJet 3847 - $49.99
799432 - MS Works - $10.00
876744 - 40GB 4200RPM HD - $75.00
890672 - MS WinXP Pro w/SP2 - $50.00
893144 - DVD/CD-RW Combo - $150.00
897048 - AMD Sempron 3200+ - $55.00
897096 - 128MB Ati Radeon - $60.00
897344 - 15.4" WXGA w/BV - $200.00
897352 - 256MB DDR Memory - $125.00
897432 - 12 Cell Lithium Batt - $80.00
897848 - 54G Broadcom w/Bluetooth - $51.00
904640 - Compaq Presario R4000 - $183.00

Subtotal = $1088.99
CA Sales Tax = $89.84
S+H = $45.00

Discounts
$50 Compaq Presario rebate
$50 Compaq computer with printer rebate
$200 Office Depot R4000 Rebate
$100 Office Depot Notebook and Printer combo rebate
$50 Office Depot Advantage Member (Store credit)

Grand Total = $773.83 (After all discounts)


Being in CA, I'm a little surprised I did not see a charge for the recycling fee. I'm not sure if that somehow got incorporated in the price somewhere, but normally I thought that should be listed separately from all charges. I guess the best case scenario is they simply forgot about it or worst case is it was incorporated into the price and I paid tax on it(no big deal for $8). Another possibility is they will assess the charge on my credit card later.

A few other thoughts is how much they ream you on the memory. $125 for 256MB!?! Also, it's too bad MS Works couldn't be ditched. OpenOffice all the way for me. I also had a nice cashier mention about the advantage membership program. Basically that gave me free shipping on the order which I had trouble convincing the sales rep to give me since HP.com has free s+h.

All in all, I think I'm going to be very happy with my purchase. Didn't think I could get a laptop with most of the features I wanted for under $800. Now I just need to find a deal on memory.

To upgrade to the cheapest 5400RPM drive I believe was an additional $75 for a 60GB. The upgrade prices on most of the options at Office Depot were more expensive than the ones on HP's. I figured I could buy one on my own if I felt the system was too sluggish with specs that I wanted. Not to mention with a 3 year warranty. Who knows, there might even be solid-state laptop drives not too far off in the future.

Also the 5400 would impact system temperature and battery life so initially I want to see how well the system will handle a 4200 first before deciding to upgrade.

As far as memory, I'm not sure which configuration to go with. DDR400 or DDR333, 2X512MB or 1X1GB and 1X256MB. If I use the stock 256MB and mix it in with a 1GB DDR400 stick, I'm not sure how the system will like mismatched memory. Since there seems to be no support for Dual Channel on this board at present time, getting matched pairs seems irrelevant. I suppose I could just go 1GB DDR400 and sell off the stock 256MB if they don't play well with each other. It will make it much easier to max the system later by simply adding an additional 1GB stick. Anyone have any comments on the matter?

Yeah I understand the concept of operating as fast as the slowest component and it definitely applies here. My only reason would be to have the extra 256MB and just take the performance hit. Eventually I hope to have 2GB total and getting rid of the 256MB.

Since I do some photoshop work, I feel having the extra memory might help. Once Photoshop starts using the scratch disk, it really starts to affect performance. Depending on how my benchmarks go, I might get rid of the 256MB if it proves to be more of a detriment than a help.

I suppose I could save a few bucks and get the DDR333, but I would have to resell it once I decide to upgrade. A hobby of mine is to max out old equipment using parts that I find in flea markets or stuff my work is tossing out. I still have an old laptop that I maxed out with a 233MMX cpu and 96MB of ram. At some point I'll do the same with this R4000. Its fun giving life to old and, to some, obsolete equipment. It's partly the reason why it took me so long to decide to get a new system.

For a wifi upgrade, it is definitely possible. I'm not sure about the model you have, but on other laptops, if you order the laptop without the wifi, the internal antenna is not included. You may need to order an antenna along with the wifi card which normally does not come with one.

As for your impressions on the CPU comparison, I believe differently. Although you have the same ram and hd's on all systems, your comparisons between the Sempron/AMD64 and your systems I believe are unfair. The AMD Duron and Intel Dothan(Pentium M) processors are completely different processors and different clock speeds with SIXTEEN times the amount of cache. It's like comparing a corolla to a corvette. I agree cache is important but when the two cpu's only differ in 256K of cache, I do not believe there will be a big difference in performance as you suggest.

From a negative standpoint, in the R4000, there is a known issue that the Dual Channel capabilities of the AMD64 processor is disabled thus taking away one of the AMD64's edge over the Sempron as mentioned earlier. In a way I am also affected since it is rumored also that the newer semprons(939) are rebadged AMD64's with half cache and in theory, I could have also taken advantage of the dual channel capabilities as well. Either way, I think both processors are great and should be comparable.