First post, by gerwin
- Rank
- l33t
As requested by retro games 100, here a bit about the AMD system that I am typing this on. Never intended to be a retro or a high-end machine. Several components were just the best buy at a certain time. This PC is still used daily by me and my family, it is plenty fast if you keep it in order and use a not to heavy OS.
CPU: AMD Sempron 3000+ (12x166Mhz = 2000MHz) 512 kB L2 cache. 1.60 Volt (has a Zalman copper heatsink with a manually speed-regulated fan)
Mainboard: MSI KT4V 6712 (VIA KT400 chipset)
RAM: 1536MB DDR RAM @ 2x166MHz = 333MHz
Harddisk: WD 80GB IDE
Video: MSI Geforce 7600 GS, no fan
PSU: Chieftech 360 Watt max.
OS: Windows 2000 SP4 + DOS 7.10 (Earlier it ran several years with Windows 98SE)
Benchmark: Currently 13385 3DMarks'01
The AMD Sempron 3000+ CPU has the same Barton core as the AMD Athlon XP's, it could also have been called 'Athlon XP 2700+'. So it is just a marketing thing. The Sempron does have a slighlty lower voltage: 1.60V instead of the usual 1.65V. I don't know why the C.B.id screenshot says thorton core?. A must: Enable HALT state and STPGNT state (in your BIOS, or with 'Central Brain identifier' or with 'Cool-on'), it will decrease your Athlon's heat output dramatically, without any drawbacks. Most people advise to go for unlocked Athlons or rather Athlons XP-M(obile), yet the actual advantages over this Sempron are not that big.
The MSI 6712 mainboard: AGP-8X + 6 PCI slots. No ISA slots. Look at Prophase_j's KT133 system if you want an ISA slot. The KT400 chipset works well with 333MHz memory speed. It was also expected to support 400 MHz net memory speed, but I read it did not work well. 400MHz kinda worked on the later KT600 (I have one of these too) but it is not that interesting. The MSI 6712 is one of the last mainboards to support DDMA/NMI for legacy sound in dos. The mainboard has solid support for S3 'Suspend To Ram' standby state which is a great feature.
.
