Doom 3 Buyer's Guide

VALUE Doom 3: CPU and Motherboard

CPU: AMD Sempron 3100+ (256K cache, Socket 754) $120
OR AMD Athlon 64 2800+ (12k Cache, Socket 754) $147
Motherboard: Chaintech VNF3-250 (nForce3-250)
Price: CPU - $120 ($147) shipped. Motherboard - $83 shipped

Value CPU

We finally reach the point in our Doom 3 Buyers Guide where we are sweating nickels. Our Value goal was to put together the best Doom 3 gaming system that we possibly could for as little money as possible. We hoped we could do that for about $1000, but we weren't sure it could be done.

The new Sempron 3100+ certainly helps us out with a Value Doom 3 system. As you saw in our CPU tests with Doom 3, the 3100+ actually outperforms the Pentium 4 3.2 Northwood in Doom 3 performance, at a very reasonable $120. The Sempron 3100+ is also Socket 754, so at least you have some place to go with future processors if you start with the Sempron. Frankly, the Sempron processors are just now entering the market and they're a little hard to find, but AMD tells us that the pipelines will start to fill later his month. This is the reason why we listed an alternate CPU.

The 2800+ is very easy to find; in fact, you can find it in many places with the retail AMD heatsink fan for a little less than $150. The 2800+ also moves you up the food chain with double the on-chip cache to 512k. As you saw in the CPU performance charts in the Doom 3 CPU comparison, the 2800+ moves you up near the performance level of the Prescott 3.4E and the 3.2EE in Doom 3. This gain in performance comes at a cost increase of just $27 over the Sempron 3100.

Either the Sempron 3100+ or the A64 2800+ will make a great heart for a Value Doom 3 system. Either of them far out-distance the Athlon XP processors, and the middle of the current Pentium 4 line. The naming is very confusing, but the 3100+ is actually a little slower than the 2800+. The Sempron was named to compete with Celerons, which have high numbers, but lower performance than other P4 chips at the same speed. Both the Sempron 3100+ and A64 2800+ run at 1.8GHz, but the Sempron has half the cache. The Sempron also does not have 64-bit capabilities, but it is otherwise the same as other A64 processors. Doom 3 is not 64-bit, so the Sempron is a great choice to save about $30 in a Doom 3 value system.

Value Motherboard

The Chaintech VNF3-250 won an Editor's Choice in our Socket 754 roundup for one simple reason - it displays screaming performance at a bargain price. Chaintech designed the VNF3-250 around the latest nForc3-250 chipset for performance, but they chose the basic nF3-250 chipset to save money. This means that the Chaintech does not support nVidia on-chip LAN or Firewall. However, Chaintech made the right use of the basic 250 chipset here because the Chaintech is the only nF3-250 board that we know about that sells for around $80 to $85.

You get all the upgrade nF3-250 performance, and a superb selection of overclocking controls, including a very wide selection of memory, chipset, processor, and AGP voltages. Chaintech also includes Memory Ratios below the rated CPU ratio and a CPU Clock Frequency range from 200 to 400. When all is said and done, the Chaintech VNF3-250 is the perfect motherboard for a value system that performs like the best - with overclocking capabilities that will not leave you wishing for more.

Listed below is part of our RealTime pricing engine, which lists the lowest prices available on the AMD CPUs from many different reputable vendors:



If you cannot find the lowest prices on the products that we've recommended on this page, it's because we don't list some of them in our RealTime pricing engine. Until we do, we suggest that you do an independent search online at the various vendors' web sites. Just pick and choose where you want to buy your products by looking for a vendor located under the "Vendor" heading.