So do I have the crappiest rig here?

[cplusplus]

Up until a month ago, I was running and Athlon XP 1800, 1GB RAM, and a Radeon 7000 because my main system broke down a little over a year ago. And my main system then was only an Athlon XP 2500 with the same 1GB RAM and a Radon 9800 AIW.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

What? You're telling me something I've witnessed and experienced personally was wrong? No, the fact is, my computer DOES load webpages faster than my friend's Q6600 Core 2 Quad. The main reasons are that I have a faster internet connection for one, and also that my computer is heavily optimized and running a custom Chrome browser setup. His computer is not optimized at all, has tons of junk on it, etc.

Also, A Q6600 is not "a new computer". That processor is already a few years old.

I never even compared my computer to a new one so I don't know why you tried to.

he may have a virus on his machine but its an absolute fact that no p4 is going to web browse as well as a core 2. you dont know what youre talking about

 

[TurtleCrusher]

Having owned four P4, 3 K8 and 3 Core2 systems, I can tell you that the P4 doesnt even hold a candle to a Core2 system. Even underclocked (and volted) at 1.4ghz, my Q8200 loads pages noticably faster than the P4 3.2ghzHT that is in my server. Not to mention the P4 runs on a stripped down Fedora 13.
Although you mention the Q6600 is old, it STILL outclasses many quads from AMD at stock speeds. The Q6600 is aging the best out of just about any processor to my knowledge.

 

[crucibelle]

he may have a virus on his machine but its an absolute fact that no p4 is going to web browse as well as a core 2. you dont know what youre talking about

Even if he has a faster internet connection? Just curious.

 

[InflatableBuddha]

he may have a virus on his machine but its an absolute fact that no p4 is going to web browse as well as a core 2. you dont know what youre talking about

Guys, read his specs again (posted earlier)

Current main rig:

1.86 Ghz Pentium M Dothan
1GB DDR2 RAM (128MB shared video memory)
Intel 910 integrated graphics
5400 RPM hard drive
Windows XP SP3

IIRC, the Pentium M architecture is pretty similar to the Core 2 (a direct ancestor). P4 is radically different, and crappier. If he has a much faster internet connection, (which is the main determinant for loading web pages), it's totally conceivable he could load web pages faster.

 

[judasmachine]

My g/f is banging away on her Athlon XP 2600+. It's a beast that keeps on going. She uses it less and less these days, and seems to prefer the netbook, but it still kicks. That Asus mobo won't die.

 

[bigpimpatl]

My dad uses a compaq PIII 700 mhz computer. I've upgraded RAM to 512 and added a NIC (yea it didn't come with one originally) and put a very lean copy of XP that only takes like 15mb of system resources. It is absolutely perfect for basic web browsing and music. Flash is tolerable, though many times it looks more like a slideshow than a real video.

 

[justinm]

I'm still got my old e-machines 800MHz Celeron/128MB RAM/30GB system laying around. I got it as payment for fixing a friends laptop and he did not want his desktop anymore. Running Windows 98 SE still, lol. Since he was a friend I agreed (I wasn't planning on charging him anything...). I still have my Pentium 4 3GHz northwood/1GB/Intel 865PERL system running for the hell of it.

 

[Dark_Archonis]

he may have a virus on his machine but its an absolute fact that no p4 is going to web browse as well as a core 2. you dont know what youre talking about

What? I never compared the P4 to the C2D. I only responded to another post regarding the P4.

Your reading comprehension is off.

Again, please read what I said. I said MY computer loads webpages faster than my friend's E6600. I was not comparing the average 1.86GHz Dothan to an E6600, but specifically MY computer with my FRIEND's computer.

He may have a virus, or *as I mentioned*, my computer may simply be more optimized, which it is as his computer is not optimized at all.

I was not talking about equally optimized computers or the average Pentium M system vs the average E6600 system. Lets be clear on that.

You still don't know what you're talking about.

You have no idea how optimized my system is and you have no idea how messy and bloated his system is. With enough system messiness and software bloat even a Core 2 Quad can be brought down to real-world performance of a Pentium M or worse, which is exactly the case here. His system has too much software bloat and no optimizing done.

That's also not even talking about the fact that I have a faster internet connection.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

What? I never compared the P4 to the C2D. I only responded to another post regarding the P4.

Your reading comprehension is off.

Again, please read what I said. I said MY computer loads webpages faster than my friend's E6600. I was not comparing the average 1.86GHz Dothan to an E6600, but specifically MY computer with my FRIEND's computer.

He may have a virus, or *as I mentioned*, my computer may simply be more optimized, which it is as his computer is not optimized at all.

I was not talking about equally optimized computers or the average Pentium M system vs the average E6600 system. Lets be clear on that.

You still don't know what you're talking about.

You have no idea how optimized my system is and you have no idea how messy and bloated his system is. With enough system messiness and software bloat even a Core 2 Quad can be brought down to real-world performance of a Pentium M or worse, which is exactly the case here. His system has too much software bloat and no optimizing done.

That's also not even talking about the fact that I have a faster internet connection.

i think youre trying to say that if you hitched a trailer full of bricks to a ferrari a bus could outrun it. real intelligent...

That not what he said, and your comment is a personal insult. Knock it off, or you will have some time to think about it.
Markfw900
Anandtech Moderator.

 

[MrX8503]

My main machine is an AMD X2 3800+. I still remember the days when those chips ran for $300.

 

[jrocks84]

What? I never compared the P4 to the C2D. I only responded to another post regarding the P4.

Your reading comprehension is off.

Again, please read what I said. I said MY computer loads webpages faster than my friend's E6600. I was not comparing the average 1.86GHz Dothan to an E6600, but specifically MY computer with my FRIEND's computer.

He may have a virus, or *as I mentioned*, my computer may simply be more optimized, which it is as his computer is not optimized at all.

I was not talking about equally optimized computers or the average Pentium M system vs the average E6600 system. Lets be clear on that.

You still don't know what you're talking about.

You have no idea how optimized my system is and you have no idea how messy and bloated his system is. With enough system messiness and software bloat even a Core 2 Quad can be brought down to real-world performance of a Pentium M or worse, which is exactly the case here. His system has too much software bloat and no optimizing done.

That's also not even talking about the fact that I have a faster internet connection.

What optimizations have you done? I'm curious to know.

 

[Ruger22C]

I finally trashed my 486sx.. does that count?

 

[Dark_Archonis]

What optimizations have you done? I'm curious to know.

Just to name a few of the optimizations:

- turned off some of the graphical and animation features of XP SP3 GUI
- caches and temporary files/folders are cleaned often
- disabled system and program processes that I don't need or use
- keep at least 20% of free hard drive space
- TCP/IP settings are optimized for my connection speed
- desktop is free of clutter or unused icons
- defragmenting is done often
- windows features I don't need such as disk indexing are disabled

I finally trashed my 486sx.. does that count?

Was that computer actually in use up until recently? Talk about old school.

 

[universeis42]

Having owned four P4, 3 K8 and 3 Core2 systems, I can tell you that the P4 doesnt even hold a candle to a Core2 system. Even underclocked (and volted) at 1.4ghz, my Q8200 loads pages noticably faster than the P4 3.2ghzHT that is in my server. Not to mention the P4 runs on a stripped down Fedora 13.
Although you mention the Q6600 is old, it STILL outclasses many quads from AMD at stock speeds. The Q6600 is aging the best out of just about any processor to my knowledge.

AMD's bottom quad core is closer than you think;
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/53?vs=106

Besides, it's retailing for only $83 at the egg.
Not sure how much the Q6600 was at its lowest price though.

 

[Arg Clin]

Still on an AthlonXP 3200+ w 2Gb ram as my main rig.

Not the crappiest I suppose, but plenty slow enough for just about everything. Heck this rig still has a floppy drive!

 

[Ruger22C]

Was that computer actually in use up until recently? Talk about old school.

Yes, once in a while.
I "upgraded" to a 100mhz pc. Don't have to fight with scsi(?) now, and the mouse works without drivers!!!!!!

 

[Ruger22C]

Still on an AthlonXP 3200+ w 2Gb ram as my main rig.

Not the crappiest I suppose, but plenty slow enough for just about everything. Heck this rig still has a floppy drive!

I had a floppy.. until I went ASRock.. literally, no where to plug in a floppy cable. I can't install my XP raid drivers now, unless I want to go learn how to make an install cd with them already on it......

 

[Zawmbeez]

Intel Pentium 4 @ 2.80GHz
1GB of Ram
Radeon 9200

It's over five years old.

Building a new one quite soon. Quadrupling the CPU and the Memory. The graphic card isn't even comparable.

 

[ShreddedWheat]

Use my laptop mainly for surfing and most use (main rig e5200 oced at 3.4 w/5850 for gaming) which has the following specs..

Celeron M 1.6 (waiting for Pentium M @ 2.0 or higher cheap on ebay)
2 gig DDR2
80 gig hd
x700 128 meg dedicated video card which in 2005 was pretty rockin
WinXP

Will keep this as take around house main computer for a long time hehe

 

[slayer9019]

Up until June I was using 2 P4's with a gig each on integrated graphics. I freaked out one day and now I have 2 i7 rigs....I was just wasting time recompiling my kernel just to get a bit more breathing room on that thing. (although I still have a celeron that I use as a torrent box)

 

[thescreensavers]

I got a PIII laptop which is slow but it plays youtube vids and once the application is launched it works fine.

 

[nyker96]

I got a atom based netbook recently acquired, it's pretty slow might be slower than yours.

 

[dac7nco]

I took her out of mothballs just for this... Amiga 4000 (68040@25MHz)

OOH RAH

 

[Arg Clin]

I had a floppy.. until I went ASRock.. literally, no where to plug in a floppy cable. I can't install my XP raid drivers now, unless I want to go learn how to make an install cd with them already on it......

Come to think of it - the floppy drive must be the oldest component in my rig. If I'm not mistaken, it originates from my 486DX4-100 from somewhere in the early 90'es

Can't think of when I last used it, as I do not own a single floppy disk. So I have no clue if it still works, apart from it making the familiar boot up sound.