1.8GHZ Processor vs Dual Core

[howie789]

I bought an older Lenovo PC (2005) J series- they were basically giving them away- we had an overstock. If I'm going to be pretty much surfing and downloading-that's about it- will I have problems with slowness compared to a dual core processor, or will the speed be sufficient? It runs on Vista- which for this machine is not ideal.

 

[tunsty]

I recently bought a Dual-Core 'e-machines' PC (2x 2.1ghz)
Everything runs so smoothly now, multitasking is a breeze..
mind you I immediately dumped Vista and went back to XP - it does help. :hatsoff:

 

[costporsche]

Use CPUZ and tell us the specs of the processor.

 

[howie789]

bump

 

[mongo18]

For vista I would recommend going for a dual core if it is not a big issue for you to get your hands on one. Or, like Tunsty said, downgrade to xp.
But, like always, I'd suggest trying it for a while before you do anything, and see if you are ok with it as it is, You Might save yourself some unnecessary expenditure.

 

[Kil4Thril]

I bought an older Lenovo PC (2005) J series- they were basically giving them away- we had an overstock. If I'm going to be pretty much surfing and downloading-that's about it- will I have problems with slowness compared to a dual core processor, or will the speed be sufficient? It runs on Vista- which for this machine is not ideal.

The processor is plenty for Vista. If it is 32bit Vista, max the memory to 4gb- you'll get the best gains from that. For simply surfing the net and general bullshit, that machine will be fine. If you wish to do some gaming, well, things just got expensive.

BTW, Vista will run circles around XP if you allow SuperFetch to do its thing. It is also far more stable. I currently have machines running XP, XP64, Vista 32 and 64, a few different Linux distributions, and even OSX, and my Vista 64 is the best, followed closely by Vista 32 and XP64. The Linux machines run fine, I just despise the interface, and I can't stand any Apple product I've ever had, and this MacBook is no exception.

 

[mongo18]

If it is 32bit Vista, max the memory to 4gb

32 bit vista will only show and use 3 gig, so don't waste your money on the 4th.

 

[Kil4Thril]

32 bit vista will only show and use 3 gig, so don't waste your money on the 4th.

Nope, and the extra memory is real nice if you leave SuperFetch enabled. 32bit Vista will even show all 4 GB's. 32bit XP can use it, but it doesn't show the full amount in the OS. It is in use, just addressed by the hardware and mostly unavailable for software access. Vista 32 is the same, but MS changed the way it shows on the hardware screens so people would quit crying about it.

Edit: This is all assuming the rest of the machine is capable. Some chipsets won't do 4gb RAM anyway.:hatsoff: