Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with processor

Do I 'need' a gaming laptop to play MMOs?

Kurichina — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:37:12 -0800

Do I 'need' a gaming laptop to play MMOs? Computer hardware knowledgable people: what sort of system do you use for determining your 'needs' for a computer? My HP lappy conked out last week (very likely a motherboard failure, I'm told) and I'm in the market for a new one. It wasn't an ideal time financially for this to happen, so I don't want to spend anymore money than I have to. However, I also want this next laptop to last 4-5 years if possible, or, at the very least, 3.

I'm not a huge gamer, but I started playing a fair amount of WoW earlier this year and it's not unreasonable to think I may branch out into a few other MMOs. On my old, mid-range HP, WoW had many errors (not able to process the zone files and crashing) and was generally frustrating. Other than the games, my needs are fairly basic: a small amount of graphic design, word processing/spreadsheets, listen to music and watch DVDs/blu-rays. Is it worthwhile to splash out on a newer, more powerful processor *(quad core or I7, for e.g.) and some extra memory or will this be money wasted due to not using this power? Is there an objective (i.e. not trying to sell me something) site out there that will determine my hardware needs?

I've seen this but that question didn't discuss the needs of MMOs, and I'm not interested in the PC vs Mac side of things. (For reasons of cost and wanting to keep using the same software I already own, some of it purchased at "educational" prices for which I no longer qualify, I'm sticking with a PC.)

Is there good sites that provide ranking of computer processors performance?

idyllhands — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:35:47 -0800

Is there good sites that provide ranking of computer processors performance? I am looking to buy a new PC, but am being patient for the right deal to come along. It would be nice to have a trustworthy source of which processors are "better." Any links to PC and/or laptop rankings is appreciated.

What do I need to look at when buying a new laptop?

reenum — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 09:28:05 -0800

I'm in the market for a new laptop. Should I get a PC or Mac? What specs are important for me to look at when making a decision? My Toshiba Satellite A65 seems to be on its last legs, so I think I'm getting a new laptop.

In researching, I've become confused as to which specs really matter when looking at a computer.

Here's what I would use it for:
- E-mail, IM, and Web
- Watching DVDs
- BitTorrent
- Word processing and spreadsheets
- Tracking my finances
- Some music creation (mostly breakbeats)

I've seen some places say that I need as much RAM as possible, others stress the importance of a large hard drive, yet others say I need the fastest processor.

Also, any recommendations as to brands that are more reliable than others?

Please help!

Real-world microprocessor performance based on specs.

brenton — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 17:14:20 -0800

Help me understand Intel Core 2 Duo processors. Wikipedia has a confusing chart that seems to indicate matching processor to the RAM is more important than the actual specs of the RAM or processor. I'm buying a laptop on the Dell Outlet. But trying to do research for which one to pick has led me to the wikipedia page on Core 2 Duo processors. Several things confuse me.

1. What is the meaning of this "GB/s" unit of measure under the "Matched memory and maximum bandwidth" column? Is this a reliable indicator of generic processing power?

2. For DDR2 RAM, is the chart saying that the processors with only 533 FSB are always faster than the 800mhz processors? It seems so since they have more "GB/s". But that makes no sense! The processors with faster FSB should always be better... right?

3. Is a "Core 2 Duo" most likely better than a "Core Duo" or even a "Pentium Dual Core"? It would be helpful if I could narrow it down to just one processor type.

What should I be looking at when choosing a processor? I had it in my head that Core 2 Duo was the best dual core processor out today. If I choose the Core 2 Duo with the fastest FSB I can find, (assuming a reasonable clock speeed,) is that the way to go?

Can you help me find a good processor to go with this Motherboard?

TrueVox — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 13:16:14 -0800

FINALLY getting my own media center/boxee box/VM Toy runner. I realize that I won't be able to run any beefy creatures on this, but I intend to use the VM's mostly as toys, or to occasionally sync my finance's iPod. NO BLURAY/HD Content required for now. I've already decided most parts, but I need a bit of help picking a processor. And if you can find some better parts then the ones I've chosen, please let me know, I'll happily take 'em into consideration. Oh, and I'm trying to go as little over $300 as I can... First off, while many parts I'm using are from newegg, I'm not at all married to the site. I've found just a PERFECT Mobo. HDMI, plenty of space for RAM, and it should be big enough for the future (I would hope). I've got a fine case that is coming highly recommended by a friend. A single 500 gb HDD will work until maybe next year at the latest when I can afford a proper RAID setup. Some cheap RAM, and what ever other little cables, and accessories as I need.

As you can see, I think I'm most of the way there (lemme know if I forgot something important, I already own a DVD drive). I'm just looking for a processor that will be compatible with the Mobo I've found that will work well with VM's (so I guess it would support VT-x?)... and cost less then $100, or at least right close by. I'm prepaired to upgrade the processor later, but I need to start with something that will work with Boxee or XBMC from the get go.

Any thoughts? And thanks in advance!

ohshitohshitohshitohshit

spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 07:40:32 -0800

Why won't my computer post? About a year ago I built this computer. It died a month ago, and I thought it was the video card. The card was replaced under warranty. I popped the new card in the system this morning and was disappointed to find that it's still not posting.

When I press the power button, the fans spin, and everything seems normal for about the first 3-4 seconds, then it just shuts off before a video signal is ever sent to the display. About 4 seconds later, it starts again, fans spin for 3-4 seconds, and then it dies. This repeats indefinitely until I kill the power by flipping the master switch on the back of the power supply.

My next guess is that it's the motherboard (GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard ) or processor, but I'm not sure how to troubleshoot that problem. It looks like all the cables are connected.

Any thoughts?

word processor

amsterdam63 — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 13:51:13 -0800

Word Processor with Excel-like tabs for Windows? Is there a word processor with tabs? I seem to remember gedit on Ubuntu had tabs, but it opens different files in different tabs. I mean one with multiple tabs in one file like Excel does.

PC performance boost: more RAM or a new processor?

gottabefunky — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 19:28:51 -0800

How can I find out if I'll get more of a performance boost in my desktop PC by adding more RAM or replacing the processor? I'm trying to figure out which will give me more bang for my buck in terms of processing speed: adding more RAM or replacing my processor.

Here are my stats: Dell Dimension 4600, Pentium 4 CPU, 3.06Ghz, 1.5G RAM, Win XP SP3; Intel Springdale-G i865G motherboard chipset; NVidia GeForce 7600 GS video card.

I've already added more RAM, but I'm willing to give the processor replacement a go if it's worth it; I just can't figure that out. I use the machine mostly for word processing, email, web surfing, photo editing (I know, I know), and some gaming.

It may be my imagination, but (as usual) the computer seems to move slower every year. Programs take forever to load, images longer to process, occasional minute-long hangups with multiple programs running . I defrag, virus scan. CClean and delete unneeded stuff regularly. What should I do? (Please don't say buy a new one.)

Need new motherboard for an emachine

socrateaser — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 11:13:15 -0800

Should we replace the motherboard and processor or buy a new computer? My husband's emachine (T6520) died and it needs a new motherboard and processor. Calls to the company have been useless and we can't find a supplier to replace these parts.

Should we replace them or just go with a new computer? Any ideas on where we can get new parts?

QL-60? T3200? Laptop processors make no sense!

antifuse — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 08:36:08 -0800

Yet another laptop question - somebody please explain the difference between the processors for me? So, my current laptop (a Dell Inspiron 700m) is reaching its last legs, and I'm looking to get a new one. I used to stay up to speed on all the latest processor and video card news, but since I stopped building my own desktops, I've seriously fallen out of the loop. I've tried searching extensively here on AskMe, as well as on Google, and had little luck trying to figure things out.

What I've found is that the main makers have finally given up on the megahertz myth, which is good, but also makes it impossible for me to determine even superficially which processors are better - for example, Intel now has dual core and core2 duo processors? What's the difference? I can't tell how a T3200 processor compares to a P8400 processor. And then AMD has the X2 QL-60, TK-57, and TL-60... Is Turion better than Athlon? It's all a jumble. Really, the best I can hope for is to base it on price... But even then it might be hit or miss.

As for my needs - I'm not planning any hardcore gaming or 3d modeling work, though I'd love to be ABLE to play some of the more recent games... But mostly, I do a lot of photo editing (Photoshop CS3 and Bibble Pro for RAW conversion), and I occasionally do some video conversion (from Divx to MP4 for viewing on my iPod) and I'd appreciate processing power that can handle that. The reason I'm upgrading my laptop is that I've noticed it can't really deal very well with RAW conversions for my D300, and audio is very often out of sync when doing the video conversions.

I'm not overly concerned with power consumption of the processor - I'm happy if that's a part of the processor that I pick, but mostly I just don't want it to set my lap on fire when I'm using it.

As a bonus, anybody who can give me a quick rundown of the various mobile video chipsets, I'd greatly appreciate that as well. :)

Math students, you are getting such a raw deal.

skryche — Wed, 28 May 2008 19:23:41 -0800

Why doesn't Moore's Law apply to graphing calculators? When I was a freshman in college (1994), my parents bought me a TI-85 graphing calculator (6Mhz, 32k RAM) for (I think) around $130. 14 years later, for about the same price, I can get a calculator with about 4 times the speed and 4 times the RAM.

Shouldn't today's calculator be vastly more powerful (or at least much cheaper) -- in line with advances in home computers?

I am an Audio/Video/Graphics designer looking for the proper machine for multi-media production. Please help me find the right components I need. ANYTHING BUT DELL!

bostonhill — Wed, 21 May 2008 08:39:45 -0800

I am an Audio/Video/Graphics designer looking for the proper machine for multi-media production. Please help me find the right components I need. ANYTHING BUT DELL please! My second Dell machine recently crapped out on me (XPS 600) so needless to say I'd like to battle Michael Dell till death but I'll spare you with my hatred for anything Dell related.

These are my primary tools I use on daily basis for various productions:

Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Audition
Adobe Premiere Pro
Adobe After Effects
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Lightroom
Propellerheads Reason 4.0

As you can see, I spend a lot of time rendering various footage material from my clients along with Premiere and After Effects along with audio creation which requires a high-quality audio card intended for musicians.

I don't know much about customizing machines and which brand to trust but I do know that I need at least 4 gigs of memory, a fast processor and a high quality audio card for music production. (I also know that I have to get Vista whether I want to or not, and since most programs I use only support 32-bit, I can't really go for a 64 bit Vista)

Given the programs I listed and my desire for fast rendering and high quality audio production, which audio cards/processors would you recommend?

I am leaning toward HP m9200t series

Much thanks in advance to all!

Upgrade! (To contined obsolescence)

Annon E Moose — Thu, 08 May 2008 10:48:27 -0800

Budget upgrade: Will my PC game performance improve more from upgrading my Athlon 2100 XP (1.7 Ghz) processor or my GeForce 6600GT (256mb) AGP video card? So as you can tell I haven't upgraded in a while. I normally upgrade my machines stepwise, but I hit a wall and my next serious upgrade would require not only replacing my motherboard and my processor but my video card (because of transition from AGP to PCI-e) and also my RAM as it's the old DDR.

I've determined that I can't afford that right now. While I don't like the idea of buying a component that I will replace in a year, I've decided I'm willing to upgrade one component. And thus I came to MeFi. I don't know which one is limiting my game performance more, and besides that I don't know if my limited options will give me a noticeable difference. I know this might sound like Chatfilter but I think there's a real answer to this.

System: Athlon 2100 XP (1.7 Ghz), GeForce 6600GT (256mb) AGPx8, 1gig DDR RAM

Limitations: Processor must be an Athlon XP. Video card must be AGP

These days I'm playing Team Fortress 2 at bare minimum settings and it's completely playable 98% of the time. I'd just like some better resolution, but if there isn't a good solution I'm willing to suck it up.

(My guess is that a video card will help the most, but I'm not 100% and also worried about the AGP bottleneck.)

Upgrading a video card vs. upgrading a CPU for gaming?

joshrholloway — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 21:06:31 -0800

I just got a relatively new PC secondhand. What should I upgrade first in order to most successfully play games? I just inherited a custom-built box that's got some really decent parts in it. Basically I'm wanting to play some of the more current games out there and try to do it as cheaply as possible. I don't necessarily need to run these games at the highest settings, but I'd like some eye candy along with a good clip.

Here are the current machine specs:

-Celeron D 3.06 GHz
-nVidia GeForce 7300 GS (PCIe)
-1GB DDR2 SDRAM
-Generic Intel motherboard (sorry, don't have the exact model right in front of me...)

So I'm looking around online and I found a pretty sweet deal on a GeForce 8600GT (256MB GDDR3), which from what I can tell is a pretty good card.

Then, of course, we're dealing with that Celeron processor. I'd like to get a Core 2 Duo in there, but it would cost me almost twice what the video card would to get the one I want.

I'm going to be able to upgrade both relatively quickly, but my question is this: which of those two components is going to be the best option to upgrade first in order to see the biggest performance boost for gaming? I'm thinking the video card, but some friends are convincing me that whatever video card I get above what I have is going to be severely bottlenecked by the Celeron.

Help me, AskMeFi!

(P.S. Suggestions on components and/or deals are also welcome.)

Why did CPUs stop getting faster about 5 years ago?

sergeant sandwich — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 16:35:08 -0800

Why are CPUs not getting faster any more? This plot is some data I scraped from a few sources around the web. I know it's not exhaustive, but I'm looking to pick out long-term and general trends. It's clear to me that processor clock speed has plateau'ed around roughly 4 GHz. Why? I am aware of Moore's law, and the megahertz myth, and things like bus speeds and cache sizes and instruction sets and that comparing clock speeds across processors isn't especially meaningful. I know that Intel stopped pumping up the clock cycles, I know about pipelining and predictive branching and multiple cores and which bottlenecks are where in a computer.. I understand that despite the CPU speed flattening, actual computing power has continued to increase.

However, surely if a chip designer can run the core at a faster clock, they would. Why can't they?

My understanding was that this was essentially an issue of thermal management: faster switching + fixed settle time = more current = more resistive heating.

However, someone else pointed out to me recently that this might be an issue with the RC time constant of the interconnects on the chip.

Ideally i'd like to find an article about this phenomenon from an EE/physics point of view, preferably from someone in the industry. Most preferable would be in a journal or IEEE publication; a trade magazine would be good too. An article in something like Wired would be okay, but I need to cite a source and the popular press is notoriously bad when it comes to this sort of thing.

However, my googlefu is really failing me here, so any explanation or pointer to search terms, or really anything of help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

I need a Magnetic and Photbeam Sensor!

kaozity — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 11:11:07 -0800

Can you show me a photo beam sensor or a magnetic sensor that is close to the size of my pinky? My partner and I are designing a cage that is meant to hold a helper monkey. The monkey too smart for a simple lock, so we need to build a system that will ensure that the door is locked when the monkey is in the cage. We decided to use both magnetic and photo beam sensors in specific places of the cage. We need a sensor that is small enough to fit is various spots of the cage. Since I do not know much about sensors, I am not terribly sure what specifics I am looking for. I do know that it needs to be programmable with the rabbit core microprocessor modules (http://www.rabbitsemiconductor.com/products/CoreModules/index.shtml) Any Ideas?

Will CS2 run on intel processor?

nicknd23 — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 06:36:44 -0800

will creative suite cs2 with system requirements of powerbook g4 or 5 processor run on my new macbook pro (which has an intel-based processor)?

Need MB, CPU, RAM.

|n$eCur3 — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 19:27:33 -0800

Best bang for $300 total: Motherboard, CPU and Memory. I don't care if it is AMD, INTEL... whatever. C2D looks like a stretch... so what is the next best option that stays within my budget?

dual-display & more RAM vs. new iMac?

blastrid — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 12:58:23 -0800

Which would be more beneficial for a Photoshop user: dual-display + more RAM, or a new iMac with a faster processor? At work, I am due for a computing upgrade. I use my current 17" iMac 1.83 GHz Core Duo w/1.5 GB RAM mostly for Photoshop, Illustrator, and Firefox.

Here are my upgrade options:
-Add a 20" cinema display, and upgrade RAM to 3GB total (<$1000)
-Get a new 24" iMac with a 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, and 2GB RAM (<$2000)

Price is a strong factor. Obviously, screen real estate is a huge bonus. In either option, CS3 and Leopard would be used.

My ultimate broader question is this: For graphical work, is it better to spend your money on more RAM or a faster processor?

How do I accept PayPal for a foreign country?

torpark — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 14:48:22 -0800

Are there any payment processors who will accept PayPal payments for my company? We have an offshore corporation in a jurisdiction that can only send paypal payments, but cannot receive them. Are there any payment processors who will accept paypal payment on our behalf?

Check out the list of Paypal countries here. We are in the bottom bracket list.

Hz attack

penciltopper — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 10:07:21 -0800

Where did half of my processor go? 1.5ghz is showing up as 599mhz. If I could figure out how to add an image, I would.
But My Computer>Properties reads as follows:

IBM Corporation
Intel Pentium M Processor 1.5ghz
599mhz, 504 MB of RAM

THose numbers are usually both 1.5ghz, and this makes sense as the computer has been slow/crashprone the last few days.

What's going on?

Overclocking my processor.

Aanidaani — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 10:30:43 -0800

Overlocking-filter: I am building a new computer (my first attempt) and I wanted advice on overclocking my processor. I'm installing an Intel Core 2 Duo E6420 and I've heard it's great for overclocking, even with the stock cooler. Can anyone give me tips or a guide to doing this? I'm building my first computer and my primary goal will be to get the machine working. After that, however, I'd like to overclock my processor, since I've heard it's easy and that the E6420 rseponds well. I am just using the factory fan and heatsink, but I heard I can still overclock it pretty well with these. Does anyone have any advice or a recommendation on a guide to use? Also, does anyone have an E6420 and have experience with its overclockability? Thanks!

Remotely determine processor socket type?

mysterious1der — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 21:55:29 -0800

Remotely determine processor socket type? So my parents live in Japan (I'm in the US) and their eMachine (groan) could really use a processor upgrade. It's currently a 2.8 ghz celeron (eMachine T3882 if anyone cares).

I need a utility I can run remotely to determine the socket type (775, 478, ???) of their current processor so I can buy a better (non-Celeron) one off Newegg. WinAudit leads me to believe that the motherboard chipset might be either an Intel 82801 or an 82865. Can't tell which since it gives me both numbers in different areas. (Don't worry, I'll be able to talk my dad through the CPU installation, I just can't use him to diagnose.)

Alternatively, do any techies living near Karuizawa/Nagano Japan wanna make an easy $50?

Quad-core - what is it good for?

tobtoh — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 16:43:19 -0800

I'm thinking of buying a quad-core PC and want to check that my understanding of what a quad-core PC could do for me is correct. In simple terms, my understanding of a quad-core PC is that it's effectively 4 CPUs on the one chip. Now I understand that quad-core does not equal to 4x performance because many/most applications are not (currently) designed to utilise multiple cores.

However, my main reason for thinking of getting a quad core is so I can do the following scenario: One core for 'normal' stuff like surfing the Net, using Office, playing World of Warcraft :). Another core to permanently run VMWare or other virtualisation software running Linux. The remaining two cores to be ripping a DVD to divx or perhaps using Adobe Premiere to encode a video etc.

In the above scenario is it (a) possible to allocate applications to specific cores? (b) would I be able to do what I described with no performance impact (eg the CPU intensive DVD rip won't slow down my VMware session or WoW since it's on a separate core?)

Thanks.

Weird error box while working in docs folder

moonbird — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 22:56:22 -0800

Here's a weird error that I only get when I'm in My Documents or Windows Explorer (so it seems)... I'm stumped. Is it my processor getting screwey? It keeps popping up once I start working in the folder, but nowhere elso on my system. (I did google this and only came up with one site in Russion and one in Spanish). And I am reminded of the IT Crowd: "Have you tried turning it off and turning it back on again." Didn't solve it.

Thanks in advance as always.