Alright so I'm building myself a new computer.

The part I'm debating is if I should get a:

Pentium D 830 3.0 Ghz Dual-Core CPU (Non-hyper threaded)

OR

Pentium 4 660 3.6 Ghz Hyper-Threaded CPU

I don't know anyone that owns a Dual core so I don't know how well they compare with a standard hyper-threaded P4. The P4 3.6 costs $113 MORE than the dual core. But I'm on the line about which to go with.

I do a lot of programming, animation, and some video editing & graphic design. not much gaming, but with this new system I may play a few.

 

personally i'd get the pentium d with the dual core because in the end it will give you better performance.

 

Get it with ht. That allows more memory processes and what not making ur comp having better perfomance.

 

The dual-core CPU's allow multiple threads as well. Except these are accomplished via hardware instead of software. THere are actually two cores in the single casing, each running seperate processes. Since this is hardware based it performs better than Hyper-threading (or so they say).

This is why i'm debating whether to go with a dual core or the hyper-threadied cpu. the only difference between the two is the speed. I don't know if the higher speed p4 can accomplish more than the slower speed dual core.

 

that the EE one i think its got dual core and HT so 4 threads in one cpu!!!

 

If I had an extra $1G to spare I'd buy that one.

running 4 processes at the same time would be sweet. But I don't type that fast on Microsoft word to need that.

 

it's early, but by the way the votes are going i'm surmising two things:

1. People aren't aware that the Pentium D can run multiple processes and is the hardware equivalent of the software based hyper-threaded CPU's
2. The 3.6 ghz CPU will surpass the pentium d in performance solely because it is faster than the pentium D.

 

If the bulk of your apps are multithreaded and will use the second core, then go for the Dual Core. If your apps are mostly single threaded, then the extra clock speed of the 3.6 would help.

 

I built my friend a pc with the 820 in it a month or so ago, it really works great. The gamming performance by itself isn't really verry impressive, but when he runs team speak 2, itunes, and wow and switches back and forth between the programs you can really tell the difference between it and my 3.4e

Why not go for a AMD 64 x2 3800 though. It's around the same price and kicks some butt http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets...spx?i=2484&p=1

 

Pentium D

 

For the tasks you described, the dual core will be the best.

However, if I were you, I'd do a little research and possibly hold off for just a little bit. 800 mhz FSB means 400 mhz for each core. There's going to be some bottlenecking under heavy load. The regular 3.0 ghz P4 got a significant boost going from 533mhz to 800 mhz. I can't imagine 400 mhz helping the Pentium D any. I don't know if Intel is going to 1200 mhz fsb anytime soon but if that's in the near future works, I would definitely hold off on the purchase until then.

 

Pentium D only because I have a server with HT turned off due to BSOD's relating to it.

 

Dual Core, HT is trash