E350 vs Sempron 130

[soliloquist]

Looking to build an inexpensive small light use comp that will probably have several different dutys throughout its life. I have seen two offering on Newegg that caught my eye. One built around the AMD E350 and the other built around the AMD Sempron 130.

What will be the difference between these, mainly when comparing cpu performance?

I know that the E350 is an 18w part where as the Sempron 130 is a 45w (plus north bridge/gpu) part. So clearly the E350 will be more energy efficient. And don't expect either of these to be powerful workstations.

I read the AnandTech article:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4134/the-brazos-review-amds-e350-supplants-ion-for-miniitx/6

Where he compares the E350 to an Athlon X2 II 255 and that seemed to be roughly 2x as fast as the E350. The Sempron 130 does not show up in the "Bench" to compare.

Also for whats its worth the gpus of the two boards are:
E350 - AMD Radeon HD 6310 graphics
Sempron 130 - NVIDIA GeForce 7025

Also the E350 is about $120 where as the Sempron is about $70.

So is the cost more because your getting more cpu performance and energy efficiency or because your getting similar cpu performance that is way more energy efficient?

Thanks for any help!

 

[nanaki333]

unless that sempron unlocks to a dual, i would go with the e350.

 

[Chiropteran]

Sempron 130 will be faster in most if not all applications. You pay extra for the E-350 for the power savings. Also note that the difference isn't 18W vs 45W, it's 18W vs 45W + your graphics power usage, since the 18W of the E-350 includes it's GPU.

 

[ThatsABigOne]

I would just go to e350 because it simply has a much better integrated GPU.

 

[IGemini]

Just throwing this out there, you could get an A4-3300 CPU and an FM1 motherboard for ~$5 more than the E350, with a slightly better iGPU and a less-restricted dual-core.

 

[richierich1212]

I'd rather you try to get an intel g530 + cheap mobo instead for about the same cost as the sempron.

 

[soliloquist]

Thanks for all the replies...

Didn't realize the Semprons were stripped down dual cores that could unlock. Go to know, but I think for this price I would rather go for the sure thing.

And IGemini, thanks for the idea, I was just looking at the combo deals for A4-3300 and noticed the same $5 difference. So going that direction gives me way more compute power for the same price but I lose the energy efficiency of E350. Really a judgement call I will have to make.

 

[jhu]

Thanks for all the replies...

Didn't realize the Semprons were stripped down dual cores that could unlock. Go to know, but I think for this price I would rather go for the sure thing.

And IGemini, thanks for the idea, I was just looking at the combo deals for A4-3300 and noticed the same $5 difference. So going that direction gives me way more compute power for the same price but I lose the energy efficiency of E350. Really a judgement call I will have to make.

Those power numbers you're listing is max TDP. Your computer is probably going to spend most of its time in idle, so it will be using significantly less. Honestly, you'd save more energy by putting better insulation in your home, putting in double-pane windows, etc.

 

[Bman123]

Go with the celeron G530 and a cheap H61 motherboard. I ran one for almost 2 months and it was a very good processor.

 

[IGemini]

The difference in power consumption between the 4400 and the E350 is largely academic unless you end up doing any gaming. The A6 quad-core used <15W more at idle than the E350, the A4 would be less of a difference. If power consumption is that much of a concern, there are likely better things that could be done to cut your bill that aren't computer related.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4833/asus-f1a75i-deluxe-review-llano-and-miniitx/4

You can't go wrong with the Celeron/H61 either (personally I'd spend a little more for the G620 Pentium), but I think budget desktop Llano/Sandy Bridge-derivative would be much more flexible than your original options for the same price.

 

[Bman123]

I wouldn't consider a single core cpu at all

 

[soliloquist]

The choice of the Sempron 130 was more out of convenience. The board used older tech that I had some parts lying around for. For instance I already had some DDR2 sticks and as a possible later upgrade if cpu preformance was not adequate, I have an AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+ collecting dust. Also the Sempron mother board has an IDE port not just SATA connectors. And I have several old IDE drives I could throw at it.

As for the E350, the power efficiency is certainly a nice bonus, but not a absolute must. The E350 had other nice features that I liked, for instance the ASUS board I was looking at was passively cooled, so silent. Again not an absolute must, but also a nice feature.

I agree with your statement that "Llano/Sandy Bridge-derivative would be much more flexible than your original options for the same price."

I have not commpletely abandoned the idea of an E350, but I am more closely looking at the Llano offerings.

 

[IonusX]

id hold out and then get the e-450. much better chip will do anything you ask and will knock a sempron's block off

 

[VirtualLarry]

The E350 is nice, for basic desktop things, it's not overly slow, I would rate it just barely above a P4. It's not super-fast or super-smooth like a quad-core though.

For watching videos, as long as you are using a hardware-accelerated codec, it's great.

But if it ever has to rely on the CPU (Netflix HD, I'm looking at you), then you will be in a world of hurt.

I was looking forward to a 28nm shrink of Brazos/Zacate, but I hear it was cancelled for some reason???

If they could get the cores up to around 2.0-2.4Ghz, then I think it would be a much better choice.

 

[nenforcer]

Glad to see you are considering a single core Sempron here in early 2012, my fellow single core warrior!

 

[jacktesterson]

OK

I own both chips.

The Sempron 130 as a SINGLE core is faster than my dual core E350 for what I was using it for (HTPC duty, primary HD playback)

The Sempron 130 can play Netflix HD just fine for example, where as the E350 cannot at all. (E350 has 100% usage and video is too choppy to watch, where as Sempron 130 single core is around 70% use and plays smooth)

Both can play 1080p MKVs. Without DXVA, The Sempron has less CPU Utilization than the E350, even though its a single core. (Both can play 1080p without DXVA but E350 is around 80% CPU whereas the Sempron 130 is around 40%).

Both can play Flash HD 1080p fine, with Sempron again using less CPU utilization to do so.

The Sempron 130 can overclock quite a bit too. (I had mine at 3.5 GHz for a while just with a small voltage bump) Mine wouldn't unlock to a dual though stable.

I had Dead Island installed on both systems, although the Sempron had a 5670 installed. You could play Dead Island at 1366x768 on the Sempron setup, where as the E350 system couldn't.


I would buy the Sempron 130 anyday over the E350 from my experience. You may even get it to unlock to a Dual core, which many people do.

The difference in energy between the two is too small to be of concern in my opinion.

Depending on what your doing, the onboard 4200/4250 series is just fine with a Sempron for any HD playback.

I actually have my Sempron 130 for sale right now as I just upgraded to the Intel system below in my HTPC. (I used the Sempron in my main HTPC paired with a 5670 before)

 

[Chiropteran]

id hold out and then get the e-450. much better chip will do anything you ask and will knock a sempron's block off

It's only 50mhz faster than the e-350, with some slight turboing...

The sempron is faster still. Don't get me wrong, I have an e-350 netbook and it's great, but a real desktop CPU, even a fairly slow single core, is faster at just about everything.

 

[jacktesterson]

id hold out and then get the e-450. much better chip will do anything you ask and will knock a sempron's block off

Couldn't be more wrong

 

[Magic Carpet]

I would avoid E350/VIA Nano/Atom platforms altogether. They are incredibly slow and expensive, although often compact, cool looking and packed with features.

Semprons are good because there is a high chance, they could be unlocked into X2. Used Intel Core 2 Duo's (S775) are also very nice and cheap (eBay). Conroe can still put up a good fight.

Functionality and price > looks and banana points, IMO.

 

[wahdangun]

sempron is not THAT slow, its actually quite powerful, because i have 7 PC that use it, and to lower the power consumption i undervoltage it to 1,1 volt and its stable. its so quite and even sometimes the fan is turn off in idle.

ps: i use it for my internet cafe, and it can play online games pretty good

 

[Magic Carpet]

sempron is not THAT slow, its actually quite powerful, because i have 7 PC that use it, and to lower the power consumption i undervoltage it to 1,1 volt and its stable. its so quite and even sometimes the fan is turn off in idle.

ps: i use it for my internet cafe, and it can play online games pretty good

I have two 140's unlocked into whatever CPU-Z called them. In "single-mode" quiet indeed. For $30 it was a no-brainer

An unlocked one does consume a bit more though and therefore becomes quite audible under "heavy loads". Power consumption not as good as the #e models but for that price, it's good enough.

 

[jacktesterson]

Sempron 130 (Single Core) > E350/E450, Any Atom, etc.

For media playback and everyday PC Use, the Sempron is a great value.

 

[Magic Carpet]

For media playback and everyday PC Use, the Sempron is a great value.

Coupled with an inexpensive video card used for HD video decoding. Although capable, it's better to leave that for GPU. However, 760G/785G/880G/890GX mobo's come with onboard video which should be fine, albeit with less options (e.g. filter shaders).

 

[jacktesterson]

Coupled with an inexpensive video card used for HD video decoding. Although capable, it's better to leave that for GPU. However, 760G/785G/880G/890GX mobo's come with onboard video which should be fine, albeit with less options (e.g. filter shaders).

To be honest, I've tried dedicated GPU's (5670, 465 now) vs 4250 and I noticed no difference in video quality or playback capability both on my 720p Main TV and my 42" and 37" 1080p TV's. (The filter shader comparison is minimal at best)

Personally I'd leave the 760g off the list. 780g/785g/880g is the way to go.

If I remember correctly, the 760g does not support DXVA.

 

[Magic Carpet]

Hey Adam,

Thanks. I have just re-checked. The HD 3000 graphics featured in 760G does have some limited decoding capabilities. Probably, is best to avoid this family altogether.

For those interested, you can read this wiki. As you can see, the 6-series has the broadest support of different formats.

Personally, I ended up using a cheap 4650 on a 785G based motherboard. It just felt smoother...well, I do use filter shaders a lot. Choosing a discrete card now, I'd go with nVIDIA (450+, 520+) though.