Intel Computer processors

chrisjlee

Alright. This has become ridiculously confusing. I've been trying to do some research on buying a computer (No, I don't care for mac's).

Intel has named their processors: Core Duo (Allendale), Core Duo 2 (Conroe), Pentium D.

I'm trying to buy a computer for around a grand. Like any other consumer i'm trying to maximize my dollar. The Core Duo 2 has just been placed into Dell's computers.



Do you think the Core Duo 2 really worth the jump? Looks like I can probably get a Core Duo 2 ?

Or do you think a dual-core pentium D would be faster than a core duo 2?
Or in simpler terms which processer would you put down money towards?

ChrisJ

The Core 2 Duo "family" is currently the fastest crop of consumer processors on the market. If you can afford one, get one. I would aim for an E6400 at least, or E6600 if possible (maybe the best bang for buck).

On the flip side, the prices of the rest of Intel (and AMD) chips has fallen. So there can be some good deals. But then you're buying a generation of technology behind. Up to you!

chrisjlee

ChrisJ wrote:

The Core 2 Duo "family" is currently the fastest crop of consumer processors on the market. If you can afford one, get one. I would aim for an E6400 at least, or E6600 if possible (maybe the best bang for buck).

On the flip side, the prices of the rest of Intel (and AMD) chips has fallen. So there can be some good deals. But then you're buying a generation of technology behind. Up to you!

Yeah. It's too hard to keep up with intel chips.

jww

chrisjlee wrote:

Alright. This has become ridiculously confusing. I've been trying to do some research on buying a computer (No, I don't care for mac's).
....

Yes.. it is ridiculously confusing!

Here is a cool interactive cpu comparison chart...updated to include the newest Intel's. Depending on what you are wanting to do, it's great to check out the different tests to see how they all stack up.

http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu.html

The new core 2 duo's are pretty darn sweet.. just not sure if pricing one out at Dell will get you into one for $1000.00 for the Intel's E6300 on up..

As mentioned previously in the thread, right now the E6600 is about the most bang for the buck of the core 2 duo's (around $349.99 for the chip itself)
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2280512&Sku=CP2-DUO-E6600

Some AMD's still are nothing to sneeze at, but at this point I've been pricing out building Intel based systems. By looking at the chart, some of the Intel PD9xx dual core's (i think purposely confusing) are not much faster or not as fast as some of the comparably priced AMD's.

hope this helps! - if not.. hit delete..

jww - www.jwwWebDesign.smugmug.com

Halite

All test results I've seen show the Core 2 Duo outperforms the dual core Pentium D's by a longshot.

One reason for considering the E6600 recommended by the other posters is that it's the cheapest chip in the family that uses 4 meg of L2 cache (the lower numbered chips use 2 meg.) As I understand it, for photo processing and video rendering L2 cache can have as great an impact on the time it takes to complete a task as pure processor speed. Whatever processor you get, be sure to match it up with 2 gig of RAM (less will be constraining and more will likely go unused.)