Author: David Bell Date: To: Hampshire LUG Discussion List Subject: Re: [Hampshire] Sempron or Celeron
Chris Aitken wrote: > I'm considering upgrading out home laptop with a cheap Dell. The
> choice is either a Sempron Mobile 3500, or a Celeron M 520?
The Celeron M 520 is probably the better choice. It is a 65nm 1.6Ghz
Core 2 Duo with half the L2 cache of the Mermon-core Core 2 Duo. The
Core 2 processors out perform AMD processors right now, AMD is a
non-starter, especially for laptops.
I think I'm right in saying the Sempron is single core where as the
Celeron M 520 is a dual-core processor. The Turion 64 X2's are AMD's
mobile dual-core processor range.
> Each offering also has an upgrade. The Sempron Mobile 3500 to Athlon
> 64x2 TK53 for £47, or the Celeron M 520 to a Dual Core T2080 (for
> £23.50) or T2130 for £47.
You probably do not need the extra performance of a full Core 2 Duo or
Athlon 64 X2. If you did, go for the T2080.
> It will mainly be used for word processing etc, email & web. However
> my Desktop has an Athlon Xp, and I am constantly suprised that the
> amount of software that requires an Intel CPU to run.
AMD and Intel CPUs support the same basic x86 instruction set. The
64-bit versions support the same AMD64/EMT64 instruction set. Software
written for Intel processors work on AMD processors. There are a few
extensions that not all processors support but these are rare and you
generally do not have to worry about support or lack of support for them.
In short, software which requires an Intel CPU will work on an AMD CPU.
