This is probably a stupid question...... Core Duo Vs. Sempron

Ok, I'm just about to bite the bullet and buy a Toshiba Sattelite with a Core Duo T2050 Processor, 1.6Ghz. What I'm wondering, is this:
My mom has a Compaq laptop with a 1.8Ghz Sempron processor, and that seems to be pretty good speed-wise...... but would the T2050 1.6Ghz Core Duo be faster than the 1.8Ghz Sempron that my mom has?

I know this is probably stupid, but I can't seem to ever find speed comparisons like this.

Thanks....

 

Of course Core Duo, the Sempron is somewhat like the Celeron but alittle bit better then the Celeron.

JC

 

Core Duo is so much faster and newer...

Sempron/Celeron are old budget crippled CPUs which are not worth buying nowadays...

 

Depends on what you are doing. I doubt you are going to notice a difference doing regular stuff between the Sempron and the Core Duo. The Sempron is actually a reasonably powerful CPU.

Most people vastly overestimate the processing power they need.

 

they are worth buying if you don't need all the processing power, but they also need to be priced much lower than Core/Core2/TurionX2 systems. only then it is a good buy

 

If it were me I would go with the core duo but when buying in terms of speed one has to take into consideration how much speed do you actually need. If you are just going to be using word,surfing the web, and video watching then the sempron will probably do the job. If you are planning to do at least moderate gaming then I would suggest the core duo. Though you will probably be able to do some gaming on the sempron, the core duo will give you a much better variety of games that you will be able to play. Don't forget that for games dedicated graphics is 9.9times out of ten, a must. If you are just getting this computer for basic use and the sempron is going to save you a considerable amount of money then go with the sempron. If the price differnece is not very great go with the more powerful core duo.

hope this helps in some way

ucb9999

 

Whenever I say that "Sempron/Celeron are old budget crippled CPUs which are not worth buying nowadays" so many people appear from nothing and start talking about "Sempron/Celeron - my best friend forever"...

That's really nice BUT

All people do!

Does that mean that you would buy a TRASH like Sempron when you can buy Core Duo at the same price just because you don't need such a power...? (if there was a significant difference in the prices I would agree but there isn't)

Yes it is. Pentuim I,II,III were too.... and I'm sure that they are still good for regular stuff.

As regads, the processing power that we need

Fortunately the prices of the notebooks with modern CPUs are not so diffrent from the prices of the notebooks with old CPUs. Hence we DO NOT need to think about that and also more powerful CPU can only be advantage (unfortunately the case with the GPUs is just the opposite).

So, Guys don't encourage the peope to buy such things... because it's not good deal!

 

They are not trash. The Sempron and Celeron are *budget* CPUs that do not have the same amount/as advanced of features as the higher-end CPUs. However, they are based on the *same* CPUs. The latest breed of Celeron M's (4xx) are based on the Yonah core and are quite fast; faster than the previous-gen Pentium Ms at the same or similar clockspeeds.

Now let's be reasonable. I define "Powerful enough" as "having enough processing power available so you have a smooth and slow-down free computing experience." Will a Sempron/Celeron give that to you if all you do is surf the .net and type papers, listen to music, etc? Absolutely. I've used all the high end stuff, from the Athlon 64 FX-60 to the Core 2 Duo T7600. Going back to my (in comparison) weak Pentium M 750 after using those for several weeks was hardly a noticable drop. No difference 99% of the time. Why? Because I don't do stuff that demands a fast processor like that. There are not many people that do.

I didn't factor price into what I said. Now of course, if the Sempron laptop is close in price to the Core Duo laptop, it's obviously the better deal to get the latter . .

 

I never said it was, its just some people want a cheap computer no matter what is at stake. As I said earlier, If it were me, I would get the Core Duo. I believe it is always best to get the best that you can afford. Unfortunatly sometimes bad CPUs is what is affordable.

ucb9999

 

Thought I would point this out, but they are getting the Core Duo anyway, so we're not trying to get them to buy a Sempron; merely showing that there's not a big difference, if any, for everyday apps.

 

Yes Chaz, I do agree with what you said...

However, we were not talking about Sempron at all if it was not the price so important.

The idea of a budget CPU is to be cheap but today it's not as cheap as it should be...

the only advantage of the budget CPU is the price but when the price is no more advantage so it turns into some kind of trash (with so many cons)....

 

ditto that

ucb9999

 

yes, but as long as bestbuy and other similar sales people give their pursuasive speaches to unknowing buyers the prices will stay where they are because people are willing to buy them at that price. If people stopped buying then it would put a hurt on that part of the market and in turn persuade the retailers to lower their prices. Until the A buget computer will not exacly be a cheap computer.

ucb9999

 

It's worth going for a better processor if you want your laptop to be furture proof and run programs written in a couple of years time.

But if all you do is run basic programs, you may as well go with the Sempron. The difference is speed between a Core Duo and a Sempron really only becomes apparent when you run intensive programs.

 

I find that 9/10 it is always better to future proof instead of buying for the hear and now.

ucb9999

 

This is probably a stupid question...... but are you guys actually discussing which 32-bit-only CPU is more "future proof"? You might want to clarify what you mean by "future", exactly.

 

That is what I don't believe especially when customers are trained by CPU sales guys. Future proof means today's buy works for tomorrow. But who knows tomorrow? Intel tends to build tomorrow on different socket than Core 2 Duo, so is Core Duo future proof? AMD may release next generation with on die GPU, would today's TL-60 be future proof? On the other hand, Microsoft will almost always dis-proof your hardware future. I still remember Mr. Gates' statement "640K memory is more than enough for evreything". Now Vista will just eat every byte. CPU is not the only component.

Talk about Sempron, 64 bit S1 semprons are available now. I would only say Sempron will be used wider than Core Duo, because you can run pure 64 bit OS and APP on it. Matlab just release its 64bit version 2006a. But how fast it will outperform? and how much benefit will user gain? Not much for daily usage. But there is obvious gain if you are mostly doing science computation.

For entertainment, dual core is more important than wider bit range. Larger cache beat smaller in most cases. Bigger RAM reduce most I/O delay. If you ran Aero Vista, 2GB ram will be your standard configuration. But you always have 3D desktop alternative in Linux which only occupy <300 MB.

 

Sorry, my post was too broad it seems. Now that i think about it it probably doesn't exactly pertane to the subject. When I said future proofing, I was refering to C2D(and other 64bit CPUs), and the fact that it is 64bit means it will run Vista with all its features. I hope you were not refering to me being the one that was trained by CPU sales guys. If you were,I apologise for giving you that impression. We will never be able to 100% buy something that is future proof. We can however buy thing that will be good for at least 2 years(in most cases) into the future. I will admit I don't know everthing about computers so please correct me If I said anything wrong. And yes, the CPU is not the only component to worry about. Practically every component in the computer can cause it to become outdated.

ucb9999

 

Well, in that sense. Sempron is much "future profing" than CD if you really want a 64bit Vista. If you have just regular office usage, light media(even produce 1 DVD every other day), Sempron give you fast enough speed.

The only exception is you don't scan virous while you producing your DVD all the time. You don't, do you?

Core Duo gives you one spare core but you stay 32bit. Sempron save you more money. But if you don't care 64bit, then the only weight is the cost.

 

No, I usually scan the files before putting them on the DVD and I deepscan my computer once a week. I personally don't plan to go 64bit until there is a wider range of applications/software, or I find a feature that is only on 64bit and I just have to have it. So far niether has happened.

ucb9999