Processor Question

[mac_mogul]

I'm helping a friend build a computer for another friend and I would like to know the difference between some processors.

AMD Duron/Athlon/etc
&
Intel Pentium4/Centrino/Celeron/etc

I've just heard bad things and good things about each processor, but I'm not really sure what all the differences are. The computer we're building will be used for 'light' gaming and possible digital photography. So if someone could also give me a suggestion for which is best for the purpose, that would be great

 

[cell567]

Hmmm....well i am an amd fan but do no digital photography. I mean a 2500+ athlon xp can handle light gaming for sure. Not too sure how good amd's are with...digital photography. Out of your choices. P4 and athlon xp are the best for desktop systems. Centrino i think is for laptops. The celeron is just cr@p!. The narrowed down choices would be p4 and amd athlon xp.

 

[preet2u]

Cell's rite ...centrino's are for Laptops ....

The basic difference between the other processors is the cache on them.

The Athlon n' P4 have more cache than the Duron's n' celerons ...

The Athlon N' P4 are in one class n' the Durons n' Celerons are in there other . the former are the "performance pc" processor's whereas the latter are "budget pc" processor's which explains the price differance between the 2 classes of processor's

 

[Apokalipse]

celerons: cheap versions of P4's

centrino: laptop CPU designed with lower frequencies to save power

P4's: Intel's main CPU now, can perform slighly better than Athlon XP's but are more expensive

Athlon XP's: run at lower frequencies but can perform almost as well as a P4 due to better pipelining, it can complete more instructions per clock cycle than a P4, and is also cheaper

Duron's: AMD's match for the P3's/celeron's

Athlon: earlier than Athlon XP's designed around about Windows 2000

Athlon 64 3000/3200/3400: IMO the better CPU's now, the 3400 can perform better than the P4 extreme, is about half the price, and does 64-bit

Athlon 64 FX: high-end CPU which has an onboard DDR controller to support dual channel, about twice the price as the Athlon 64 3400, and can barely outperform it. about the same in price as the P4 extreme, but can still outperform it by far and does 64-bit.

Xeon: mainly used for servers, have a lot of power but are really expensive - the Mac G5 did outperform a dual Xeon system though

Xeon MP: high-end and really expensive Intel server CPU

Opteron: AMD's 64-bit server CPU's, haven't heard a lot, but I'm pretty sure they outperform Xeon's

Athlon MP: AMD's 32-bit server CPU's, based on Athlon XP's, haven't heard a lot but I don't think they can outperform Xeon's

-----------------------------

Duron's, Athlon's, Athlon MP's and Athlon XP's all use the same socket motherboard: Socket A

some Celeron's and the P4's use socket 478

Athlon 64 3000-3400's use socket 754

Athlon 64 FX's use socket 940

Opterons use socket 940 (I think)

not sure what socket Xeon's use