What's with Sempron?

[Hawkens85]

Hey guys, thought I'd drop in to the mighty guru web forum and ask your humble opinion. I'm buying a laptop for college (isn't everyone these days?) and found the HP Pavilion ze2115us. Looks nice, specs are here:

http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=329129&pfp=srch1

Anyways, the guy over at Compusa was seriously downing the Sempron processor, saying it was lower performance, yada yada, typical salesman stuff to get me to spend more. I did my own research on it, found a little info on it, but was wondering what you guys had to say on it. I'll be using it for typical work junk, and a little gaming on the side (I've got a home-made desktop for that), and I was wondering what you guys thought of it all.

[Darthtanion]

Re: What's with Sempron?

In one sense your saleman was correct in that the Sempron is the "value" processor in the AMD arena. It only has 128KB of L2 cache and the HTT value is 4 instead of 5 giving a total data pathway of 1.6GHz instead of the 2GHz you can expect on a normal Athlon64 based setup.

BUT...

Given that you already have a gaming rig and will be using this machine primarily for official college work and the occassional screw off in class game-time, it will work just fine for your needs. If you can go a few dollars more, however, I'd recommend the Turion based machines that are available from HP and Compaq. They offer a little more power but still have a reasonable price tag (generally under $1000 at Best Buy).

[Hawkens85]

Re: What's with Sempron?

Thanks for the input. Since I'm already tight on cash getting everything I need together for school, an extra $200 doesn't exactly give me the warm and fuzies inside. But I digress. The whole deal with extended waranties, like from the stores, how are they on the whole? I've got a 4-year plan on a digital camera that has helped me out in the past, but is it really worth it spending $200 on a waranty plan (even if it does include drops and the LCD display)?

[eat@joes]

Re: What's with Sempron?

Well, being a sales associate at Best Buy, I will honestly tell you those service plans are hit or miss. There are very expensive parts that they will cover, such as the LCD screen, battery, and system recoveries (such as sending your HD back to the manufacturer to recover data and getting a new HD). The downfall to them is; One, it usually takes them a week to even look at your machine, and Two, whether they're going to fix the problem or just give you a brand new machine is iffy. If you need a new machine the customer service, being the douche bags they are, will send you back to the computer department to "get a new one". By then you won't be able to find that model. Next you're going to get your money back OR store credit. On the other hand, if you plan on keeping your machine for a long time it may be heu of you to get the service plan. That way if it does get boned you will be able to have it fixed or replaced. $200 is a lot cheaper than $1000. So you get my point here. The best thing about these retail stores is if you need to replace it and complain to a manager, you will most definately end up with a brand new model at the same price tag as your old one. Managers will do everything against store policy as long as they've sent an item out of the store.

Also, how many years does the warranty cover? And check to see if it's X years through the manufacturer first and then X years through your retailer. You want to make sure you can get full coverage through the retailer, otherwise your manufacturer will b.s you ever more. I've had terrible experience with Compaq/HP. I had to send my laptop back to service...it went back to Shanghai, China because they needed to build a new one. I was without my machine for a month and half and I only recieved a hard time instead of a friendly "We're sorry we ****ed up" or "here's 100 bucks off for our inconvienence".

Read the fine print my friend and let me know what it tells you. Years, coverage, parts/labor, etc...

[Yawgm0th]

Re: What's with Sempron?

A Sempron is fine. The lack of L2 cache doesn't make nearly as much difference as people think, though I'd say the 256KB models are worth the drop in clock speed.

That said, I've looked at laptops quite a bit and I can't see much of anything besides Dell as being good. The Pentium Ms are just too damn good, and Dell's prices are more competive than I would have imagined. I've compard them with the othe OEM's stuff and the more typical off-the-shelf ones from smaller companies (e.g. Acer), and a Dell with a P-M is pretty much the way to go if you want anything short of a dekstop-replacement laptop. Even for gaming, you won't be dissapointed. Chances are you'll get something with a video card too weak for the CPU to matter.

As far as service goes, that's luck. Dell has pretty good service, but the problem with getting something that isn't off-the-shelf can be an increased wait time in tech support. If you can just go back to CompUSA or BestBuy and complain about the premature death of a piece of hardware, there's a good chance you'll get your machine back in one piece, and sooner.

[Hawkens85]

Re: What's with Sempron?

The warranty I can think about later, but give me a professional low-down on these two if you could:

Dell Inspiron 2200

http://www1.us.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/featured_dp_dotw_inspn2?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs

HP Pavilion ze2115us

http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=329129&pfp=srch1&tabtype=pi#moreinfo

Both are $800...but the DVD-RW is looking awfully nice...

[Darthtanion]

Re: What's with Sempron?

The Dell will likely have the best future service and support while the HP will have the better performance. So what is important to you?

[Yawgm0th]

Re: What's with Sempron?

The Dell should be better with power consumption, too. I'd go with the Dell, personally. but the HP will have better performance as Darth said.

[Hawkens85]

Re: What's with Sempron?

Yaw, as far as power consumption goes, I usually have access to a receptacle in class and in the library, which is when I use it the most.

Darth, when it comes to software, I can solve 98% of my own problems, and I'm okay with hardware. So with support, I'm okay, but my only concern is with the screen. How much does it usually cost to get a screen replaced? Speaking of which, that reminds me. My girlfreind's brother gave her a laptop from work, I think it's a Powerbook (not too sure on the name), but it's like 2.3 Ghz, 60G HD, and 265 RAM, it's a pretty handy peice for free. Only deal is her brother's kids hit it with a BB, and now there's hairline cracks all over it, so how much would it cost to go out and buy a new screen? Okay, don't ask me why I asked two of the same questions, but I did...forgive me father, for I have sinned.

[Darthtanion]

Re: What's with Sempron?

No idea