core 2 duo, P(IV) newb question?

[drewjustforyou]

im not the greatest with keeping up to date with technology (love tetris attack for the Super Nintendo), and i was browsing around for new computers (waiting for price to go down so that i can get a decent upgrade from my laptop to maybe a desktop once its reasonably priced) and i noticed i dont know nearly enough to make a good decision.

so my question is this, what are the differences between core 2 duo processors, and Pentium 4's? I notice that core 2 duo's are found more often (if not allways?) in laptops. What are the performance differences? is one blatantly better then the other?

ty so much for helping a newb out.

(updating my sig to give computer specs soon, hopefully i can also get a good idea when to upgrade my computer.)

 

[turtile]

Core 2 Dou - much faster - uses less power~Less heat/longer battery life

P4- High heat, slower, short battery life

 

[drewjustforyou]

3ghz seems to be standard for a Pentium 4, while 1.6 ghz seems to be high end for a core 2 duo, what do those numbers mean?

 

[drewjustforyou]

yes yes yes, i know im a nublet.

but please help, i thought those numbers were processor speeds, but aparently they arent if a 1.6 core 2 duo runs faster then a 3.0

does the duo double the speed? how does that work without sacrificing some power to get the two to work in tandem?

 

[drewjustforyou]

http://www.techist.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=123957

wow, apparently it wasnt such a nub question, had to go into the power pc forum to find my answer! being new here though, ty turtile for your help!

im going to not pay any attention to processor speed anymore, but how many stages each pipeline takes

i feel so smart, ty so much turtile!

 

[Nitestick]

i'm glad you liked my post

i guess you got the gist of it now? the core 2 duo is just far more efficient at doing work than a pentium 4 at the same frequency, it's not just the fact that there are two cores.

 

[Meithan]

im going to not pay any attention to processor speed anymore, but how many stages each pipeline takes

Well, the number of stages in the pipeline is not a good indicator of performance, either. Here's my advice on comparing CPUs.

1) In general, when comparing CPUs there's nothing better than looking at benchmarks. Here's a big chart of CPU performance. If you want to see if that Athlon X2 5000+ outperforms a Conroe E6600, that's a place to start. You could also Google the processor model you're interested in and see if you can find a tech review about it. They'll usually compare the processor to similar CPUs.

2) You can generally use clock speed (the Ghz) to compare processors, as long as they're in the same family (same brand, of course). For instance a Core 2 Duo at 2.4Ghz is better than a Core 2 Duo at 1.8Ghz.

Edit: format

 

[drewjustforyou]

thanks so much for that link, its going into my bookmarks for when i finnaly settle down (get out of apartment living) and start to build my own desktop.

i hope i can make this a learning experiance and get alot of help from you guys here, it certainly looks like i can!

 

[zerodayATK]

you should be able to everybody here is very helpfull and friendy and they should be able to help you build your dream rig.