Pentium 4 2 x 3.2 Chip?!? Help!?

Question

Hi all,

I'm looking at buying a new PC to run Autocad and office. I was looking at a Pentium 4 3Ghz with 2GB RAM, and I've been given the option to upgrade to 2 x 3.2Ghz for £8.99.

Whats the difference? Does that make it a 6.4?
Is there any benefit to spending a bit more and getting the Athlon 64 equipped model?

S'cuse my IT ignorance, I'm an engineer, not an IT technician!
Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Usually it would mean a motherboard with two of those processors together, I think.

But £8.99 is too cheap for that.

Answer 2

I think that guy's talking about a dual processor setup and not a dual core. But 8.99 is way too cheap for a dual processor setup or even a dual core. No, it doesn't equal 6.4Ghz. Two 3.2Ghz processor behaves differently than 1 6.4Ghz processor. Yes, you should go with the Athlon 64. It does more per clock cycle so it may have a lower clock cycle like 2.4Ghz but it will outperform the 3.2Ghz Pentium. Also, P4s run hot unlike the Athlons which run about 10-20 degrees Celsius cooler so you'll need a bigger (louder) fan for the Pentium.
If you're going the dual core route. This is where Intel outperforms AMD. In every benchmark, Core 2 Duo outperforms the Athlon 64 X2. With the dual cores, Intel does more per clock cycle than AMD.
For the applications that you are running, go the cheapest route. I run Autocad 2004 on my 1.8Ghz P4 and it works really well.

Answer 3

Pentium D 840 is dual core at 3.2 GHz where CPUs are really Pentium 4s. It fits in a motherboard using socket 775, the same as Core 2 Duo. It uses lots of watts and might tend to overheat and run slower to compensate. AMD and Core 2 Duo CPUs use less watts and are more efficient, producing a faster speed from a given GHz. I could understand somebody getting rid of a D 840 at that price and replacing it with a Core 2 Duo. Top end Core 2 Duo are the current leaders on the popular benchmarks but, below that, Athlon 64 could be the best choice, depending on cost.

Some applications can use two CPUs in certain situations. The real advantage of dual core is running a CPU limited application and other things at the same time.

Answer 4

I guess they must be offering you a dual core processor instead P4. Dual core is faster than P4.What I would like to advise you to go for Core 2 Duo processors. They are much more faster than either of the two mentioned before.One more advantage you will get is this that once application starts coming in 64 bit your system will not be obsolete. P4 is a 32 bit machine where as Dual Core is a Virtual 64 bit machine but Core 2 Duo is real 64 bit machine. You can also go for Athlon 64 bit. It is faster than Core 2 Duo but it has a problematic CPU Fan & it generates a lot of heat as well. Ignorance is not foolishness but acquiring knowledge is smartness.Hope now you can decide for your computer. One more thing I forgot to mention above is RAM DDR2 2 GB is good but FSB of your ram should be minimum 400Mhz &Mother Board FSB should be not less than 800 Mhz.