I'm PC shopping and I'm curious. Vendors won't give me a straight answer. Which would be faster - assuming all else is the same:

An Intel Duo Core 2.16 or a P4 3.8?

Yes, it needs to be an intel chip. Avid doesn't support AMD processors.

I'm considering the Alienware mj-12 7700i and the HPnw9440.


Thanks in Advance

Duo core hands down.

More cache, ROUGHLY 2x 2.16 (smp isnt 100% efficient) Ghz versus a slower P4 chip.

I would go Duo Core, dont get alienware though, try to find stuff you need, or since you're close I could also make a system for you and deliver the computer.

b

Crap, buddy. You've got a high budget or what?

Thing is the application. Some programs individually won't use the extra processor. BUT... If you've got a lot of stuff running at once, then the Dual core stuff is best. Alienware is way over priced, though. Let Brit (or anyone else private) build you the right computer for the job. And like Raby says, "it's all in the combo."

My dad gets all the crazy shit. The week the 64bit CPU came out, he bought a 3200+ CPU Athlon, it was crazy fast.

I get stuck with a P4 1.7Ghz, from like 1999. LOL

And teh 400Mhz Dual CPU server, and the 300Mhz G3 laptop and the 400Mhz Celeron IBM thinkpad and the 500Mhz Pismo and the 166Mhz IBM door prop and a few old macs.

Yeah check and see if the program supports multithreaded use and SMP supported.

You're cool with XP or whatever you'll use, even 2000 supports SMP. Even NT did.

The Duo Core is a nice CPU, someday I'll get one going.

Actually for 1200 my buddy built a Duo Core system, real fast REAL fast, he was using it for gaming to sell on ebay.

Want me to ask what he has?

1200 is a good price.

but then again I could build a similair system for the same price that may be better. Time is always your friend with technology.

20 years ago the fastest CPU was 4.88Mhz

Core Duo or Core 2 Duo? (yes, they really did come out with 2 different processors with such confusing names)

I just got a laptop with the mobile version of the Core 2 Duo (Merom) and I have no complaints yet.

Core 2 Duo supports DDR2

between those, go with the 2

DDR2 = hellacious fast

Wasn't that 486?

They had dual processors too. Motherboard and daughterboard. Technology moves backwards sometimes. In the old days, motherboards had dozens of slots for extra cards +whatever was on the daughterborad (if you had one.) And you almost always had a dedicated video and sound card. Now everything has all that stuff densely packed onto one board, even if you upgrade, so that E.M. flow is ridiculous inside that box.

Look around for server motherboards that support two (yes 2!) processors. Get one duo and the other p4 3.8. Or get 2 duo. Go nuts.

this is a notebook, so I'm not building it myself. I've built tons of boxes.
Alienware isn't overpriced, it's actually a better bargain vs the HP.

The box has to run AVID software, HP is an approved box, and the Alienware is guaranteed to work (I know of several, too).

The HP is a single 100 gb 7200 rpm drive with a 17" 1600x1080 display, 1 gig ram with the duo core...core 2 duo isn't supported by Avid yet about 3500 configured similarly.

The Alienware is a dual 7200 rpm 200 gig raid with a 17" 1920x1200 display 1 gig ram with the 3.8. this one has the better video card as well at 1000 million vertices per second (Go 7900GTX) vs the Go 6800's 100 million vertices per second. aboout 3200.

how timely ...

i'm working on a bunch of *HUGE* duratrans pictures right this minute on a Intel 3.0GHz Dual Core with 2GB of RAM ...

reformatting a 1.2GB (!) image ... interestingly, CPU 2 is getting more load than CPU 1 ...

Click to view attachment

Hey Sean, I actually make the new Core Duo 2 chips...really. I am a Lithography Process Eng at Intel and I print the ply layer which determines the speed of the chip...I could tell you more but I would have to kill you.

Anyways, what is your time frame? The best laptop chip is a Core Duo 2, not a Core Duo. The codename for Core Duo 2 is Merom, it is a true dual core chip (i.e. two cores on the same chip) with 4mb of cache. The Core Duo is actually two chips packaged together (codename Yonah). While both is faster than the previous generation P4 3.xxGhz and use less power, the Core Duo 2 is the chip that rocks. The desktop version is codenamed Conroe for the 4mb cache versions or Allendale for the 2mb cache version.

The reason I asked for the timeframe is that the Laptop version (Merom) is just hitting the market and should be widely available soon if not already.

-Britain

No that was the Intel 8088.

the 80486 chip had four varieties, SX,DX2, and DX4

DX4 had 100Mhz speed, DX2 had several speeds (ranging to aroudn 80Mhz) and the SX had like 40Mhz speed.

[quote]
Ive never seen a dual 486 motherboard.

Andy, I see the same thing with my Pentium Pro (overclocked and over-driven system)

depending on the program, some apps cant be split into mult threaded tasks, so the OS just picks one CPU and sometimes it flip-flops between processors.

When in doubt, ask Tom.

Tom's Hardware

According to Tom, the Core Duo's look to be much faster!

Britain,
I'm not in a big hurry BUT, my current notebook has been beat up - literally. I've had a couple of bellman drop the bag. I have issues with power & battery. It takes me about 10 minutes to find the exact spot where the power cable makes the right contact and then I have to adjust the battery in and out to make sure it's making optimum contact. I've thought about sending it in for repair, but it's a 3 1/2 year old P4 3.06 (non hyperthreading). It doesn't have enough horsepower to do HD...so a new box that can do HD is appealing.

SorAhndie.....

Consider yourself lucky that you got a CPU2 in your chip.

See, CPU 1 is a manager CPU that just sits and gives orders, and CPU2 is the worker CPU that does all the work,

Now the reason you got lucky is..

If you had 2 manager CPU's, all they would do would be to try to get the other CPU to do the work and nothing would get done.....

Ken

Sean,

I fix laptops too. If your looking to sell the beat up model, i want a laptop i can just use without breaking it. Pm me if you are willing to sell said laptop

:solder:

Hey, Sean. What are you doing with the old laptop?

What the?

look above.