How do you tell.......

[TDK1044]

Hi Gurus,

I have a question for you:

How do you work out in this day and age what is a fast processor and what isn't?

It used to be very easy...a few years back, you had something like a Pentium P4 3.0 processor, and you knew that it was faster than a P4 2.6 and slower than a P4 3.6.

But how do you know which of these is the best?

AMD Athlon™ X2 5600+ Black Edition (2.9GHz/65W)
Specifications - Processors

AMD Phenom™ X4 9850+ Black Edition (2.5GHz/125W)
Specifications - Processors

AMD Phenom™ II X4 940 Black Edition (3.0GHz/125W)
Specifications - Processors



Sorry if this is a stupid question to you guys, but these days I have no idea how to assess a good processor from a bad one. :)

[Dowly]

Aint the naming of today's PC components just great? :D

[TDK1044]

Yeah. People like me need a conversion chart!:DL

[Dowly]

I'm no expert myself, but if I'd have to pick one of those, I'd take the last one. 3.0GHz and I THINK it's quad core (X4). The first one is outdated, as I own AMD Athlon X2 6000+ which I bough 2 or so years ago.

[TDK1044]

So the GHz is still the number to look at as a general rule?

[Dowly]

Aye, that's what I use to see what to get. And of course the number of cores it has. Duo core is naturally better than a single core CPU and quad core is better than a duo core one.

[TDK1044]

Cool. Thanks. At least now I know that I should be looking for X4 and as high a GHz number as I can afford. :)

[AVGWarhawk]

Ghz is the general rule. I have the Phenom X4 9850 at 2.5 Ghz. I think however that you muliply the Ghz across the 4 cores. The 940 Phenoms are better than the 9850. I would look towards the 4 core set up. It is unbelievably great for multi operations going on. Do not let the 125w on the phenoms scare you. I have an after market cooler on mine and my cores stay very cool under high gaming situations. In short, I love the Phenoms.

Clocking these core is fairly easy. I have not done mine....no need. Runs like a champ.

[TDK1044]

Ghz is the general rule. I have the Phenom X4 9850 at 2.5 Ghz. I think however that you muliply the Ghz across the 4 cores. The 940 Phenoms are better than the 9850. I would look towards the 4 core set up. It is unbelievably great for multi operations going on. Do not let the 125w on the phenoms scare you. I have an after market cooler on mine and my cores stay very cool under high gaming situations. In short, I love the Phenoms.

Clocking these core is fairly easy. I have not done mine....no need. Runs like a champ.


Good to know. Thanks for the info. I'm thinking that by the time Windows 7 is released either later this year or early next year, my current mid range system will be 4 years old and just won't cut it. :)

[AVGWarhawk]

I run Vista with the 9850's and it runs very well. I had originally 4 gig of RAM and added 4 more as the Vista 64 can handle that amount of RAM. If you are waiting a year then the 940 Phenoms should be at a good price. These have more than enough power for what we do with these computers. Windows 7 I believe should be out around mid summer if we are lucky.

You are planning ahead and that is the one best thing you can do. Gives you time to read up on hardware and make an informed purchase. I was mulling over my computer for about 2 months and the last 5 weeks before purchasing I really dug deep into the hardware I was interested in purchasing. I think it paid off in the end.