How important is clock speed ?
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I'm looking at buying myself a desktop for home use since my laptop has too much junk for me to be working on it. I'm looking at two systems...the only difference is that one is a P4 with 2.8GHz and the other is a P4 with 3.0GHz. They both have a meg of cache. I was curious if its worth spending another 200 bucks to go up from the 2.8 to the 3.0. Will I even notice that much of a difference (especially given the cache). "One of the Georges," said Psmith, "I forget which, once said that a certain number of hours' sleep a day--I cannot recall for the moment how many--made a man something, which for the time being has slipped my memory."
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I'm looking at buying myself a desktop for home use since my laptop has too much junk for me to be working on it. I'm looking at two systems...the only difference is that one is a P4 with 2.8GHz and the other is a P4 with 3.0GHz. They both have a meg of cache. I was curious if its worth spending another 200 bucks to go up from the 2.8 to the 3.0. Will I even notice that much of a difference (especially given the cache). "One of the Georges," said Psmith, "I forget which, once said that a certain number of hours' sleep a day--I cannot recall for the moment how many--made a man something, which for the time being has slipped my memory."
Ramanan Sivan wrote: I was curious if its worth spending another 200 bucks to go up from the 2.8 to the 3.0. That depends on what you'll be using the computer for. If you're doing CPU-intensive stuff like encoding videos, the higher-speed CPU will take less time to encode. But if you'll be doing mostly development, you won't notice anything because most of the time the computer will just be waiting for you to type. ;) If you'll be playing the latest games, faster CPU = better in all cases. You'll have to decide whether you want to shell out the money for a few extra FPS. --Mike-- LINKS~! Ericahist updated! | 1ClickPicGrabber | CP SearchBar v2.0.2 | C++ Forum FAQ Strange things are afoot at the U+004B U+20DD
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Ramanan Sivan wrote: I was curious if its worth spending another 200 bucks to go up from the 2.8 to the 3.0. That depends on what you'll be using the computer for. If you're doing CPU-intensive stuff like encoding videos, the higher-speed CPU will take less time to encode. But if you'll be doing mostly development, you won't notice anything because most of the time the computer will just be waiting for you to type. ;) If you'll be playing the latest games, faster CPU = better in all cases. You'll have to decide whether you want to shell out the money for a few extra FPS. --Mike-- LINKS~! Ericahist updated! | 1ClickPicGrabber | CP SearchBar v2.0.2 | C++ Forum FAQ Strange things are afoot at the U+004B U+20DD
I do intensive image processing and some video processing. It just seems ridiculous to me that the price goes up that much to increase speed for a dell workstation. In regular desktops it takes like 30 bucks to go up from 2.8 to 3.0 P4 and for a workstation its like 200 bucks :sigh: "One of the Georges," said Psmith, "I forget which, once said that a certain number of hours' sleep a day--I cannot recall for the moment how many--made a man something, which for the time being has slipped my memory."
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I'm looking at buying myself a desktop for home use since my laptop has too much junk for me to be working on it. I'm looking at two systems...the only difference is that one is a P4 with 2.8GHz and the other is a P4 with 3.0GHz. They both have a meg of cache. I was curious if its worth spending another 200 bucks to go up from the 2.8 to the 3.0. Will I even notice that much of a difference (especially given the cache). "One of the Georges," said Psmith, "I forget which, once said that a certain number of hours' sleep a day--I cannot recall for the moment how many--made a man something, which for the time being has slipped my memory."
Ramanan Sivan wrote: I was curious if its worth spending another 200 bucks to go up from the 2.8 to the 3.0 Wow! 200 bucks? Even assuming the performance is proportional to the clock (which is not), you'd gain only 7% of performance. So, it would be only a worthy upgrade if you're paying 2800 bucks for the processor. :) Ramanan Sivan wrote: They both have a meg of cache. Oh, a Prescott. I have one (the 3Ghz one). Just like my old Athlons, it'll be good for keeping my feet warm in the winter. Yes, even I am blogging now!
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Ramanan Sivan wrote: I was curious if its worth spending another 200 bucks to go up from the 2.8 to the 3.0 Wow! 200 bucks? Even assuming the performance is proportional to the clock (which is not), you'd gain only 7% of performance. So, it would be only a worthy upgrade if you're paying 2800 bucks for the processor. :) Ramanan Sivan wrote: They both have a meg of cache. Oh, a Prescott. I have one (the 3Ghz one). Just like my old Athlons, it'll be good for keeping my feet warm in the winter. Yes, even I am blogging now!
I'm leaning towards the 2.8 at this point. I simply don't want to blow more money on nothing. I managed to get the price down about a 100 bucks by picking a linux system at the start of my selection. I hope I don't get burned by not being able to install windows on it when it gets here (I do have an MSDN subscription, just in case someone starts suspecting a piracy issue) "One of the Georges," said Psmith, "I forget which, once said that a certain number of hours' sleep a day--I cannot recall for the moment how many--made a man something, which for the time being has slipped my memory."
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I'm looking at buying myself a desktop for home use since my laptop has too much junk for me to be working on it. I'm looking at two systems...the only difference is that one is a P4 with 2.8GHz and the other is a P4 with 3.0GHz. They both have a meg of cache. I was curious if its worth spending another 200 bucks to go up from the 2.8 to the 3.0. Will I even notice that much of a difference (especially given the cache). "One of the Georges," said Psmith, "I forget which, once said that a certain number of hours' sleep a day--I cannot recall for the moment how many--made a man something, which for the time being has slipped my memory."
I wouldn't think it would be worth it, compare the curves. The gain in speed from 2.8 to 3.0 will be linear at best, the rise in price 200 bucks between that seems much greater than a linear raise. Doesn't sound worth it to me. -- Rocky Dean Pulley
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I'm leaning towards the 2.8 at this point. I simply don't want to blow more money on nothing. I managed to get the price down about a 100 bucks by picking a linux system at the start of my selection. I hope I don't get burned by not being able to install windows on it when it gets here (I do have an MSDN subscription, just in case someone starts suspecting a piracy issue) "One of the Georges," said Psmith, "I forget which, once said that a certain number of hours' sleep a day--I cannot recall for the moment how many--made a man something, which for the time being has slipped my memory."
Ramanan Sivan wrote: I hope I don't get burned by not being able to install windows on it when it gets here What do you mean?
I can imagine the sinking feeling one would have after ordering my book, only to find a laughably ridiculous theory with demented logic once the book arrives - Mark McCutcheon
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Ramanan Sivan wrote: I hope I don't get burned by not being able to install windows on it when it gets here What do you mean?
I can imagine the sinking feeling one would have after ordering my book, only to find a laughably ridiculous theory with demented logic once the book arrives - Mark McCutcheon
Like there's something default in the hardware that stops me from installing windows (I'm starting to realize that sounds stupid as I'm typing this) "One of the Georges," said Psmith, "I forget which, once said that a certain number of hours' sleep a day--I cannot recall for the moment how many--made a man something, which for the time being has slipped my memory."
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I'm looking at buying myself a desktop for home use since my laptop has too much junk for me to be working on it. I'm looking at two systems...the only difference is that one is a P4 with 2.8GHz and the other is a P4 with 3.0GHz. They both have a meg of cache. I was curious if its worth spending another 200 bucks to go up from the 2.8 to the 3.0. Will I even notice that much of a difference (especially given the cache). "One of the Georges," said Psmith, "I forget which, once said that a certain number of hours' sleep a day--I cannot recall for the moment how many--made a man something, which for the time being has slipped my memory."
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I'm looking at buying myself a desktop for home use since my laptop has too much junk for me to be working on it. I'm looking at two systems...the only difference is that one is a P4 with 2.8GHz and the other is a P4 with 3.0GHz. They both have a meg of cache. I was curious if its worth spending another 200 bucks to go up from the 2.8 to the 3.0. Will I even notice that much of a difference (especially given the cache). "One of the Georges," said Psmith, "I forget which, once said that a certain number of hours' sleep a day--I cannot recall for the moment how many--made a man something, which for the time being has slipped my memory."
Depends whether the 2.8 you're talking about is 2.8E or 2.8A. 2.8E is a full prescott, 2.8a is a crippled version - it has only 533Mhz bus and no hyperthreading, basically the worst of both worlds - THD of regular prescott and performance of 2.4C. At least 2.8E performs on a decent level, even if it dissapates 30W more heat. Overall, if it's 2.8E I'd say going up 200Mhz it's not worth $200 difference (well, that's if you're money-conscious), with 2.8A I don't know... Like I said, 2.8A runs hot and performs at substandard levels, so upgrading to 3.0E might make sense (although it's still not worth $200 because 3.0E go for $190 retail box). If this is 2.8A and if I were you I'd buy 2.8, then buy 3.0 retail, put it into PC and sell 2.8... but then I wouldn't buy prebuilt box to begin with, lol...
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Depends whether the 2.8 you're talking about is 2.8E or 2.8A. 2.8E is a full prescott, 2.8a is a crippled version - it has only 533Mhz bus and no hyperthreading, basically the worst of both worlds - THD of regular prescott and performance of 2.4C. At least 2.8E performs on a decent level, even if it dissapates 30W more heat. Overall, if it's 2.8E I'd say going up 200Mhz it's not worth $200 difference (well, that's if you're money-conscious), with 2.8A I don't know... Like I said, 2.8A runs hot and performs at substandard levels, so upgrading to 3.0E might make sense (although it's still not worth $200 because 3.0E go for $190 retail box). If this is 2.8A and if I were you I'd buy 2.8, then buy 3.0 retail, put it into PC and sell 2.8... but then I wouldn't buy prebuilt box to begin with, lol...
I've never heard of 2.8a and 2.8e before and the site never mentions it so I don't know. I'm trying to check now. But it does have hyperthreading and 800FSB. So I assume its the full prescott. "One of the Georges," said Psmith, "I forget which, once said that a certain number of hours' sleep a day--I cannot recall for the moment how many--made a man something, which for the time being has slipped my memory."
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I've never heard of 2.8a and 2.8e before and the site never mentions it so I don't know. I'm trying to check now. But it does have hyperthreading and 800FSB. So I assume its the full prescott. "One of the Georges," said Psmith, "I forget which, once said that a certain number of hours' sleep a day--I cannot recall for the moment how many--made a man something, which for the time being has slipped my memory."
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If the website mentions that it has hyperthreading and 800Mhz FSB then it must be full 2.8E prescott, in which case it's definitely not worth $200 extra bucks...
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I do intensive image processing and some video processing. It just seems ridiculous to me that the price goes up that much to increase speed for a dell workstation. In regular desktops it takes like 30 bucks to go up from 2.8 to 3.0 P4 and for a workstation its like 200 bucks :sigh: "One of the Georges," said Psmith, "I forget which, once said that a certain number of hours' sleep a day--I cannot recall for the moment how many--made a man something, which for the time being has slipped my memory."
Ramanan Sivan wrote: In regular desktops it takes like 30 bucks to go up from 2.8 to 3.0 P4 and for a workstation its like 200 bucks Buy a regular desktop and juice up the ram and get the desktop with the fastest FSB you can.. then pay the extra 30 for the 3.0 Regards, Brian Dela :-) Now Bloging![^]
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Like there's something default in the hardware that stops me from installing windows (I'm starting to realize that sounds stupid as I'm typing this) "One of the Georges," said Psmith, "I forget which, once said that a certain number of hours' sleep a day--I cannot recall for the moment how many--made a man something, which for the time being has slipped my memory."
Dells are about as completely industry standard as you can get from a major computer vendor. The worst you will get is tech support not helping you setup special windows features because you didn't pay for an oem version of windows.
I can imagine the sinking feeling one would have after ordering my book, only to find a laughably ridiculous theory with demented logic once the book arrives - Mark McCutcheon
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[MSA] Matt Newman wrote: If its any help I have a P4 2.4 overclocked to 3.0 and I honestly can't tell the difference But your FSB is probably still 533Mhz and you don't have HT nor 1MB cache. I have used a 2.4 and a 3.0 computer for a while and there's a big difference. Yes, even I am blogging now!
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I'm leaning towards the 2.8 at this point. I simply don't want to blow more money on nothing. I managed to get the price down about a 100 bucks by picking a linux system at the start of my selection. I hope I don't get burned by not being able to install windows on it when it gets here (I do have an MSDN subscription, just in case someone starts suspecting a piracy issue) "One of the Georges," said Psmith, "I forget which, once said that a certain number of hours' sleep a day--I cannot recall for the moment how many--made a man something, which for the time being has slipped my memory."
You say it's a workstation... I have a N370 which I got with no operatng system. Just install Windows on it, and go to Dell's site to download the correct drivers for it. You might need some disk-controller drivers in order to install Windows though, depending on the computers configuration ;) Ramanan Sivan wrote: I do have an MSDN subscription, just in case someone starts suspecting a piracy issue Hehe, you are not allowed to use Windows from MSDN on a production machine, only for development :P - Anders Bill's Bar
My PhotosWDevs - The worlds first DSP, free blog space, email and more. Now also with forums :)
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You say it's a workstation... I have a N370 which I got with no operatng system. Just install Windows on it, and go to Dell's site to download the correct drivers for it. You might need some disk-controller drivers in order to install Windows though, depending on the computers configuration ;) Ramanan Sivan wrote: I do have an MSDN subscription, just in case someone starts suspecting a piracy issue Hehe, you are not allowed to use Windows from MSDN on a production machine, only for development :P - Anders Bill's Bar
My PhotosWDevs - The worlds first DSP, free blog space, email and more. Now also with forums :)
Thanks :) Hey, this is just for development. I'm just buying (already bought) this for screwing around with at home. "One of the Georges," said Psmith, "I forget which, once said that a certain number of hours' sleep a day--I cannot recall for the moment how many--made a man something, which for the time being has slipped my memory."
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I'm looking at buying myself a desktop for home use since my laptop has too much junk for me to be working on it. I'm looking at two systems...the only difference is that one is a P4 with 2.8GHz and the other is a P4 with 3.0GHz. They both have a meg of cache. I was curious if its worth spending another 200 bucks to go up from the 2.8 to the 3.0. Will I even notice that much of a difference (especially given the cache). "One of the Georges," said Psmith, "I forget which, once said that a certain number of hours' sleep a day--I cannot recall for the moment how many--made a man something, which for the time being has slipped my memory."
Unless you're doing a lot of compute intensive processing, the difference in clock speed will probably just enable your machine to wait faster. Imho, $200 can be much better spent on a faster, larger or 2nd disk drive. That's where I'd put my money (after upgrading to 1G RAM). /ravi My new year's resolution: 2048 x 1536 Home | Articles | Freeware | Music ravib@ravib.com
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Unless you're doing a lot of compute intensive processing, the difference in clock speed will probably just enable your machine to wait faster. Imho, $200 can be much better spent on a faster, larger or 2nd disk drive. That's where I'd put my money (after upgrading to 1G RAM). /ravi My new year's resolution: 2048 x 1536 Home | Articles | Freeware | Music ravib@ravib.com
Yeah, I decided to go with the 2.8, the 1 GIG Ram was a free upgrade. Already got that. The hard drive was slightly more expensive than I thought. I decided to live with 40 for now and buy more when I need it. "One of the Georges," said Psmith, "I forget which, once said that a certain number of hours' sleep a day--I cannot recall for the moment how many--made a man something, which for the time being has slipped my memory."