I need help choosing an Intel Core 2 or an Intel Celeron D desktop
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Sorry for the delay to re-edit the post. I am planning to get a new computer. The first computer has a Intel Core 2 Duo at 2GHZ. The other is an Intel Celeron D at 3.3GHZ. They're both are 64 bit processors.
This is my assumption, if the application(s) are compiled or optimize to take advantage of multiple processors, than the Intel Core 2 will be a better choice.
But, if an application is not optimize for multiple CPUs, then the Intel Core 2 will be treated as a single CPU running at a max of 2 Ghz, so this would make the Celeron D faster since its running at a max of 3.3 Ghz.
The only problem is I don't know which programs are optimized for multiple CPUs. But, thats not important right now.
These are my guesses, so If I wrong with this terminology, let me know. I appreciate your comments. Thanks
Sorry for the delay to re-edit the post. I am planning to get a new computer. The first computer has a Intel Core 2 Duo at 2GHZ. The other is an Intel Celeron D at 3.3GHZ. They're both are 64 bit processors.
This is my assumption, if the application(s) are compiled or optimize to take advantage of multiple processors, than the Intel Core 2 will be a better choice.
But, if an application is not optimize for multiple CPUs, then the Intel Core 2 will be treated as a single CPU running at a max of 2 Ghz, so this would make the Celeron D faster since its running at a max of 3.3 Ghz.
The only problem is I don't know which programs are optimized for multiple CPUs. But, thats not important right now.
These are my guesses, so If I wrong with this terminology, let me know. I appreciate your comments. Thanks
Basicly, you are correct (though a program optimized for multiple CPUs is a threaded program). However, Linux itself is threaded, so two programs will run on both CPUs.
As a result, even if a program is not threaded, Linux is. Multiple CPUs are almost always better than one.
Basicly, you are correct (though a program optimized for multiple CPUs is a threaded program). However, Linux itself is threaded, so two programs will run on both CPUs.
As a result, even if a program is not threaded, Linux is. Multiple CPUs are almost always better than one.
Since the kernel is threaded, this means that the Intel Core 2 will be better in terms of speed, performance and multitasking than the Celeron despite the 1.3 Ghz difference?
Here is where it gets tricky. IF you are running ONE single threaded task ( most games)the single core cpu will be faster. If you are running multiple single threaded tasks the multicore cpu will probably be faster. If you are running multiple multiple(yep I meant both of them) threaded tasks the multicore cpu will be faster. Most of the software that can make real use of multiple threads has now been programed multithreaded.
Here is where it gets tricky. IF you are running ONE single threaded task ( most games)the single core cpu will be faster. If you are running multiple single threaded tasks the multicore cpu will probably be faster. If you are running multiple multiple(yep I meant both of them) threaded tasks the multicore cpu will be faster. Most of the software that can make real use of multiple threads has now been programed multithreaded.
Then in that case, wouldn't the Core2 always be faster, since you usually run a desktop environment, which consists of many programs (KDE has Kicker, KWin, KMix, etc; Gnome has gnome-panel, gnome-desktop, nautilus, etc).
No. Even if the two have the same clock speed the single core (on one single threaded process) would be faster. What happens is that (on a multicore processor) the kernel tries to balance the load between the cores. If there is not enough to keep the cores busy the kernel loses time switching the main task back and forth between the cores(more time spent switching than running). All the small things (services) that run (on a normal system) use cpu time so seldom (relatively) that they do not enter into the equation(no real load generated by them on a modern cpu).
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