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P4 CPU vs Core 2 Duo?

Si_CreweSi_Crewe Posts: 40,202
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Okay, I'm probably being lazy here, but still....

A while back I found a website that had a huge list of every type of processor and a heap of details about each one for the purposes of comparison.
Anybody happen to know what that site was, or anything similar?

My old PC (the one that's currently dead) is fitted with a Socket 478 4.66ghz P4 chip.
I have a newer, Socket 478 3.6ghz Core 2 Duo chip in my bit-box and I've just discovered that, apparently, it will work in this Dell mobo'.

Only thing is, it's a SFF PC (an SX480) and has a fairly compact, passive cooling system so I was wondering how the P4 chip might compare with the C2 Duo chip with regard to stuff like power consumption and heat etc.

TBH, I'm not even sure if the C2 Duo CPU will be a big improvement over the P4, even if it will run cool enough.
That's why I could use some source of comparison to decide whether it's worth pursuing.

...assuming I can actually fix the mobo at all, of course. :blush:
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    Andy2Andy2 Posts: 11,949
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    Try http://www.cpubenchmark.net/

    I've just spent a happy(?) hour or two trying to come to some conclusions about our next PC. It gets tedious after a while.
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    zx50zx50 Posts: 91,270
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    As far as I know. the Core 2 Duos were for socket 775. The frequency was also 3.5Ghz for the E8700.

    Edit: I'm talking about desktop PCs here.
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    [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 2,078
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    Si_Crewe wrote: »
    Okay, I'm probably being lazy here, but still....

    A while back I found a website that had a huge list of every type of processor and a heap of details about each one for the purposes of comparison.
    Anybody happen to know what that site was, or anything similar?

    My old PC (the one that's currently dead) is fitted with a Socket 478 4.66ghz P4 chip.
    I have a newer, Socket 478 3.6ghz Core 2 Duo chip in my bit-box and I've just discovered that, apparently, it will work in this Dell mobo'.

    Only thing is, it's a SFF PC (an SX480) and has a fairly compact, passive cooling system so I was wondering how the P4 chip might compare with the C2 Duo chip with regard to stuff like power consumption and heat etc.

    TBH, I'm not even sure if the C2 Duo CPU will be a big improvement over the P4, even if it will run cool enough.
    That's why I could use some source of comparison to decide whether it's worth pursuing.

    ...assuming I can actually fix the mobo at all, of course. :blush:

    I don't want to seem like I'm pulling your post apart, but I find the speeds you quote in excess of current desktop CPUs on much older generation platforms are demonstrating that you aren't really that familiar with what you have.

    Also, if you had a 4.66GHz system and it was dead - I'm pretty sure you'd know how to revive it as you would have known what was in it.

    Just give the CPU part numbers, they're clearly printed on the chip face and if I'm not mistaken, so are the clock speeds.

    If you're thinking 2.33GHz dual-core is 4.66GHz then that's a ridiculous assertion by unscrupulous sellers on eBay hoodwinking the general population, of whom it can be assumed many are ignorant in such things.

    I'm sure you'll then get a straight answer. Even from Dell who may even have published a chip compatibility list or matrix for the system.
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    bri160356bri160356 Posts: 5,147
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    shhftw wrote: »
    I don't want to seem like I'm pulling your post apart, but I find the speeds you quote in excess of current desktop CPUs on much older generation platforms are demonstrating that you aren't really that familiar with what you have.

    Also, if you had a 4.66GHz system and it was dead - I'm pretty sure you'd know how to revive it as you would have known what was in it.

    Just give the CPU part numbers, they're clearly printed on the chip face and if I'm not mistaken, so are the clock speeds.

    If you're thinking 2.33GHz dual-core is 4.66GHz then that's a ridiculous assertion by unscrupulous sellers on eBay hoodwinking the general population, of whom it can be assumed many are ignorant in such things.

    I'm sure you'll then get a straight answer. Even from Dell who may even have published a chip compatibility list or matrix for the system.

    My AMD Quad-core Phenom II processor runs at 12.8GHz

    That’s what the guy in the shop told me when I bought it.......and I believe him. :)
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    zx50zx50 Posts: 91,270
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    bri160356 wrote: »
    My AMD Quad-core Phenom II processor runs at 12.8GHz

    That’s what the guy in the shop told me when I bought it.......and I believe him. :)

    And we know that a lot of sales people in the computer section in shops know a lot about computers. :D
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    bri160356bri160356 Posts: 5,147
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    zx50 wrote: »
    And we know that a lot of sales people in the computer section in shops know a lot about computers. :D

    Are you inferring the sales guy was lying to me and making the processor appear better than it really is? :o

    please God no !!!!!!!:cry:
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    Si_CreweSi_Crewe Posts: 40,202
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    zx50 wrote: »
    As far as I know. the Core 2 Duos were for socket 775. The frequency was also 3.5Ghz for the E8700.

    Absolutely correct. They're both socket 775, not 478. Brain fart occurred. :blush:
    shhftw wrote: »
    I don't want to seem like I'm pulling your post apart, but I find the speeds you quote in excess of current desktop CPUs on much older generation platforms are demonstrating that you aren't really that familiar with what you have.

    Also, if you had a 4.66GHz system and it was dead - I'm pretty sure you'd know how to revive it as you would have known what was in it.

    Just give the CPU part numbers, they're clearly printed on the chip face and if I'm not mistaken, so are the clock speeds.

    If you're thinking 2.33GHz dual-core is 4.66GHz then that's a ridiculous assertion by unscrupulous sellers on eBay hoodwinking the general population, of whom it can be assumed many are ignorant in such things.

    I'm sure you'll then get a straight answer. Even from Dell who may even have published a chip compatibility list or matrix for the system.

    Not sure where you get any of that from TBH.

    I thought it was pretty clear, from my OP, that my main concerns were the power and heat characteristics of those two CPU's and that's what I'm mainly interested in.

    FWIW, I was under the general impression that speed is what generates heat (given the way the most modern CPUs tend to run cooler due to more cores and slower speeds) so I was kinda hoping the C2D might actually be cooler than the P4.

    I assume that a 3.6ghz C2D would be a significant improvement over the 4.66ghz P4 or, y'know, I wouldn't be considering replacing one with the other but, if the improvement isn't that great, I won't bother.

    No idea where all that 2.3ghz vs 4.6ghz stuff came from. That's just silly.
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    Ulysses777Ulysses777 Posts: 741
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    Si_Crewe wrote: »
    I thought it was pretty clear, from my OP

    What's pretty clear is that you don't actually know what you've got.

    There is no such thing as a 4.66ghz P4.

    There is no such thing as a 3.6ghz C2D.

    Try again, starting with the processor's sSpec number (a five-character number starting with SL).
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    Andrew_BallardAndrew_Ballard Posts: 1,054
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    The P4 may have hyper-threading, which gives 2 threads to use but there is still only one core, a dual core Pentium 4 would be called a Pentium D (Celeron D was not dual core however), and they were obliterated when Core2Duo came along. A Pentium 4 Vs a Core2duo of any specification would lose completely.

    There was also a core Solo and Duo, I think they were laptop based and may indeed have a 478 compatible socket. edit: PPGA 478, also core2duo

    Core2Duo and Core2Quad never supported hyper-threading as far as I recall, they simply used 2 or 4 cores. The generation after them, the start of the i3, i5, i7 naming scheme did have hyper-threading on some CPUs and so it remains with the present 4th generation of the i3, i5 and i7.

    All that said, I have no idea what an SX480 is - Dell have a GX280 which is a pentium 4 based SFF and certainly not core2duo compatible.
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    zx50zx50 Posts: 91,270
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    The P4 may have hyper-threading, which gives 2 threads to use but there is still only one core, a dual core Pentium 4 would be called a Pentium D (Celeron D was not dual core however), and they were obliterated when Core2Duo came along. A Pentium 4 Vs a Core2duo of any specification would lose completely.

    There was also a core Solo and Duo, I think they were laptop based and may indeed have a 478 compatible socket. edit: PPGA 478, also core2duo

    Core2Duo and Core2Quad never supported hyper-threading as far as I recall, they simply used 2 or 4 cores. The generation after them, the start of the i3, i5, i7 naming scheme did have hyper-threading on some CPUs and so it remains with the present 4th generation of the i3, i5 and i7.

    All that said, I have no idea what an SX480 is - Dell have a GX280 which is a pentium 4 based SFF and certainly not core2duo compatible.

    As far as desktop CPUs go, I think only the i7s have Hyper-Threading in them.
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    LION8TIGERLION8TIGER Posts: 8,484
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    Si_Crewe wrote: »
    so I was kinda hoping the C2D might actually be cooler than the P4.

    It will/should be and faster into the bargain.
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    TassiumTassium Posts: 31,639
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    I doubt the old motherboard would support a C2D, even if the socket was compatible.
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    Helmut10Helmut10 Posts: 2,433
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    Si_CreweSi_Crewe Posts: 40,202
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    Ulysses777 wrote: »
    What's pretty clear is that you don't actually know what you've got.

    There is no such thing as a 4.66ghz P4.

    There is no such thing as a 3.6ghz C2D.

    Try again, starting with the processor's sSpec number (a five-character number starting with SL).
    All that said, I have no idea what an SX480 is - Dell have a GX280 which is a pentium 4 based SFF and certainly not core2duo compatible.

    Have to admit, I screwed up a lot of what I've posted so far here.
    I blame it on the fact that I was rushing to get the thread up 'cos the leccy has been on and off here all day. :blush:

    The computer is an old Dell SX 280, which is fitted with a 3.6ghz P4 CPU (SL7Q2).
    The CPU I have in my bit-box is a 2.6ghz C2D (QTOE).

    As I've said, the PC is currently dead but, while reading about how to fix it, I've seen quite a few people mention that it's possible to upgrade it with a C2D CPU so I can only assume it is possible.

    Looking at it a bit deeper, the P4 is running at 800mhz whereas the C2D should run at 1ghz.
    No idea, yet, whether any such upgrade would simply be a case of twiddling a setting in the BIOS, making some dodgy mod to the mobo' or simply fitting the C2D and having it run at 800mhz rather than 1ghz, assuming it'd actually work like that.

    I guess, if nothing else, I guess this thread has forced me to look at it a bit more carefully myself.
    I'd still be interested to know if anybody's got any info' with regard to the thermal or power characteristics of the two CPUs though.
    This gets used as a HTPC so it's on for long periods and, even if it is possible, if it's the sort of thing will require bodging (of either hardware or BIOS) that might lead to unreliability, I'll give it a miss.
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    s2ks2k Posts: 7,421
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    According to the product overview it uses the Intel 915G chipset which apparently only supports P4 or Celeron D processors. Core2Duo support was introduced with the 945 chipset.
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    DaedrothDaedroth Posts: 3,065
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    Core2Duo has a decent performance advantage over the Pentium 4 processors, simply because the architecture is a lot better. However, all the Core2Duo processors I encountered over the years were for Socket 775.
    zx50 wrote: »
    As far as desktop CPUs go, I think only the i7s have Hyper-Threading in them.
    I had an old Pentium 4 processor back in the day on Socket 775, and that had Hyper-Threading.
    Si_Crewe wrote: »
    Looking at it a bit deeper, the P4 is running at 800mhz whereas the C2D should run at 1ghz.
    Even those frequencies seem unlikely, you might want to double check that.
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    zx50zx50 Posts: 91,270
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    Daedroth wrote: »
    Core2Duo has a decent performance advantage over the Pentium 4 processors, simply because the architecture is a lot better. However, all the Core2Duo processors I encountered over the years were for Socket 775.


    I had an old Pentium 4 processor back in the day on Socket 775, and that had Hyper-Threading.


    Even those frequencies seem unlikely, you might want to double check that.

    Yeah, I know that. :D I was talking about in the Intel Core i3, i5 and i7 range of processors. I had a Pentium 4 Hyper-Threaded processor as well.
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    [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 2,078
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    The C2D (QTOE) is a 1066MHz FSB, (DDR2-533 sufficient)

    The motherboard is a Dell OEM G5611 manufactured by Intel with the 915G chipset.

    It is Grantsdale and supports only Pentium 4, Celeron D.

    C2D is supported only on 945G Lakeport/Calistoga and newer (Bearlake etc.).

    So while the CPU you have is pin-compatible, it won't work.
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    c4rvc4rv Posts: 29,619
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    The SX280 was a ultra small form factor desktop designed for low compute / high density environments like call centres. Its primary advantage over SFF was that it could be mounted behind the monitor.

    We had a 10 or so for testing but sent them back due to overheating problems killing PSU and hard drives.

    As s2k mentioned, its a 915G chipset and definitely does not support Core2Duo.
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    Mr DosMr Dos Posts: 3,637
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    zx50 wrote: »
    As far as desktop CPUs go, I think only the i7s have Hyper-Threading in them.

    in general -

    i3 = 2C/4T
    i5 = 4C/4T
    i7 = 4C/8T (plus a few 6C/12T)

    this is for desktops, laptops are different

    BTW re cores and threads, I did some Cinebench tests recently with HT on/off, and HT only gives around 30% boost. Cores and threads are not the same, although my i7's 8 'cores' in the cpu usage desktop gadget looks cool . . .
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    c4rvc4rv Posts: 29,619
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    Mr Dos wrote: »
    in general -

    i3 = 2C/4T
    i5 = 4C/4T
    i7 = 4C/8T (plus a few 6C/12T)

    this is for desktops, laptops are different

    BTW re cores and threads, I did some Cinebench tests recently with HT on/off, and HT only gives around 30% boost. Cores and threads are not the same, although my i7's 8 'cores' in the cpu usage desktop gadget looks cool . . .

    You are lucky to get such a boost with HT, normally I see around 10% to 20% and that is which apps which are properly written to understand multi-threading. I've also seen it actually reduce performance as well though that was in a virtual environment.
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    Si_CreweSi_Crewe Posts: 40,202
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    s2k wrote: »
    According to the product overview it uses the Intel 915G chipset which apparently only supports P4 or Celeron D processors. Core2Duo support was introduced with the 945 chipset.

    Must admit, that was exactly the sort of thing I was worried about.
    Don't recall the exact dates but the SX280 was out long before the Core2 CPUs made an appearance so I guess there's no reason to expect them to be compatible.

    Hah, Unbelievable!

    I was just writing something about how I know there are different Dell computers which use a physically similar mobo' and, while googling for examples, I found THIS.

    Seems like, to pursue this, I need to find a mobo' from a GX620 on eBay or somewhere.
    And that's assuming the chipset is the only compatibility issue.

    Just to add to the confusion, it seems that there's a normal-sized GX620 in both tower and desktop form as well as SFF and, th one I need, the USFF version, which seems to have a compatible mobo'.

    Still, if I can find one I guess I can squeeze some more life out of the old dog.
    Save me having to buy a bunch of capacitors to fix my current mobo' too.

    *EDIT*

    Oooh, found THIS on eBay which claims to have the Q965 chipset, which definitely works with C2D processors.

    Given that I'll be spending about £20 on capacitors, that's kinda hard to resist....
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    s2ks2k Posts: 7,421
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    Si_Crewe wrote: »
    Just to add to the confusion, it seems that there's a normal-sized GX620 in both tower and desktop form as well as SFF and, th one I need, the USFF version, which seems to have a compatible mobo'.
    Up until fairly recently there used to be 4 form factors for the Optiplex range - USFF, SF, DT and MT. Nowadays I think its only the last 3.

    I would say though that in the long run (given that the hardware in a SX280 would be very elderly by now) you would probably be better off building an ITX system with a Core i3 or something along those lines.
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    c4rvc4rv Posts: 29,619
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    Si_Crewe wrote: »
    This gets used as a HTPC so it's on for long periods and, even if it is possible, if it's the sort of thing will require bodging (of either hardware or BIOS) that might lead to unreliability, I'll give it a miss.

    TBH, if you are only going to use it for playback then Pi + XBMC solution can be put together for around £30 to £35 depending what you have lying around. It will use a fraction of the power and supports 1080p which the Dell PC's don't without an additional video card.
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