Can anyone help me with a processor decition?

[rozojc]

Hi everybody, I had a question, and since I've been  unsucessfully trying to find benchmarks comparing two processors, I thought maybe someone here can help me out

I'm buying a laptop (PC so I can use AGS :-) ), and someone's offfering a good one with a Sempron Mobile 2800+. Does anyone know how this processor compares to a Centrino or a Celeron M?

[Pelican]

I can't really give a technical answer here, but I've got a Sempron in my own PC, and I haven't noticed any difference between it and the Pentium in the Dell I'm using right now. It's pretty much just a matter of brand names. Look it up on http://www.aria.co.uk. People quite often make comments on items, or ask questions about them. I find it quite useful for scoping out something I'm looking to get, whether or not I actually buy it from there.

[LGM]

IN laptop CPUs, the performance is negligent between the processor brands because I doubt you will do much 3D gaming, right? If it's a good deal, take it. Semprons are re-worked Athlon XP's, optimized for laptops. They have a 256k L2 cache and run at 166mhz FSB (which basically means you can only use 333Mhz DDR memory.) If you are just doing document work, internet browsing and light gaming it will be perfect. Make sure you get plenty of RAM. 512 will certainly last you.

[rozojc]

IN laptop CPUs, the performance is negligent between the processor brands because I doubt you will do much 3D gaming, right? If it's a good deal, take it. Semprons are re-worked Athlon XP's, optimized for laptops. They have a 256k L2 cache and run at 166mhz FSB (which basically means you can only use 333Mhz DDR memory.) If you are just doing document work, internet browsing and light gaming it will be perfect. Make sure you get plenty of RAM. 512 will certainly last you.

Well it's a Sempron 2800+ , 40G hard drive (I do have a 120G external he he), 512 in RAM, DVDR 16x double density for a little less than US$1000.
I would use it mostly for web surfing, office, and PHP programming (as in DreamWeaver, a MySQL server and an Apache server which don't really need great processor to run on, I used to work with them on a 900mhz Duron 3 years ago).

I guess it's a good deal, right?

Oh, and thanks for the help!

[LGM]

I'd say get it, man. That's an EXCELLENT deal.

[rozojc]

I'd say get it, man. That's an EXCELLENT deal.

Exact quote
Acer Aspire 3002LCi
   Sempron 2800+
   256RAM
   40G hard drive
   DVD/Cd burner combo (reads DVD writes CD)
PLUS:
   External 16X dual layer DVD burner
   Another 256 in RAM for a total of 512
   External 120 hard drive (which he already gave me)

Total: about US$1,100

[LGM]

Yep. Do it bud. That'd last you 2-3 years at least.

[Kweepa]

Not to throw a monkey in the wrench, but that doesn't sound like a great deal to me.
You can get a similar laptop (with a better graphics card) for about $800 (without the extras) new from Dell.
Add another 256Mb ram, an external 100Mb hard drive (if you want it) and an internal dvd burner and a one year warranty and it comes to $1150.
Or root around for a better deal on their web site.
Why buy used?

[rozojc]

Not to throw a monkey in the wrench, but that doesn't sound like a great deal to me.
You can get a similar laptop (with a better graphics card) for about $800 (without the extras) new from Dell.
Add another 256Mb ram, an external 100Mb hard drive (if you want it) and an internal dvd burner and a one year warranty and it comes to $1150.
Or root around for a better deal on their web site.
Why buy used?

Oh, this is new, not used. Thing is that Laptops are really expensive in my country if you buy them directly from manufacturers like Dell or HP cause they pay a lot of taxes. So some "independent sellers" buy them in the US (a lot cheaper) and re-sell them here. That's the case of this laptop.

A similar Dell directly from Dell here (without the extras) would be around US$1200 or $1300

[Kweepa]

Oops, sorry.
I assumed since you quoted dollars that you were in the US. My bad.

[rozojc]

Oops, sorry.
I assumed since you quoted dollars that you were in the US. My bad.

Nah, just quoted in dollars since I thought quoting in Colombian pesos would make it more difficult 

I just quoted one from Dell from their web page, it is not so overpriced as the one this guy is offering me, but it is about 12% more expensive (and with a Celeron M 1.3ghz which, if I'm not mistaken, is slower than the Sempron 2800+).