CPU question (don't worry, very specific)

cbb2

New Member
Ok, I've finally committed myself to buying a desktop, and I found a good deal at tigerdirect. <a href="http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1356847&CatId=0">here it is</a>

Anyway, you don't have to bother with the link, I'll just ask my question now. It comes with a 3.2 GHz Pentium 4 with Hyperthreading. With a $100 upgrade mentioned on the page (one that takes the 80 GB HDD to a 200 GB and 512 MB RAM to 1 GB RAM), but you get a 2.6 Pentium 4 Dual Core.

So basically, considering the other facets of the upgrade, which is the better decision? Is a 3.2 with Hyperthreading better than a 2.6 Dual Core? I don't know if the architecture of a CPU can affect performance so much as to make up the difference between 2.6 and 3.2, but I would greatly appreciate some insight into this.
 
This is a hard decision. The 3.2Ghz P4 will be better at some tasks, where the 2.66Ghz PD will be better at multi-tasking and multi-threaded programs. So if you do alot of multi-tasking, I would go with the 2.66.
 
Thanks guys, (don't be offended if you're a woman, I use "guys" collectively to mean everybody). I'll probably get the 2.6, since it has the 200GB HDD, and a gig of RAM. I probably wouldn't be able to upgrade to that for cheaper than a hundred bucks anyway, but then again. . . . .I found a 320 GB HDD for just over a hundred, and although that's more than I'll ever probably need, (unless I go into pirating overdrive, which is a possiblity) it's a great deal, and I could get the cheaper one with the 3.2 and get that hard drive to put in it, worrying about the RAM later. How's that sound? (Keeping in mind that my original goal was to not spend over $500, lol.
 
cbb2 said:
Thanks guys, (don't be offended if you're a woman, I use "guys" collectively to mean everybody).
I think everyone does that here, seeing how there are only about 9 female members on this entire forum
 
[-0MEGA-] said:
I think everyone does that here, seeing how there are only about 9 female members on this entire forum
LOL
so anyways, it depends on what you're doing... but if you know how to overclock then definitely get the dual core at 2.66ghz. (2.66 right? not 2.6?)
if you plan on just doing some games and such then the 3.2ghz would do you good, if you think you won't use a whole 80gb... you could just buy 512mb of memory and add it for like $40 tops.
 
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