After running some numbers, I will not be able to afford the laptop that I want. So I'm going to have to settle for a nice desktop. It'll be faster and cheaper in the end anyways. So I'm thinking of going with either www.cyberpowerpc.com or www.ibuypower.com. Both of which seem to have pretty good prices with one heck of a selection. Plus both come standard with a 3-year warranty which is kind of nice to have, just to feel secure.

So I'm battling back and forth in my mind between single core and dual core PC's. The price difference between a high end single core CPU and a mid-range dual core isn't that great. I've been told that the dual core CPU's will be of great benefit to multi-taskers, which I am definitely one, and that Intel actually held off on the 4.0ghz PC's just for the dual core idea. But will these things work like they are supposed to? Will the CPU automatically be able to run some things off of one of the processors, while the other takes on a different task? I'm kind of in the dark to how they work.

So the first question is, will a dual core CPU benefit me more than a single core and how will it?

Even if I can get the dual core vs. single core CPU problem straight in my head, I'm still having trouble as to which company I should go with. Intel has some nice P4's in both dual and single core with their HT technology and an 800mhz FSB. And they also have extremely fast clock speeds. While AMD has their nice Athlon 64 3000-4000+ single cores and Athlon 64X2 3800-4800+ CPU's with I believe its something like 1600mhz FSB.

So I'm hoping someone can break it all down for me, in terms of whether or not I should go with dual or single core, and if I go dual core - this is what I should get, and if I go single core - this is what I should get. I'm both an avid gamer and photo editor if that helps at all and will also have 1gb of ram on this new system as well.

How much time do you want to invest in learning this stuff? I could teach you about CPU core architecture, but it will take at least a week to get through all of these questions, plus another month to answer questions that pop up along the way. ;) CPU's aren't easy to learn! That's why there's so much confusion out there.

I won't start writing anything unless you really want to spend that much time learning it. And then, there's not even a guarantee that you'll learn it. :p

Is it possible that you could teach in a type of "idiot's" terms for me? I just kind of want to get the gist of it I guess. And why one is better than the other, for me, and/or for different types of users.

So I've been researching all day....

Evidently, dual-core CPU's are the future..at least thats the clear impression I'm getting.

I've been looking a lot at the live stress test run-down between the Athlon 64 X2 4800+ and the Pentium D 840 EE. They state that the only thing that gave the edge to the Pentium in this case was its HyperThreading technology. Without it, they stated that the Athlon had the clear edge. I've noted that the "affordable" Pentium D CPU's don't have the Hyper Threading capability, only the 840 Extreme Edition does.

I've kind of concluded in my mind that the best bang for my budget would probably be the AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+. It seems to be within my budget, and probably the fastest thing I can afford among the dual core processors. I've also been reading that Windows XP has "some" dual-core CPU abilities, but they say the newer version of Windows will be geared even more so toward the dual core CPU's. So I kind of see getting a dual core CPU as a type of planning ahead...I'll have a CPU that can support both 32 and 64 bit applications and also be a BEAST of a multi-tasker now, and even more so later.

Please tell me I'm thinking right!!?? haha. Thanks for any help fellas.

Look over this (http://pcguide.com/vb/showthread.php?t=41267) for starters. Will give you a basic idea of what you are looking at. Also check out Saphalline's sticky (http://pcguide.com/vb/showthread.php?t=39018) for other recommendations. Notice my recommendations don't have cases, sound cards, speakers, monitors, mice, and keyboards. So you need to budget for those- unless you already have them. Also, the 4400+ runs a wopping $800. Unless you have a budget of over $2000 I would not put all the money into that. Look at the $368 -Athlon64 4000+ San Diego (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103529) and the $347 - Athlon64 X2 3800+ Manchester (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103562). Those will give you a better rounded system. However, if you can't spend more than $1500 on a pc (internals+case&psu) then that might be overkill too. . . Look over the links.

Hockey man: at cyberpowerpc.com, I can get the whole setup less the monitor which I already have for under $1200.

Give us more details on the model number and specs for the pc you are looking at.

Alrighty, I can give you the complete run down if you like.

Tower: X-Cruiser Mid-Tower w/ 420W Power Supply

CPU: 939-Pin AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400 CPU w/ HT

Mobo: Undecided so far - probably - (939)ASUS A8N-SLI nForce4 SLI Chipset SATA RAID Dual PCIE

Memory: 1024MB PC 3200 400mhz Dual Channel DDR

Vid Card: Either the Geforce 6600 GT 128MB 16X PCI E or Geforce 6800 256MB 16X PCIE

HD: 160GB

Drives: 16X DVD ROM, Dual Format 16X DVD +-R/+-RW + CD-R/RW Dual Layer, Floppy Drive

Sound: Creative Labs SB Live 24bit 7.1

Speaker: 600Watt PMPO Subbwoofer w/ speakers

NIC: Onboard 10/100

Modem: PCI 56K v.92 Fax Modem w/ Voice

Warranty: 3 YEARS

All for under $1200 at www.cyberpowerpc.com and for just a little bit more, I believe you can get the same thing at www.ibuypower.com

gary,

I have recently researched a system for myself.

I am sure I will be corrected a hundred times over, (I'm a newbee), but from what I've learned, you've done it backwards. Please wait for someone more knowledgeable than me to confirm or deny this.

You have selected everything else, and you are unsure of your MB. The MB is the heart of your system. Start there and work outwards.

Ok guys, give it to me! Bad boy , Don't give advice.

There are only two things I would recommend.

1. PSUs that come with a stock case, are not usually the best in quality. Look at the Enermax EG565P 535 Watt Power Supply.

2. The 6600gt is a good card, but will be the major bottle neck of that system. Look at a 6800 Gt.

Also, is that with or without a OS?

beerbelly, basically any good MOBO manufacturer's MOBO based of the nForce 4 SLI or Ultra will be a great choice. Although garyhot dosn't know exactly what one he'll get, it looks like he is on the right track.

I stand corrected.

So I've been researching all day....

Evidently, dual-core CPU's are the future..at least thats the clear impression I'm getting.

I've been looking a lot at the live stress test run-down between the Athlon 64 X2 4800+ and the Pentium D 840 EE. They state that the only thing that gave the edge to the Pentium in this case was its HyperThreading technology. Without it, they stated that the Athlon had the clear edge. I've noted that the "affordable" Pentium D CPU's don't have the Hyper Threading capability, only the 840 Extreme Edition does.

I've kind of concluded in my mind that the best bang for my budget would probably be the AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+. It seems to be within my budget, and probably the fastest thing I can afford among the dual core processors. I've also been reading that Windows XP has "some" dual-core CPU abilities, but they say the newer version of Windows will be geared even more so toward the dual core CPU's. So I kind of see getting a dual core CPU as a type of planning ahead...I'll have a CPU that can support both 32 and 64 bit applications and also be a BEAST of a multi-tasker now, and even more so later.

Please tell me I'm thinking right!!?? haha. Thanks for any help fellas.
The latest PC I put together two months ago has the Pentium D dual core @2.4 ghz to which I also have 512 MB RAM and the Western Digital Raptor SATA 10,000 RPM hard drive.
I like it alot. The faster seek time on that drive makes that baby rock!

Is it possible that you could teach in a type of "idiot's" terms for me?Hmmm... not really. CPU core architecture is not an "idiot's" type of topic. You can start by reading over those links I gave you last time, or Google some of your own. But truly learning about CPU's requires a basic knowledge of things inside a CPU, like: registers, ALU, FPU, MMX/SSE unit, busses, cache levels, pipeline structures, integrated functions, instruction decoding techniques, execution stages, branch prediction methods, IPC & efficiency ratings, etc.

I know how to go into detail with a relative success ratio in teaching these things, but I can't "dumb it down" any further. There are too many implications at stake just in pipeline depth alone!

Hmmm... not really. CPU core architecture is not an "idiot's" type of topic. You can start by reading over those links I gave you last time, or Google some of your own. But truly learning about CPU's requires a basic knowledge of things inside a CPU, like: registers, ALU, FPU, MMX/SSE unit, busses, cache levels, pipeline structures, integrated functions, instruction decoding techniques, execution stages, branch prediction methods, IPC & efficiency ratings, etc.

I know how to go into detail with a relative success ratio in teaching these things, but I can't "dumb it down" any further. There are too many implications at stake just in pipeline depth alone!
Aha!

"A Dummie's guide to CPU's" should be made available soon featuring noted author(ity) Saphalline!

Thanks for giving it a shot Saph :) ...I'm not quite advanced enough for your teachings....yet haha (I'm a CIS major in college ATM).

Regardless of my knowledge, my budget seems to be the largest barrier. So thanks to hockey man's posts, I've decided to go to a nicer single-core CPU with a much nicer Video card. I will post up the computer I built below, please feel free to make suggestions, they are very welcomed!

Processor: [939-pin] AMD Athlon-64 4000+ CPU w/ Hyper Transport Technology (2.4ghz, 1mb L2 Cache, 2000mhz FSB)

Processor Cooling: Certified CPU Fan and Heatsink + 2 Extra Color Lighting Case Fans

MOBO: Asus A8N-SLI Premium nForce4-SLI Chipset w/7.1 Sound, Dual Gb LAN, S-ATA Raid, USB 2.0, IEEE 1394, Dual PCI-Express MB

Memory: 1024 MB [512MB X2] DDR-400 PC3200 Corsair XMS w/ Heat Spreader

Video Card: 16X PCI-Express nVidia Geforce 6800 GT 256MB w/ DVI + TV Out Video

Hard Drive: 160GB 7200RPM Western Digital Ultra ATA-100 2MB Cache

Drive 1: Sony 16X DVD-Rom

Drive 2: Sony DWQ-28A Dual Format/Double Layer 16X DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive

Drive 3: 1.44" Floppy Drive

Sound Card: Creative Lab Sound Blaster Live! 24-bit 7.1 PCI

NIC: On-board 10/100 Ethernet

Modem: Creative Labs V.92 56K Fax/Modem w/ Voice

Speakers: 600W PMPO 3 PCS Super Bass Subwoofer Speaker System

Just a note, the reason for adding the extra sound card instead of using the on-board sound on the motherboard was because I had heard that on-board sound wasn't the best. I will be using those speakers and subwoofer listed above and wanted something that would be able to support a decent amount of power and put off good sound; I listen to lots of music at loud volumes :). Let me know if the motherboard on-board sound would be enough to power that speaker system and/or more (maybe a future speaker upgrade) and still sound great.