Duo chip question

happyhero

Hi my daughter went to PC World yesterday and this PC http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/product/seo/859051 was on offer for £399 and she bought it.

When she got it home we were checking things and noticed that it displayed Celeron. As I understand it, the Dual core processors are twin processor machines and it looked to me like one of the chips was a Celeron yet there was no mention of that in the sale ticket.

I had told her not to buy a Celeron although I know there will be many people on here who find Celerons great, but personally I choose to avoid them. Anyway so she bought this dual core processor and I think it looks like she has one cpu that is ok and one that is a Celeron, does that sound right, ie is that what it probably is?

Also bearing in mind that it was cheap is that how they reduce costs by making one chip a cheaper Celeron?

And if you pay more will you then get two good chips?

If so how can you tell when you are buying, what chips are inside if the ticket just says dual core, or are you at the mercy of the assistant most of the time?

If I was buying I would want the two fastest best chips I could afford and I would prefer that there was nothing Celeron-ish in it.

Any help appreciated.

BilboBaggins_3

The dual core processor is one physical chip which has 2 areas which carry out the execution commands. (Multi threading/tasking capabilities speeding up performance) .

So a celeron can not be a dual core chip or part of a dual core chip as from what i know they are at the bargain basement end of processors.

btw celerons work fine, depends on what you are going to do in terms of processing power.

superscaper

As bilbobaggins says, Intel Core 2 Duo is a single chip, and so Celeron is a different kind of chip. Either it is Intel Core 2 Duo or Celeron, it can't be both.

I don't know of any modern Intel systems that use more than one chip except for servers. The core2 duo processors act like they have two processors which they do but they are "bolted together" on one chip and the two cores are identical.

happyhero

Ok understand what you say guys and appreciate the help. I will look at my daughter's machine again tonight and post on here what I find so that hopefully you or someone can tell me what the reference to Celeron is about.

I have in my first post at the top given a link to the PC World item she bought and I can find no reference to Celeron on it, don't know if you can spot anything?

So if this machine has any relation to Celeron I think the details are missleading but hopefully you can tell me more once I supply the details I have found on her laptop.

BilboBaggins_3

Where did you see the term Celeron ? If you right click MyComputer - Properties - General tab, you will the processor name and it should display Intel Dual Core......

theCapt

best way to check is to go into System Properties in control panel or by holding down the "Start" key and pressing "Break" it should clearly state which CPU (processor) your computer has which model it is and it's max operating speed.

It isn't unheard of that some systems come with stickers on the base unit (actual tower) and then doesn't have the equipment inside. If it does have a Celeron processor get in back soon as possible.

Chippy_Minton

CPU-Z will tell you exactly what the chip is - http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

superscaper

Well it definitely looks like it's a Mobile Dual Core processor. The "Celeron" term shouldn't be related to it at all. As bilobaggins asked, where did you see the term "celeron"?

Zagu

It would appear that it is a dual core, but its a T2080, which I cant say Im familiar with. I too would have expected a Core 2 Duo, but, to honest, it does what it says in the tin.

Im not sure what to suggest. I guess you could ask for a refund, which I believe will only be offered as a good will gesture, or keep it, Im sure it'll be fine for most things, or sell it on Ebay. With some luck, you may well make something out of it. Personally, Id see how it goes. I suspect it'll be fine.

Good luck whatever you do.

Millionaire

Zagu wrote: »

It would appear that it is a dual core, but its a T2080, which I cant say Im familiar with. I too would have expected a Core 2 Duo, but, to honest, it does what it says in the tin.

Yes, Its a Core Duo. The first Set of Dual Core Chips from Intel.

The Core2Duo is now replacing them, Not much difference between Core Duo and Core2duo, apart from Core2duo runs approx 5-10% quicker than a Core duo of the same speed depending on application.

superscaper

Millionaire wrote: »

Yes, Its a Core Duo. The first Set of Dual Core Chips from Intel.

Probably just marketing pedantics but it's not called a "Core Duo", but a "Pentium Dual Core". For some reason they brought back the "pentium" name for these specific mobile chips and they don't seem to "officially" come under the "duo" brand but they do have 2 cores.