How long is Core 2 Duo going to be relevant?

Smartazz

Diamond Member
Dec 29, 2005
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Hi all, I really want an excuse to upgrade my laptop which has a T9300 Core 2 Duo 2.5GHz but it's very difficult justifying. Anyone else having trouble justifying an upgrade such an old chip? I have an SSD in the laptop and it's still pretty fast for what I need it for which is basically just web surfing and office work.
 
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philipma1957

Golden Member
Jan 8, 2012
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well a bigger ssd at a low cost can't hurt. other then that you don't have much to do to it worthwhile.

A better cpu a 3.06 c2d or a better gpu if you can but only if the parts are close to free.
 

pc999

Member
Jul 21, 2011
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Slower CPUs than that are probably still quite fast for anything but "higher end" gaming or content/multimedia production.

The thing that PCs are most used for have had all the power they need for a few years already IMO.

BTW if you want to get faster and do mostly websurfing office you should consider getting linux (Ubuntu or Linux Mint are really good, but some other built for speed, like X/Lubuntu or Mint XFCE/LXDC, will fly even on a netbook).
 

Cerb

Elite Member
Aug 26, 2000
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You could put >4GB in most newer laptops, whereas most C2D ones tended to be limited to 4GB. If you have a 8GB max DDR3 C2D, and an SSD, you're stuck for awhile, as far as good excuses go :).
 

Centauri

Golden Member
Dec 10, 2002
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I couldn't be happier with my DDR3/SSD'd 2GHz C2D notebook. Shocked at how well it holds up to modern everyday usage. Never owned a primary comp of any kind for 4 years, let alone a laptop. May bump it to the max 8GB soon, just for the heck of it - the stuff is cheap.
 

Smartazz

Diamond Member
Dec 29, 2005
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My only complaint is that the battery barely lasts 3 hours with a new 9 cell battery. It also runs quite hot. Other than that this Dell Studio has really held up well. I'm wondering how long I can hold onto it.
 

Cerb

Elite Member
Aug 26, 2000
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My only complaint is that the battery barely lasts 3 hours with a new 9 cell battery. It also runs quite hot. Other than that this Dell Studio has really held up well. I'm wondering how long I can hold onto it.
3 hours? That's um...awesome? New ones could get a little more, but...

If it's a Studio 1500 or similar, you'll probably be able to make use of it for another few years. Those things were made very much like their business notebooks.
 

T_Yamamoto

Lifer
Jul 6, 2011
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My only complaint is that the battery barely lasts 3 hours with a new 9 cell battery. It also runs quite hot. Other than that this Dell Studio has really held up well. I'm wondering how long I can hold onto it.

3 hours is quite a while.
 

nforce4max

Member
Oct 5, 2012
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Core 2 era laptops are already dead as for current gaming is concerned while the desktop platform is really long in the tooth. Core 2 is painful even as a quad but for general and basic use it will hold on for another few years. As for keeping ancient stuff going I got an old DX33 486 dos rig next to me, imagine only 8mb of 70ns ram.
 

Smartazz

Diamond Member
Dec 29, 2005
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A Core 2 Quad is painful?

He meant for gaming. For everyday tasks I've found that Core 2 is still more than enough. Before I got a Phenom II X3 at work I had an Athlon X2 and that was a little too slow for office work.
 

jumpncrash

Senior member
Feb 11, 2010
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I no longer use my e8400 for gaming but ti runs fine as my home server.

One of my friends however is still running an e2180 as his main PC, I can imagine that is getting kinda slow.
 

Smartazz

Diamond Member
Dec 29, 2005
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I often run my laptop at 1.2GHz to save power and it still doesn't feel that slow most of the time. I guess SSDs help that much?
 

WhoBeDaPlaya

Diamond Member
Sep 15, 2000
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Honestly, my Alienware m11x R1 (C2D ULV @ 1.7GHz, GT335M) is more than sufficient for most tasks and quite a bit of gaming. Pretty portable and has good battery life to boot (~5-6 hours).
 

Avalon

Diamond Member
Jul 16, 2001
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If you've got an SSD in there already that's pretty much all you'll need for your use case. My wife has a similar system with a slightly slower Core2 and an SSD and it does what she needs it to do. I imagine we won't need to change it out for a couple years.
 

inf64

Diamond Member
Mar 11, 2011
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Wait, C2Q is bad at games all of a sudden?? What constitutes "bad" exactly in your humble opinions ?
 

blastingcap

Diamond Member
Sep 16, 2010
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Not really. Some people run DOTA2 on C2D and 9800 GTs and can rape your face.

Nice, uh, word choice?

A fast CPU and SSD (to stave off low minimums) is more critical for playing FPS's imho. A slow CPU will not hurt you as much if you play at low graphics settings or if you play turn-based games.
 

WhoBeDaPlaya

Diamond Member
Sep 15, 2000
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Not really. Some people run DOTA2 on C2D and 9800 GTs and can rape your face.
alien.jpg
 

OBLAMA2009

Diamond Member
Apr 17, 2008
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i still use a bunch of c2d's that i use everyday. i could get newer stuff, but why? c2d is still good for most things