Numbers

[busby1971]

Last time I bought a home PC the speed of the CPU was easy to work out, anyway my good old P4 2.4 is starting to get a bit staid and slow.

Now the machine is well due a replacement, it is mainly used for Video converting and streaming around the home so I am looking for a speedy processor with some graphic capabilities.

So what do the numbers mean on a processor these days, is there a number I should be looking at to compare and how is the intel/AMD battle going these days.

Cheers

 

[propersplitbrainme]

I feel your pain!

What appears to be happening now is that CPU speeds have stopped climbing as rapidly as they once did, and the big two are going for multi-core processors. The choice is quite mind-boggling however, with Intel and AMD both sneaking a lead on the other only for it to change again shortly after.
The advice you'll get will be much and varied; don't bother with quad core as nothing takes advantage of it, get AMD not Intel etc etc etc.

After puzzling over the same conundrum you've got I opted for an Intel Core 2 duo 3.3 Ghz.

 

[Shugster]

I'm no expert but from what I can gather not that many programs can make use of a quadcore processor.

Just make sure you match the motherboard, CPU, RAM etc together. ie. It's no good having the dogs CPU if the motherboard can't load / unload the data fast enough.

 

[Bodseh]

- Note: Make sure your Mobo supports the lastest generations of processors.

Also note that alot of software packages only use single thread applications, meaning they would only benefit from using 2 cores, so save yourself some money and invest abit of time looking into the 'applications' your going to be using to stream / convert and make sure they support quad core before buying a very expensive processor..

 

[Stevienics]

I have nothing but trouble from AMD processors. I never go near them any more as they are just too unstable performance wise.