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Which cpu for my parents?

H

Hellotalkie

Golden Member
I can't build a pc for my parents because I wont be here the whole year. Well i was looking at circuitcity and I saw amd x2 and the Pentium D in about the same price range. They all had the same specs except the cpu's. So which one. Right now they have a amd athlon xp 2600+ and they think its becoming slow as hell. They usualy just do web searching and office apps. They also use apps like dvdshrink and nero. They don't game at all. I havent really kept up witht the technology changes since i bought my amd 64 3200+ but i have been trying to search and nothing has yet to come up.
 
Originally posted by: cr2250
Right now they have a amd athlon xp 2600+ and they think its becoming slow as hell. They usualy just do web searching and office apps. They also use apps like dvdshrink and nero. They don't game at all.
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I'd just reinstall XP. 😀

 
For the expected workload, probably not much difference between the two. Decide on company name and warranty?
 
Well there both the same company (hp) and I am guessing they should have the same warranty. I know 900 is a scam but I cant really build one for them. I had a pentium but it got really hot. Amds are really good with cooling. Iam still deciding. More opinions would be great.
 
The XP2600+ is fine for the tasks they require. The slowdown problem is not attributed to hardware, itll be spyware etc. The exact same will happen with a more modern dual core cpu, if not protected properly. Re-install XP, get them windows defender and antivir, have them auto-update themselves it that XP2600 will feel brand new for a long time.
 
I would go out and get a eMachine at Costco with LCD for $619.
Nothing complicated and workable for the mature individual.
If they don't like it, they can always go back and exchange it for an HP.
 
No spyware, I know that since I did remote desktop and it was fine. I think it needs a ram upgrade. Right now it has 256 or 512. I remember xp doesnt run to well with 256ram.
 
Up the RAM, i'm using a barton 2500 now, for DVD shrink at highest quality you're looking at a 4 hour rip and burn process which is a pain in the arse. However it's more than quick enough to websurf and do other random stuff.

zsderw- It's a lame fanboy remark based in truth, even my low powered machine heats my room up notably, with the gaming machine on it's a choice between showering after gaming or going topless and having the fan on full blast (and showering anyway in all likelyhood). I shudder to think how hot it would get with a P4 system rather than my X2.
 
Well, in case you still care about the answer to your question:

The 4200+ will run circles over an 820, no question about it. You'd need a 940 to come close to matching the X2 in performance and you'd still be behind in power draw and heat.
 
Originally posted by: Bobthelost
Up the RAM, i'm using a barton 2500 now, for DVD shrink at highest quality you're looking at a 4 hour rip and burn process which is a pain in the arse. However it's more than quick enough to websurf and do other random stuff.

zsderw- It's a lame fanboy remark based in truth, even my low powered machine heats my room up notably, with the gaming machine on it's a choice between showering after gaming or going topless and having the fan on full blast (and showering anyway in all likelyhood). I shudder to think how hot it would get with a P4 system rather than my X2.
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QFT. I've ran my prescott celeron working hard all night once and woke up sweating in the morning. For the record, I don't wake up sweating normally, and I didn't change the thermostat setting just so I could say I woke up sweating that day.😀
 
zsderw- It's a lame fanboy remark based in truth, even my low powered machine heats my room up notably, with the gaming machine on it's a choice between showering after gaming or going topless and having the fan on full blast (and showering anyway in all likelyhood). I shudder to think how hot it would get with a P4 system rather than my X2.
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Oh that is such a load of BS, and not just because of your exaggerations. We have labs of prescott P4's and celerons at work... and the monitors (15 and 17" CRTs) give off a lot more heat than the computers do.

QFT. I've ran my prescott celeron working hard all night once and woke up sweating in the morning. For the record, I don't wake up sweating normally, and I didn't change the thermostat setting just so I could say I woke up sweating that day
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Another load of BS.
 
Originally posted by: zsdersw
zsderw- It's a lame fanboy remark based in truth, even my low powered machine heats my room up notably, with the gaming machine on it's a choice between showering after gaming or going topless and having the fan on full blast (and showering anyway in all likelyhood). I shudder to think how hot it would get with a P4 system rather than my X2.
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Oh that is such a load of BS, and not just because of your exaggerations. We have labs of prescott P4's and celerons at work... and the monitors (15 and 17" CRTs) give off a lot more heat than the computers do.

Another load of BS.
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Who's exagerating? I'm cursed with a heavy build (and a couple of pounds i could afford to lose) and a tendancy to sweat. The temperature rises notably when the computer is on. You open my door and get a blast of cool air from the rest of the house.

Now, my room is aproximatly 4m x 4m x 3m, that works out at 48m^3. The SHC of air is roughly 1 and the mass of air is very roughly 1kg/m^3. That means to raise the temperature in the room by 1*C you need to put in an additional 48000 Joules of energy.

As you know watts are joules per second, so a computer idling that draws 75W will take 640 seconds to generate enough heat to raise the temperature by a single degree. 10 minutes (edit, ok closer to 11).

Of course that heat is being moved elsewhere by convection currents in the air, but unless you have good aircon it'll warm up the local area quite a bit.
 
If your situation is such that you're personally affected by having computers on, maybe you should change your situation. The fact remains that while Prescotts run a little warmer, it's not a difference that's noticeable under a wide variety of situations and circumstances.

And the exaggeration is about having to have a fan on full blast. Even if it were true, that's hardly the computer's fault.
 
Well of course there exaggerating. Most pentium proccessors are known to get hot and overheat. I had a 2.6 and would have to worry about heat problems most of the time. You just need good cooling. Amd usually run cooler than pentiums. Now my mom wants a small pc, like a shuttle or xps200. I think they just want something faster and up to date with all the technology. Now the choices are pentium D 920 or x2 4200+
 
Originally posted by: CyborgNinja117
petium 920 would be better... if they want to upgrade, but reformatting would be better.
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No clue here....must have never read any of the reviews either....4200+ X2 would be better...
 
Most pentium proccessors are known to get hot and overheat. I had a 2.6 and would have to worry about heat problems most of the time.
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That's misleading at best, completely false at worst. What does "Most Pentium processors" mean? If you had to worry about heat problems most of the time with a P4 2.6 (in other words, a northwood P4) you weren't doing something right.
 
Some of you are definitely newish to processors and the talk about them, until A64/Prescott, Intel owned the CPU temp/heat game.

I am getting my 920D soon, so I'll be able to report, although I am not expecting it to be much worse than my OC'd northwood or my non-C&Q 3700+.

Nat
 
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