The following advises are based on many years of experience. They are provided as a free service to our customers and visitors. However, Computer Warehouse is not responsible for any damage as a result of following any of these guides.
The following advises are based on many years of experience. They are provided as a free service to our customers and visitors. However, Computer Warehouse is not responsible for any damage as a result of following any of these guides.
- Choice: In the current market you have seven main categories of Processors to choose for your desktop computes: Xeon, Pentium IV LGA775 (506&630), Pentium IV, Celeron D, Opteron, Athlon and Sempron.
- Pentium 4 Socket 478 vs Celeron Socket 478: Performance wise Pentium 4 is up to 25-30% faster compared to an equal speeded Celeron. Celeron Socket 478 is best used where budgets are extremely tight but Intel is a requirement.
- Pentium 4 Processor 506 vs Pentium 4 Processor 630 vs Celeron D: All the Processors are 64 bit technology. Pentium 4 Processor 506 based upon 90nm process technology have 1MB L2 Advanced Transfer Cache, 16KB L1 Data Cache and Stream Side Exception 3SSE, these applications include Internet Audio and Streaming Video Image, Processing Video Content Creation, Speech 3D, CAD, Games, Multimedia and Multitasking User Environments. Pentium 4 Processor 630 is with Hyper Threading Technology, has 2MB L2 cache and advanced technologies to improve system utilization. The cache allows the processor to preload data, which provides faster access to it. The more cache the processor supports, the more information the processor can get to quickly. Combined with Hyper-Threading Technology you can do simultaneous computing with grater system responsiveness. Hyper-Threading Technology help maximize the efficiency of the processor by allowing the processor to complete more tasks in a given amount of time so you can play a game or engage in e-Commerce while running a virus scan in the background without slowing down the system.Benefits: Gaming, Multimedia Creator, Internet Classrooms and Office Productivity.Celeron D Processor is with 256KB L2 cache is not good for Gaming and 3D Computing. If all you plan to use computer for word processing, e-mail and surfing the web, Celeron is a very economic choice. That?s often the case for most office applications. However, if you want to use your computer for Games and high-end computing, Pentium 4 with more cache would be a better choice. This sounds just the opposite of what Intel has been trying to market their product.
- Bus Speeds / Front Side Bus: The bus speed is a very important aspect of your processor choice. Generally: The higher the better when you are talking about like processors. Front Side Bus speed affects your performance level.
- AMD now vs AMD?s past: AMD processors have gained popularity in the last couple of years, mainly as a result of the success of Athlon. Their price, speed, and 3D performance are very attractive for people who don?t care about the name of a product but the contents. Historically, AMD gained their first converts among technically oriented people who like to venture into something new and different. The business world is taking a longer time to accept them, partially due to inertia and image problems. AMD is now leading in the to-speed performance for PC and has won many benchmarking tests.
- Athlon 64 vs Sempron 64: From AMD – The AMD Sempron processor is the derivative of the state-of-art AMD Athlon processor. Although the two processors are related, there are key differences in the CPUs and the platforms designed to support them, reflecting the requirements of their target markets. Specifically, the AMD Athlon processor is planned to be available at higher cock rates, and features more full-speed, on-chip cache memory. The AMD Sempron processor was designed to consume less power than the AMD Athlon processors, thereby enabling lower cost systems. Additionally, AMD Sempron processor-based PCs are likely to employ lower cost memory and graphics solutions.
- Opteron vs Xeon: The Opteron is AMD?s new 32/64bit processors mainly targeted at servers. It offers many innovative features. The key ability of the Opteron over other processors is that it is capable of 64-bit processing which isn?t possible with the Xeon. The currently generation of Xeon processors is very similar to the Intel P4. All two of these type processors can be used to make reliable server motherboards (dual / quad cpu) are harder to locate then other types of motherboards and are much more expensive.
- Software Compatibility problems for AMD processors are very rare. If you are using some very specialized software (often very old, too) designed only with Intel processors, you might run into some problems. Intel is compatible for almost all softwares.
- Heat considerations: Higher the speeds means more heat from the CPU. The CPU cooling has become much more important and sophisticated than in the 486 and Pentium ages. Consider using a huge heat sink, efficient CPU fan, front and rear case fans, fan duct, and an efficient case among other tools to keep your CPU cools.
- Reliability: Among all computer components, processors are among those with the least return rates and thus the highest reliability, which is true for all the brands of processors. This is probably due to the fact that the processors are mass-produced by machines with little if any, human interaction. In addition, the quality control process can be automated.
- Once you have made a decision on the category of the processor, choose the highest speed your budget can allow in that category. Keep in mind that the overall speed of a computer system depends on: processor speed, size of RAM memory, size of cache, hard drive access speed, and video speed. You often have to pay too much to reach the top performance speed. For instance, the top speed may give you 20% more in performance than the next level down, but the price may be 60% more.
- Price vs. Performance: There is typically no good correlation between these two factors, especially at the top speeds. Average users should not purchase the top-speed on the market. The price difference is not worthy of the performance difference.
- Upgrade Considerations: Check the highest speed that your motherboard would allow for that category of processors to see how much higher you could upgrade to without changing the motherboard.
Source: http://www.articleshub.org/article/99204/How-to-Select-a-good-CPU.html
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