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Intel
Celeron, Pentium 4 or Dual Core, which should you buy ????
We
often wondered the same thing, so first we did an upgrade from a recently
built Celeron 1.8GHz System to a Pentium 4 1.8GHz. Then we later rebuilt the PC with a new m/b and Dual Core CPU.
Tests
we carried out, were based on the semi-professional average user, ie startup time, bit of spreadsheet work, system backup etc.
| Test
Details comparing Celeron with P4 |
P4
Percentage faster than Celeron |
| MS Access Report,
with some Excel VB |
30% |
| MS Access Table
view in form of 30,000 records |
20% |
| System backup
using Winzip Command line interface |
10% |
| Macro in Excel to
analyse 6,500,000 cells |
15% |
| Startup from power
off to fully loaded ready to work |
6% |
| Test
Details comparing P4 wtih Dual Core |
Dual Core
Percentage faster than P4 |
| Open Word 2007, includes additional Menus program. (2.49s) |
56% (1.1s) |
| Open Outlook 2007, includes Menus program. (3.2s) |
60% (1.3s) |
| Copy large 800Mb file. (35s) |
12% (31s) |
| Macro in Excel to loop 300,000 events. (30s) |
64% (11s) |
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Useful Links
Microsoft
Intel
Ctas
Via
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Summary
If you are considering Celeron or P4, With an average performance increase of only 16%, you would be best to consider a Celeron, as they sell for about (NZ)$140 and
the P4 costs around (NZ)$320. However, the Dual Core has considerable improvement in speed over the P4 (Average 48%). Note that the Dual Core is running on a faster motherboard and with faster RAM. The reason for this is that this equipment must be compatible. You cannot plug a Dual Core CPU into the same type of motherboard as you would use a P4 in.
Another interesting point is that the Dual Core today, costs about the same as the P4 was 2 years ago, so we would say it is definitely value for money, compared with the Celeron / P4 comparison.
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