Shoutbox

I'm wondering how much faster is the top of the line Intel CPU with the best current MOBO as compared to my config: I'm running an Intel P4 3.06Ghz Northwood HT CPU with 512kb cache in an Intel 850 PCI Chipset mobo  with 2Gb 800MHz RDRAM. Also, how many generations behind is my system compared to the latest?

You have a good system by the looks of it.

I'm not an expert or anything.. The latest CPU's are dual-core and quad-core.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-core_(computing)

I just bought a system which has 2GB RAM, however it is "Corsair® 2GB DDR2 XMS2" compared to your RDRAM. I think RDRAM is outdated.

That's all I know really.

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Originally posted by alegator
How old is my CPU?

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4/5 years old according to wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_Pentium_4_microprocessors

Intel P4 3.06Ghz Northwood HT was first introduced November 2002.

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Originally posted by alegator
I'm wondering how much faster is the top of the line Intel CPU with the best current MOBO as compared to my config

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What do you consider top of the line and best current mobo? You could waste all your money on a quadcore or even a fancy Xeon... but that really wouldn't be worth wasting that much money on for an average desktop system.

You might want to ask yourself if you really need an upgrade to begin with. I know it's hard for a lot of people to understand, but buying the fastest stuff out there is just silly. What do you currently do on your system? Is your current system slow? Why do you need a faster system and how much do you want to spend on it?

I think your system has myn out beat. If you feel that you need more power then go for it but really the new Intel chip sets is just more bandwidth for processing. Unless you doing video editing and very intense CPU tasks then your CPU should be good.

The Core 2 processors are a lot faster than a 3GHz Northwood, but it's quite possible that your current system is fast enough.  Does anything you do take too long or any games you want to play don't play smoothly (or at all)?

My desktop machine is similar (3GHz Northwood) and I can tell my Core 2 Duo Macbook is a lot faster, even being a laptop.  The desktop is still better for games, because it has a halfway decent graphics card.  It is fine for everything I do with it now.  When that changes, I will replace the whole machine.

That gets us to the next issue: upgrading a computer that old is pointless.  You can't just buy a CPU and motherboard -- you will also need new RAM, new graphics card, and new power supply.  That's 85% of the cost of a computer, so just buy/build a new one.  You could reuse your old drives and perhaps the old case, but it would save you very little and leave a heap of worthless old parts.  The old computer in one piece has more value.

Before the 3GHz computer, I had a nice (for the times) P4 1.8GHz, which was only 1.5 years old.  I replaced it for a reason (a specific game I was into then didn't play as well as I wanted) and gave the 1.8GHz to my mother, who was previously using some piece of trash.  She only uses the computer for web, email and digital picture collection, so the 1.8GHz should keep her happy until it fails beyond repair.

Yes, I know my system is 5 years old since I bought it in 2002. My question is how much faster a current top of the line PC would perform with certain tasks. I do feel my system is slow when video editing, specially High Definition video. Also, some games like Flight Simulator run really slow, specially when running it at full specs. Other simulation software, like Starry Night Pro runs a bit slow when pushing the config. Other than these applications, my PC has been performing great, stable and very reliable all of these years.So, I was wondering if it is worthwile to buy a new system with latest CPU/MOBO for these tasks. I never thought on upgrading my current system, it wouldn't make any sense since it would involve changing all of it, MOBO and CPU, etc. I'd rather keep the P4 as a 2nd PC.

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Originally posted by alegator
My question is how much faster a current top of the line PC would perform with certain tasks.

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A lot faster.  Don't expect anyone to put a number (like 2x or 4x) on it though, there are too many variables.

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Originally posted by alegator
I do feel my system is slow when video editing, specially High Definition video.

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That will benefit greatly from a faster, dual or quad core CPU.

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Originally posted by alegator
Also, some games like Flight Simulator run really slow, specially when running it at full specs.

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The games will benefit from a faster CPU as well, but even more so from a better graphics card.

One of the reasons I am still satisfied with a 3GHz machine similar to yours is that the graphics card was upgraded about two years ago and was top end when I got it.   That upgrade made sense at the time, even though AGP was on its way out already.  I wouldn't bother with that now, with the rest of the system older by another two years.