Hatrack River Forum: CPU question

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Posted by RivalOfTheRose (Member # 11535) on :

How does a Pentium 4 2.83mhz fit into these other processors, performance-wise?

Dual-Core Intel® Celeron® E1500 2.20GHz 800FSB 512KB Cache
Dual-Core Intel® Pentium® E5200 2.50GHz 800FSB 2MB L2 Cache[ 20.00 ]
Dual-Core Intel® Pentium® E5300 2.60GHz 800FSB 2MB L2 Cache[ 30.00 ]
Dual-Core Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E7500 2.93GHz 1066FSB 3MB L2 Cache (VT)[ 90.00 ]
Dual-Core Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E8400 3.00GHz 1333FSB 6MB L2 Cache (VT)[ 140.00 ]
Dual-Core Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E8500 3.16GHz 1333FSB 6MB L2 Cache (VT)[ 170.00 ]
Dual-Core Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E8600 3.33GHz 1333FSB 6MB L2 Cache (VT)[ 270.00 ]

Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :

It actually depends on the application you're running.

All of the chips listed above do some things faster than that P4. But on single-threaded applications, the P4 might do better than a couple of the slower ones.

Frankly, though, if you're looking to upgrade, I think the sweet spot there is with the E8500.

I'm assuming, from the format, that you're looking at a Dell?

Posted by RivalOfTheRose (Member # 11535) on :

Actually, the main thing I want to do is record music using Sonar 7 Producers Edition software. I am not sure if is a single-threaded application or not.

The way the computer works is to take audio data and convert it to computer data, and then be able to work with it and simultaneously write it to hard drives. I am not sure if that helps?

Thank you though... so they are all at least comparable? The reason I ask is because I have the Pentium 4 already, but my comp crashed and looking to replace in theory, but possibly upgrade here and there.

Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :

They're comparable, in the same way a Yugo, a Ferrari, a Civic, and a Vespa are comparable (although perhaps not that extremely). [Smile]

I will say that the speed difference between the E8500 and the E7500, assuming the system comes equipped with memory capable of taking advantage of the FSB difference, is worth the $80 upgrade. The E1500 would constitute a perceptible downgrade, most likely.

Posted by Mucus (Member # 9735) on :

If you're trying to get a raw speed comparison between the various CPUs, you can also take a gander at the performance charts here
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/charts/processors,6.html

I'm not sure which application best matches your music recording software though.

Posted by fugu13 (Member # 2859) on :

The doubled L2 Cache on the 8500 vs the 7500 would greatly increase the speed of many applications, also.

Of course, really the question is, are these fast enough? My advice would be to find a person or two with the software you're interested in and ask to watch them work with it/work with it yourself for a little bit, and try the sort of scenario you mention. Find out what processor (and perhaps other details; in particular, hard drive speed) are involved, and then you can know for sure that if you have a comparable or better system, it will be good enough for you.