Processor Bus? - solidsnake20

I saw this Dell PC on Tesco Direct, for the price I thought the specs were
very good.
I sent the page to my friend, who said it is good for the price, but the low
processor bus means that the computer wont be as fast as I think.

Processor Bus: 800 MHZ

My friend said that this is low, is that true?

Full system specs:
http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.203-4621.aspx

Processor Bus? - Paul

To a first order approximation, a computer's performance depends on

Core_clock * IPC

For a Core 2 processor, this would be 2.2GHz * 1.5 = 3.3GHz P4.
The machine will have roughly the same speed as a 3.3GHz P4,
which is enough for ordinary tasks.

The FSB is a secondary concern. If it was FSB800 or FSB1333,
I doubt you could tell the difference.

The FSB on my current computer is FSB800 (and your friend's
comment has made me cry :-) )

The part of that deal that isn't so good, is Vista. (In
the sense that, it may seem slower than what you're used
to.)

The machine has "integrated graphics", and you may find a
cheap $50 PCI Express video card will help it a bit. It really
all depends on what you intend to use it for, as to whether
a video card upgrade will help. For example, if you are a
gamer, then more horsepower is always better.

I don't know the UK prices at all, so cannot say whether
£349.00 is a "deal" or not.

I notice another computer on Tesco uses 1.86GHz core and
FSB1066. And that would be slower than the 2.2GHz core
machine, even though that machine is FSB800. The core is
what counts.

And if I were you, I'd visit the Dell UK site, and compare
what Tesco is offering, to what you can customize on the
Dell site. For example, for £100 more, you can get a quad
core Q6600. Or for £80 extra, the E8300 dual core at 2.83GHz.
So price around a bit, and see if you're getting a good deal
or not. (Quad core is mainly useful, if you do a lot of
DVD shrinking or movie rendering etc. Stuff that is slow
and grinds on your existing machine. With four cores, the
machine stays perky, while stuff runs in the background.
For web surfing or email, the dual core is better, runs
cooler and is powerful enough most of the time.)

You can always add memory to the machine yourself, if the
machine on the Dell site doesn't have enough memory.
Memory is about $25 per gigabyte, so it doesn't cost much to
do an upgrade yourself.

Paul

Processor Bus? - OldDuke

On Wed, 7 May 2008 12:56:14 -0700, solidsnake204


Why ask here?  This is a pure hardware question that has NOTHING to do
with the OS.

Ask elsewhere

Processor Bus? - Bob Willard

Ignore OldDuke.  Most of us think this is a proper NG for the question.
--
Cheers, Bob

Processor Bus? - Walter Wall

A hardware question in a hardware newsgroup.  What is the world coming to?

Processor Bus? - Bjarke Andersen

Not really. This NG is regarding hardware relations to Windows XP. Not
internal hardware relations.

So OP is actually in the wrong NG, but if the question was related to if
Windows XP would perform better with higher FSB, then the question was
relevant.

--
Bjarke Andersen

Processor Bus? - JohnO

But at the same time, who cares? It's not like the Master of Newsgroup
Charters and Subjects or Bill Gates himself is going to toss an EMP pulse
through the tubes at your system if a question isn't related to Win XP
directly...or like this group is loaded with spam or tons of unanswered
questions...

BTW, OldDuke is the resident troll who lately morphs into new identities.
He's a sad, sad character.

-John O

Processor Bus? - Bjarke Andersen

Users care. Else we could manage the entire usenet with one group.

--
Bjarke Andersen

Processor Bus? - Walter Wall

The problem is that there are not really any other realistic places to put
hardware questions.  here are a number of other groups, but the patronage
varies from zero to not very many.  The reality is that if you have a
hardware problem, this newsgroup is the one in which you are most likely to
get a useful response.  Virtually all the users seem quite happy with that
situation except one, but I have never seen any useful contribution from the
resident troll.

Are you throwing your hat into the ring with this troll?

Processor Bus? - JohnO

Two of you 'users' care so far: you and the Troll of No Consequence. BTW,
you're saying you could compress 50,000+ groups into one? That's a
ridiculous argument.

If somebody comes here complaining about a NASCAR driver or Photoshop bug,
there are lots of appropriate places for that. But if it's any kind of PC
hardware even distantly related to Windows, this group has plenty of
capacity to handle it. There is a lot of experience being shared here, and
no good reason to artificially limit the sharing of knowledge.

If you don't think a topic belongs here, then use your newsreader to zap the
thread away. In the meantime, virtually all questions are getting answered
politely and professionally. Even the majority of off-topic questions are
redirected tactfully, except for the troll--who has no manners.

All IMHO, of course.

-John O

Processor Bus? - Robert Moir

You can't really measure processor speed this way.
See:
http://rhymeswithgeek.com/blogs/someone_else/archive/2006/07/13/CPU-FAQ.aspx
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/core2-duo-knocks-athlon-64,1282-12.html
Multicore processing isn't about combining the power of two processor cores
or more to do one thing really fast, but more about doing two things at
once. And core by core, the Core Duo / Core2Duo processor design is a lot
more efficient than the pentium 4 design, a case of working smarter not
harder.


Yeah, that didn't seem helpful of the friend. It might not be the fastest
setup money can buy, but it's plenty fast enough for business type use and
any home use that doesn't involve hard-core gaming.


About $700 USD. It's not a bad price going on local market conditions.


I heartily agree with this bit. Dell do some keenly priced machines, but
some people are just weirded out by buying things like that mail order.


I'd definately second this part too. A lot of the big box shifters soak
users on memory upgrades. Dell, Apple, all of them get beat hollow by places
like crucial.com on the price of extra memory.

Processor Bus? - OldDuke

On Thu, 8 May 2008 11:39:42 +0100, "Walter Wall" <me@privacy.net>

A hardware question that has NOTHING to do with the XP OS.  Read the
group title and you'll notice WINDOWSXP preceding the word HARDWARE.
Put them togehter.  Then realize what I am saying is CORRECT.

Processor Bus? - Walter Wall

I believe that someone else has already pointed out that you are the *only*
person who seems to have a problem with that.  No one else cares.  I
certainly have no problem with people posting hardware questions in this
hardware newsgroup.

I do, however, object to your continuously posting the same identically
worded unwanted post.  And AFAICT so do many others.  I would ask where you
expect people to post such questions, but I won't as I know exactly what
your unhelpful answer will be.

Now go away and die.

Processor Bus? - Bill in Co.

He does it because that is ALL he is capable of.     For him, that is his
life.

Processor Bus? - OldDuke

On Mon, 12 May 2008 08:08:31 +0100, "Walter Wall" <me@privacy.net>

There are DOZENS of web-based forums that qualify.

As for your objections, wah.  Deal with it.

Processor Bus? - Walter Wall

As predicted, your response was as unhelpful as ever.


I don't have to deal with anything.  You are the one with the problem.

Processor Bus? - JohnO

This one included. Deal with it.