What do you look for when buying a PC or Laptop?

M stands for mobile, which means they are nto as powerfull as a i3,i5,i7 you would put in a desktop. the i series of processors is the intels flag ship of processors, they have core duo, core quad and pentium D centrino ect yet the i series is the lastest generation of prossers both for desktop and for mobile

Latest gen is usually best, right?
 
PP beat me to the punch, but this may help you understand that: Ask Ars: what's the relationship between CPU clockspeed and performance? | Ars Technica



Overheating can damage a chip, yes. More info: CPU is overheating!

Thanks. I'll read over these. It's tough to Google for info on something if you don't know what you're looking for. Sometimes, I even stumble upon inaccurate or even contradictory info from link to link.

It's good to have people from a tech background recommending articles and videos.
 
Not sure if any of you guys know about this, and to save me creating another thread, I'll just ask:


How exactly do things like video game consoles stay protected when browsing on them? Like, if somebody went to a known virus-riddled site using Internet Explorer, do Microsoft/Sony/Nintendo/whoever use some kind of their own security for this? I know some people who use their consoles for stuff like this... I'd be way to afraid, in the event something happens to the system.
 

What kind of software is multithreaded? Video editing and gaming?

What other resources would you need to back up the running of more things?

So base speed is the basic speed of the processor on its own? Overclocking would be the way to up that, right? For things that require the faster speed?
 
PP beat me to the punch, but this may help you understand that: Ask Ars: what's the relationship between CPU clockspeed and performance? | Ars Technica



Overheating can damage a chip, yes. More info: CPU is overheating!
90% of the time overheating won't damage a chip because modern CPUs have protection to protect against damage. Shutting down is one such protection. In the case of non-overclocking it'll pretty much always be fine unless not taken care of for a long period of time. I also have an article here about the correlation between clock speed and actual performance.

:lol: Ok, ok... It's really just basic stuff I'm looking to find out anyway, so I'll leave all this TDP. I did watch his TDP video about watts and all that, but some of it still goes way above my head.

See, from what I understand, CPUs and GPUs cannot be upgraded quite the same way RAM or SSD/HDD can, so, you know, one thing lead to another.

That guy, Linus, does have great in-depth knowledge, and when he explains one thing, he uses terms from another, and it just from video, to video, to...:confused:. you get the idea.
In a desktop anything can be upgraded provided you're using a standard machine. Almost anything is swappable besides certain scenarios.

Linus knows a lot, but I've caught him even with some bad info. It's why I don't link to all of his videos.

M stands for mobile, which means they are nto as powerfull as a i3,i5,i7 you would put in a desktop. the i series of processors is the intels flag ship of processors, they have core duo, core quad and pentium D centrino ect yet the i series is the lastest generation of prossers both for desktop and for mobile
This isn't exactly accurate. The Core i series is the performance line, not simply the latest gen. We're on the 6th generation of Core i, but they have Celeron and Pentium derivatives off each generation of Core i processors.

Latest gen is usually best, right?
Pretty much, yes in most cases.

Thanks. I'll read over these. It's tough to Google for info on something if you don't know what you're looking for. Sometimes, I even stumble upon inaccurate or even contradictory info from link to link.

It's good to have people from a tech background recommending articles and videos.
That's why I'm here. I literally get paid to provide tech info at work.

Not sure if any of you guys know about this, and to save me creating another thread, I'll just ask:


How exactly do things like video game consoles stay protected when browsing on them? Like, if somebody went to a known virus-riddled site using Internet Explorer, do Microsoft/Sony/Nintendo/whoever use some kind of their own security for this? I know some people who use their consoles for stuff like this... I'd be way to afraid, in the event something happens to the system.
Consoles have file systems that are extremely write protected. It's possible, but we'll just say highly unlikely.

What kind of software is multithreaded? Video editing and gaming?

What other resources would you need to back up the running of more things?

So base speed is the basic speed of the processor on its own? Overclocking would be the way to up that, right? For things that require the faster speed?
Almost anything is multi-threaded these days besides certain programs. To the difference is the extent of how multi-threaded a program is. For instance, a game for the most part will not utilize virtual threads (HT) properly, which is why I say a lot of the time not to buy an i7 for gaming. A transcoding/encoding type of program like Handbrake will utilize 100% of your CPU for the task. It just depends highly on the software in question.

Well, fast HDD and a good amount of RAM is one thing. The second being a program capable of utilizing the power at hand.

We'll use the Core i5 4690k as an example again. The base clock of this processor is 3.5GHz. That would be it's "base speed". It can turbo higher and overclock higher than this.
 
90% of the time overheating won't damage a chip because modern CPUs have protection to protect against damage. Shutting down is one such protection. In the case of non-overclocking it'll pretty much always be fine unless not taken care of for a long period of time. I also have an article here about the correlation between clock speed and actual performance.

So, always make sure the computer is kept in good shape... anything you'd recommend? From what I know, people always say regularly clear your temporary files and defrag the hard drive (not sure if this applies to a SSD).

In a desktop anything can be upgraded provided you're using a standard machine. Almost anything is swappable besides certain scenarios.

Linus knows a lot, but I've caught him even with some bad info. It's why I don't link to all of his videos.

This isn't exactly accurate. The Core i series is the performance line, not simply the latest gen. We're on the 6th generation of Core i, but they have Celeron and Pentium derivatives off each generation of Core i processors.

Would you recommend either the Celeron or Pentium? I'm guessing they're good for simple tasks, but not so much for the things the i series CPUs are good for, like video editing or gaming, right?

Pretty much, yes in most cases.

That's why I'm here. I literally get paid to provide tech info at work.

But doesn't that mean you're wasting time with people like me here on Techist, rather than where you work? What exactly do you do? With all the server talk, I'm imagining some kind of office-based position, right?

Consoles have file systems that are extremely write protected. It's possible, but we'll just say highly unlikely.

Write protected?

Almost anything is multi-threaded these days besides certain programs. To the difference is the extent of how multi-threaded a program is. For instance, a game for the most part will not utilize virtual threads (HT) properly, which is why I say a lot of the time not to buy an i7 for gaming. A transcoding/encoding type of program like Handbrake will utilize 100% of your CPU for the task. It just depends highly on the software in question.

If most things are multithreaded, shouldn't I really look out for the i series? Can Core m do multithreading just as well? And what of Pentium and Celeron?

Is there a real difference between Hyper threading and Multi threading?

Why not recommend the i7 for gaming? Shouldn't an i7 be capable of doing exactly what an i5 is capable of? Linus was saying something like good, better, best for i3, i5 and i7, respectively.

Well, fast HDD and a good amount of RAM is one thing. The second being a program capable of utilizing the power at hand.

So, good software is very important to how well Hyper-threading, Multi-threading, etc., actually perform? What about games; do some of them utilize HT? And what if you don't have HT in a CPU, does that mean the game or other type of HT-based software won't work at all?

We'll use the Core i5 4690k as an example again. The base clock of this processor is 3.5GHz. That would be it's "base speed". It can turbo higher and overclock higher than this.

Turbo over-clocking would require additional hardware, as well as another heat-sink and fan, right?
 
If something breaks down and I must get a repair done some time in the future, is it even safe to get a repair done with all your personal details on a system? Who would you go to if something broke down in your system, or do you just fix things like this yourself?


Someone like me, without much knowledge would absolutely have to get it done by a repair guy... this makes me nervous about crooks and the like.
 
I understand there are generations of i processors, and deritives there within.
Yet, I was trying to keep it simple. I agree I should have provided more background.
 
If something breaks down and I must get a repair done some time in the future, is it even safe to get a repair done with all your personal details on a system? Who would you go to if something broke down in your system, or do you just fix things like this yourself?


Someone like me, without much knowledge would absolutely have to get it done by a repair guy... this makes me nervous about crooks and the like.
I do all my repairs myself. I wouldn't worry too much about it at this point. Just get something with a decent warranty.

Turbo over-clocking would require additional hardware, as well as another heat-sink and fan, right?
No, turbo boost is done automatically and is based on usage scenario. Stock heatsinks are fine on desktops, and you can't upgrade a heatsink on a laptop.

I understand there are generations of i processors, and deritives there within.
Yet, I was trying to keep it simple. I agree I should have provided more background.
Well was just mislabeled. Core i isn't a generation, but their performance line processor, where Pentium and Celeron are budget line. There are different generations of each iteration. Core 2 is EOL which didn't specifically have generations like the current Core i series.
 
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