Intel: Pentium vs Celeron ??

[FREEJ]

Hi,,,,

Hopefully someone, a ''techie'' will have insight to my inquiry. I currently have a; 1999-Compaq Desktop--PII, and a 2003-Toshiba laptop--P4,,,microprocessors.

Regarding: Intel Chips, the Pentium and Celeron.
I know the Pentium is the higher performing chip compared to the Celeron. My laptop is my main pc, but I'm looking to buy a new desktop for basics; e-mail, web surfing, hook printer to, type letters/documents.

Does anyone have any info/opinion or experience/own a pc with an Intel Celeron chip,,, how does it perform for you,,,??

Thanks,
FreeJ

[dgrotz]

I think a celeron chip would be fine on a light duty PC. IT/Web Design student.

[cjo]

A Celeron should be fine for what you described. Maybe use some of your $ savings on boosting the RAM.

[bob clark]

A Pentium II is very old computer but since it's only for light-duty I imagine will be okay. What Operating System is that running? Win98 or ME?

Like CJO suggests installing more memory will help speed up your laptop. Since your Toshiba is presumably running WinXP you should have at least 512mbs in it. A gig if you're gonna game or do video or graphics. XP needs around 150mbs just to run its fat arse!

A 2.8GHz processor is a common speed they use in most low to mid-end new computers now. The Pentium in that speed is only $70 more than the Celeron. To be quite honest about it I didn't think they still made Celerons but just saw at PriceWatch/CPU (http://www.pricewatch.com/) that they do.

I just saw that Dell still uses them in their lower-end computers.

If budget is a real concern then I guess the Celeron will work fine in a light-duty environment but don't skimp on the RAM.

[FREEJ]

Thanks ppl for the reply's. More are welcome,,,,,

To clarify:
My '03 Toshiba laptop is my main/workhorse computer and performs fine; [[P4--2.40ghz--512ram--40gg,hard-drv--xp home]]. My old '99 Compaq desktop is what I want to replace[[P2--350mhz--256ram--10gg, hard-drv--windows 98]], ''it's had it's day.

I want to replace the desktop[[for the basic useage explained above]]. As I'm shopping, ''I can definitely save $$ with going with a Celeron.''
I've seen Dell's, HP's, **E-machines, all with 512-1024-ram//80-160gg-hrd drv's---all celeron chips.

Does anyone have or know anyone who has an E-machine ??

Freej

[jon 0]

i've got an emachine, 2.8ghz celeron, 512 ram, 80gig hd, cd-rw, dvd, clunky 15" crt

1.5 years old paid $400 after rebates added 128mb video card for $40 and a dvd burner for $40

anything you buy new today should handle the tasks you mentioned with ease even the $300 desktops and $400 notebooks

[JayColorado]

Just one comment to make, as others have said Celeron will probably be plenty of computing power for the applications you mentioned, but if you are using Dragon or some other voice recognition software you may want to consider a computer that allows you to process multiple threads simultaneously (Pentium 4 with hyper threading technology). Without getting into too much detail this processor allows your computer to do two things at once and will improve the responsiveness of your voice recognition software.

[teyrn]

The difference between a P4 and a Celeron Processor are as follows.

*Cache - Celeron chips have less cache memory than Pentium 4 chips do. A Celeron might have 128 kilobytes of L2 cache, while a Pentium 4 can have four times that. The amount of L2 cache memory can have a big effect on performance.

* Clock speed - Intel manufactures the Pentium 4 chips to run at a higher clock speed than Celeron chips. The fastest Pentium 4 might be 60 percent faster than the fastest Celeron.

* Bus speed - There are differences in the maximum bus speeds that the processors allow. Pentium 4s tend to be about 30 percent faster than Celerons.

Checking email and browsing the web and running a word processor a celeron will be more then adequate. Your more processor intensive applications like Dragon, or other voice recognition applications and the majority of the graphic intense games that come out would benefit more from a P4 and even more with hyperthreading. That said would you notice the difference between the two with the programs you intent to use? probably not as long as you have a min. of 512MB RAM and do not do a lot of heavy multitasking (more then 2 or 3 programs open and running at the same time). The money you save getting a celeron processor would allow you to get more RAM and still allow money in your pocket then if you went with the top of the line P4 system.
Whether or not to go with emachine, dell or HP and the like depends on your budget and what kind of support you want for your purchase. I personal HATE HP but they do make good machines until you want to do a massive amount of upgrading. Emachine is a good option if you are on a tight budget. I know many a person with an emachine who are not disappointed. They are a clean design inside the case and upgrading is pretty simple and you aren't stuck with proprietary parts. Dell is a good option if you want the best support for what you purchase. They are good about keeping your system up to date with bios updates, firmware updates and driver updates outside that you get with microsoft update. Though out of the lot the Dell will probably cost you the most.

[PN]

I have an eMachine, and I used it for almost three years, and now it is sitting in my closet. I use Dragon so I went with the Pentium chip, but I have no complaints with the performance of the eMachine, along with the Tech Support. They used to have, and they may still have, on-line Tech Support even when your warranty expires. The hard drive did crash on my eMachine but I was backed up and I replaced it with a new one. I currently own Dells, but I would not have any problems purchasing an HP. For the type of work that you are describing, a Celeron chip would be OK, but I strongly recommend getting 512 MB of RAM.

I know you think that you are going to save a lot of money or pay less for the Celeron chip, but you may find that you can purchase a PC with a Pentium or an Athlon 64 Processor for the same amount or maybe less. If you look through the weekly ads from Circuit City (http://weeklyad.circuitcity.com/circuitcity/default.aspx?action=browsepageflash&storeid=2396904&rapid=195347&prvid=CircuitCity-051106&promotioncode=CircuitCity-051106&fsid=127758826035938009), Office Max (http://officemax.shoplocal.com/officemax/default.aspx?action=detail&flashbrowse=y&storeid=2420376&rapid=196303&pagenumber=5&listingid=-2096251992&ref=%2fofficemax%2fdefault.aspx%3faction%3dbrowsep ageflash%26storeid%3d2420376%26pagenumber%3d5%26ra pid%3d196303%26prvid%3dofficemax-051106), or Office Depot (http://officedepot.shoplocal.com/officedepot/default.aspx?action=browsepageflash&storeid=2434873&rapid=198581&prvid=OfficeDepot-051106&promotioncode=OfficeDepot-051106&fsid=127758821985932628) you can start doing some price comparison.

Good luck!