2nd hand pc - p4 vs dual core

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qwerty7

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#114621 25-Feb-2013 21:03

Long story short I am buying a second hand pc for a friend because theirs is insanely slow. It is severely outdated and not worth upgrading. I know a bit about computers and they know zilch ( nothing). It will be used for web browsing and emails. I was leaning towards dual core as i see pentium 4's as older technology but when I suggested a $100 pc they seemed hesitant so I guess their budget is $80 ish. How do the p4's perform compared to the core 2duo and and equivlants, will a p4 be fine in practise for email and web browsing or would you recommend dual core

tukapa1

725 posts

Ultimate Geek

#770223 26-Feb-2013 06:06

What are the specs of their current PC?

Obvioulsy a Core 2 Duo would be better than a P4 but how much better a P4 would be than what they've got now is hard to say without knowing what they have now.

$80 isn't going to get much - I'd keep my eye on some $1 reserve TardMe auctions.

Oriphix

523 posts

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#770234 26-Feb-2013 06:53

P4 is old technology as the poster above said. Dual core would be faster but it comes with the price. Check TradeMe or Seller or PBTech sometimes they have refurbished PC's for sale.

In saying that if its just for web browsing and emails a P4 would be fine.

xpd

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#770279 26-Feb-2013 09:31

I was on a P4 3.0 (with hyper threading) until recently, was great system, did everything I wanted except play some newer games ;)

Ive moved onto a Pentium Dual Core E5300 and seen a good increase in performance - but if I wasnt wanting to play games, Id probably still be using the P4 (which I gave my "aging" parents who have no complaints about it).

For day to day use, a later model P4 is fine IMHO.

Gavin / xpd / FastRaccoon / Geek of Coastguard New Zealand

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#770282 26-Feb-2013 09:44

do not get single core unless you have nothing else to do in life

bagheera

539 posts

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#770294 26-Feb-2013 09:53

the other MAJOR question is ram - even windows xp sp3 is dog slow with 1gb of ram - how much ram will the system have? 2gb min now days even with old os like xp.

qwerty7

434 posts

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#770604 26-Feb-2013 16:40

They currently have a 1.0, yes 1.0 ghz processor and 512mb ram, my phone is faster. And 2 gb ram is what I had in mind for a replacement. Ram is easy to upgrade though.

bagheera

539 posts

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#770606 26-Feb-2013 16:42

qwerty7: Ram is easy to upgrade though.

if you have the old ram yes - to buy, good luck on that.

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xpd

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#770611 26-Feb-2013 16:51

If you need DDR, let me know.... can do you special deal ;) (looking at 40+ sticks of it)

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mattwnz

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#770618 26-Feb-2013 17:12

These guys on trademe often sell some reasonable second hand PCs on http://www.trademe.co.nz/Members/Listings.aspx?member=2908730 Just check that you get a COA sticker for windows with any second hand PC

bfginger

1267 posts

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#772420 1-Mar-2013 18:37

Make sure it has a clean installation of Windows before using it. You don't want a pre-used installation that might have malware rootkits on it.

OEM versions of Windows paired with big brand systems usually don't require reactivation which can save alot of hassle.