AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Venice Single-Core 1.8 GHz Socket 939 ADA3000BPBOX Processor

Pros: it's cheap, and it works. In my opinion you are better off saving money on a processor and getting other goodies, like a better video card, more ram etc... the CPU doesn't make NEARLY as big of diffence as those other items. Some may argue that but it's true. "MHZ" is not all it is cracked up to be, unless you are Mr/Mrs money bags and you have to have the best of all worlds, well.. get something faster, but if you are here reading this review you obviously are a budget type of person and I assure you this cpu will work great.

Cons: 3200+ has a better multiplier in case you are an overclocker, it is only a little bit more $ so if that is your area, move up one more level for better overclocking ability.

Overall Review: If you aren't an overclocker it isn't really worth moving up to the 3200+, you won't see a difference between the two if you run at stock speeds(like me)

Pros: E3 stepping. Absolutely zero thermal issues even with high clock and Vcore. Stock HSF is more than enough for 2.4GHZ @ 1.475V. I'm prime95 stable at 289*9 = 2.6 ghz

Cons: 9x multiplier means you will be running an external clock close to 300MHz so a quality motherboard will be needed that has a PCI lock and plenty of memory dividers and HT multiplier must be droppable. "Bottom of the barrel" chips are a gamble as far as what speed you may reach; making RAM very hard to choose before a build. It may be worth while to save a few bucks on a motherboard and opt for a more expencive san diego processor.

Overall Review: Binned by AMD as the most flaky 90mm A64 chips meaning they will take much higher voltage to operate at higher clocks. The over-rated Asus SLI-deluxe only goes to 1.55V which got me to 2.6 GHz. As these are taken from the bottom of the A64 barrel, they are all vastly different, but most people can get between 2.5-2.7 GHz with a full featured MOBO. Water cooling is not needed because risky breakdown voltage is reached before thermal problems occur.

Pros: energy efficient easy to OC

Cons: loud heatsink fan

Overall Review: With the stock cooling solution I've got this running at over 2.5 GHz with no errors whatsoever on the prime95 CPU torture test. I'm still going faster and haven't hit the limit. It stays cool and surprisingly I've only had to bump up voltage from 1.4 to 1.425 to keep it running -- stays at a cool 50c with no special cooling. Be sure to run the AMD Cool & Quiet while overclocking, it will automatically adjust CPU voltage to the minimum necessary for the current load, makes trying out new speeds a lot easier!

Pros: My friend, you don’t ever have to buy an AMD Sempron now or any over hyped dual core (I got both). This baby has one super cheap core, but is a fearsome core. It blasts any Sempron AMD can offer and is about the same as a dual core. You got 1.8Ghz easily overclock to 2.4Ghz which is equivalent to a Athlon64 3800. You can achieve this on any cheap motherboard (I did it on a Nforce3). Look for office, games, normal use even some abuse… this chip can take it. You know what… I won’t even get vista now… I am not impressed at all… so what… aero user interface? No need for that.. none of that will justify the loss of performance. At my company we use Windows 2000 and I can say that is all you need… perhaps that’s a stretch at home let me tell you that Vista will eat all you memory and make your system slow. This chip will run XP like a speed demon for less than a third of the price. My father was right… just wait and let all the ^%&@$ pay the price.

Cons: At this price, NONE.

Overall Review: A year ago this chip was three times this price. This is the sweet spot, before it disappears you can get premium performance. Don't be fooled by dual core just yet, if you have a good single core you will never miss a dual core and this is a great single core. If you need a machine for home, to play around... word processing, burning movies, DVDs and some Photoshop perhaps then this is a good chip. If you a have a boss that needs everything right away and you do many things that the same time, then perhaps you need dual core (and don't be fooled, dual core Does NOT work like TWO PCs working on 2 projects... Windows will still freeze and you will still have to wait).

Pros: Inexpensive - Can be OC'd to match higher end CPU's - AMD - Low temps - Best value out there for 64 bit computing if you don't need dual core - I got one of these when they first came out (with the E6 stepping) for a customer build. When they backed out, I decided to make it into a budget gaming machine. I was so pleased I ended up keeping it! You can probably squeeze some extra out of it with the stock HSF, but couple this with a Zalman copper HSF (700bpu or something) and some Arctic Silver 5 and you get some serious headroom for an OC. - Make sure you get fast RAM, spend the extra couple bucks for anything faster than DDR400 - Also, a good mobo with some good options can make a huge difference too

Cons: I guess higher multipliers would be cool, but you can get those with the higher chips, for an obvious increase in price. I'd say save the money, buy faster RAM and a Zalman, and make this thing faster than those anyways! - I have a 3500+ in my first 'mainframe' rig that I spent over twice as much money for (check newegg, seriously). It runs stock @ 2.2GHz. Now, everything is IDENTICAL with this chip (L1, L2 cache) except my 3500+ has 11x multiplier unlocked, meaning 200x11 = 2200 as opposed to this being 200x9=1800. With a zalman and some ArticSilver5 (less than fifty) I have my 3000+ running faster than my (twice as expensive) 3500+ and it runs cooler! At 2.3GHz my 3000 is 28/36 idle/load. - IF (key word if) you DO get this up past 2.5GHz (good OC/water) that rivals the FX chips, other than the cache, so this thing can potentially (as far as a par100 chip goes) match anything less than a dual core with a little tweaking. Great job AMD

Overall Review: It's been said these can push up to the low 3.xGHz range, I'd say you probably need/want water cooling for that. But I'd say most of these are very capable of reaching 2.0-2.2GHz with no problem. Some (remember, chips are cut from wafers, so each one is slightly different) can probably get to 2.4-2.7 on air too, but the key here is a quality OCing mobo and some good, fast RAM.... and alot of tweaking time of course. - If you buy faster RAM with this, say DDR500, you can up the FSB higher than 200(gradually of course) and still have your RAM run at its stock speed. So if you can get to, say, 250x9 (which would involve setting the HTmultiplier to 4x), then your at 2.25GHz which is faster than the AMD chip that's twice as expensive. You shouldn't have to adjust voltages, and your temps should vary little. Do some research on OCing AMD64's if you need to, it's a delicate art that takes time to perfect.

Pros: What can I say, this overclocks so nicely! Currently running at 2.43ghz on an epox board with a very small voltage push. Temps no higher than 45C. Prime 95 stable for 24 hrs at 2.43ghz. Those fruit computer manufacturers can have the "what's inside" cpu's I'll take AMD anyday!

Cons: Absolutely none.

Overall Review: Don't bother with a sempie... get the Athlon and be happy!

Comments: I have this running at 2.7 Ghz for more than 3 months now. It has never crashed even once. I guess that's as stable as anything gets. My settings- CPU: 2.7 GHz (300 * 9) HT: 900 MHz (300 * 3) RAM: 150 MHZ (1:2 memory divider DDR 400 effective speed) CPU core: 1.65 Volts ( 35 C idle, 45 C peak) with Zalman 7700 RAM voltage: +.2 volts over default

Pros: Absolutly increadible. i paid nearly 5X the price a few years back, and still works with all my abuse to this day! VERY fast, overclocking friendly... list goes on. Hit 2.75Ghz at one point on my watercooled setup (was at least a year ago now, cant remember the specs)

Cons: It doesnt clean your house for you. But it can cook your breakfast!

Overall Review: Consider this: If you want a good gaming machine, but cant afford both a great video card, fast and plentiful ram, and a dual core CPU, get this CPU to put the rest of your budget towards a video card, than maybe 2GB of ram (at least 1GB). Replace the CPU later down the line after OC'n the snot outa this one