I am in the market for a new PC and am very confused by the new processors available. I've been using a Pentium 4, 3.3ghz machine for about 4 years now and want to stay within that level. None of the new processors offered are above 2.4ghz. WTH?
Can someone shed some light on this? Or point me to a thread that does?
It's a lot more than just the Ghz number. Size of the L1, L2, and L3 cache and double, triple, or quad core CPUs make a big difference. Also, you may want to take a look at the FSB (Front Side Bus).
You must be looking at the wrong cpus then because every chip releases my Intel in the last year for the Core i5 and Core i7 line ups are all above 2.4 GHz. GHz is one of the last things you look at. A 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo would get slaughtered by a new Core i7 running at 2.4 GHz because the i7 has 4 cores(quad core) with 2 threads per core giving 8 threads total for windows, or any os, to utilize.
The newest I7 is a 3.33GHZ, and it has four cores...that is over 4 times more than the GHZ you currently have, but the CPU is also more efficient, so it would be a lot more than 4 times faster.
Even the 2.4 quad core would be a huge performance increase per core, and you would have 4 cores.
I personally have used AMD chips for many years. I just upgraded to the Phenom II x3 720 Black edition AM3 processor. The Phenom II is AMD's latest processor series and is the second generation of the Phenom line. This processor is equivalent to (3) 2.8 Ghz CPU's running simultaneously (hence the x3). The 720 is just a number designator that AMD assigned to this chip and the Black edition means that the overclocking multiplier is unlocked int he BIOS. It is a VERY nice upgrade to my old Athlon 64 single core chip. Athlon was the predecessor to the Phenom line. The price on these processors is very reasonable.
You can check out my full guide to building a pc here
Yes, the AMD line is much more affordable than the Intel line, but in terms of "Bang for the Buck" Intel still beats AMD in the economy CPUs, and AMD has no truly "high-end" CPUs; even their $2000+ hex-core server processors are not as fast as the $1000 I7.
I love AMD, and I hate Intel, so it breaks my heart to see that AMD is neither the best value, nor the fastest...but this is the case. The only good news is that ATI is part of AMD, and they seem to be doing very well against nVidia. The only reason I can think of to buy a new AMD CPU is if your old mainboard supports it, thus making a very affordable upgrade.
