Processor differences

karen1 · 23 March 2008 at 1:20PM

I asked a question earlier in the week which really helped make my choice with my new PC, i just have one last question before I fully decide!!

Ok, I have the choice of Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E4600 Processor (2.40GHz,800MHz,2MB cache) or Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E6550 Processor (2.33GHz,1333MHz,4MB cache)

Now I know the higher one will make my system run faster but for a basic home computer (no gaming) would it really make a huge difference to me?

Does other spec matter as to which one I get?

3072 memory & 500GB hard drive (640 with faster speed but 500 will be more than sufficient to me)

If I go for slower one I can have photoshop elements and Vista Home premium and order it now!
If I go for faster one I can request Vista Home premium but will have to wait until tomorrow to order it. Waiting isn't a problem as i've waited a few days anyway!!

I've already been advised that 4600 is fairly future proof so do I really need 6550? Which would you go for?

chuckles1066 · 23 March 2008 at 1:22PM

Go HERE to see the relevant benchmarks.

karen1 · 23 March 2008 at 1:27PM

Thank you! That kinda went straight over my head!! I found the 6550 but couldn't see the 4600? I didn't understand what they meant anyway!!

turbobob · 23 March 2008 at 1:28PM

In my opinion, no the extra cache on the more expensive processor won't make any difference that you'd notice

Its something that will only show up on benchmarks, and even then the difference is not that great.

CloudRuler · 23 March 2008 at 1:31PM

karen1 wrote: »

I asked a question earlier in the week which really helped make my choice with my new PC, i just have one last question before I fully decide!!

Ok, I have the choice of Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E4600 Processor (2.40GHz,800MHz,2MB cache) or Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E6550 Processor (2.33GHz,1333MHz,4MB cache)

Now I know the higher one will make my system run faster but for a basic home computer (no gaming) would it really make a huge difference to me?

Does other spec matter as to which one I get?

3072 memory & 500GB hard drive (640 with faster speed but 500 will be more than sufficient to me)

If I go for slower one I can have photoshop elements and Vista Home premium and order it now!
If I go for faster one I can request Vista Home premium but will have to wait until tomorrow to order it. Waiting isn't a problem as i've waited a few days anyway!!

I've already been advised that 4600 is fairly future proof so do I really need 6550? Which would you go for?

What are the prices for the two?

If you're not gaming it won't make that much of a difference but if the price difference is low you might as well go for the faster one. Also 3gb memory seems a little excessive to me if you're not gaming. 2gb would do just fine.

As for being future-proof.....I suppose if you're not going to be gaming or rendering videos it should be fine for the applications you want to run on it as I doubt DDR3 ram will be necessary for you.

weegie.geek · 23 March 2008 at 4:22PM

You might not be gaming, but there are other things that will benefit from the cache.

Video editing and encoding for one.

It really depends on what you plan to do with it though.

BillScarab · 24 March 2008 at 12:43AM

I doubt if there's much differnece between them. One is slghtly faster but it has less cache and a slower bus speed. I would expect the E6550 to have better performance in a benchmark test but in general use you wouldn't notice the difference.

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