Advice anyone??? so many processors, who will i choose?

[el_coolius]

hi

we in the process of tendering new pc's, at the moment we are powering whiteboards with dell optiplex 755 which have intel core 2 duo E8400 @ 3.00 processors in them.

we've been offered either Atom 330 @ 1.6 (2 gig of ram) or Amd Athlon 64 X2 dual core 4400.(4 gig of ram).

do you think im still being picky if i say we wanna stick with intel core 2 duo or will the choices offered to us b better.

let me know your thoughts or experiences with these processors, any bit of feedback will be greatly appreciated.

thanking you in advance

[Guest richard_s]

If you don't mind me asking why replace them as the E8400 processor is more that adequate for the for a school system. By the way the Athlon you have quoted is an old model and is out performed by the E8400. Edited December 8, 2009 by richard_s

[el_coolius]

were moving things around, the dell are going to the back, we want new better machines for the front on the whiteboards, am i right to say you think the dell's are better?

[Guest richard_s]

I would say that you are wasting your money by replacing the Dell's if you want to improve them then look at upgrading the RAM.

[el_coolius]

you see what it is, the dells at the moment are getting hammered, partly because there is alot of software on them and teachers have a habit of comin in the morning and opening all the programs for the day, this is the kind of norm which i cant stop them from doing(they call it being organised). also we need more pcs anyway thanks to the re shuffle of the building and alot of pcs being put to the sword for endless issues, hence the dells are to be moved and grouped at the back , and 30 odd to purchased to power the whiteboards. we want performance and reliability and i just dont think the 2 processors offered will match what we have running currently

[dgsmith]

hi

we in the process of tendering new pc's, at the moment we are powering whiteboards with dell optiplex 755 which have intel core 2 duo E8400 @ 3.00 processors in them.

 

That processor is already a really good one (especially for education)! We are starting to get an idea of how much we'll need to replace some P4's next year, and the processor we're looking at is the E7500 which is lower than your E8400. I'd definately stick with those and as richard said a RAM increase is your best bet. If they're still not cutting it, then there is another problem somewhere. I'd say buying new machines to replace those though is a waste of money unless you have money to burn..

 

If you really need better ones, then quad cores should be should be what you're looking at. The atom is certainly a step down and the athlons still aren't up to the performance of the cores.

[localzuk]

Neither of those processors will match what you have.

 

The issue most likely won't be the processor causing speed issues. The slowest bits will be your hard disks (which are most likely being heavily 'swapped' to due to so many programs open), and the memory. How much RAM have these machines got?

[teejay]

The processors you quoted are of a lower spec than you already have.

 

Also, if you are going to tender rather than quotes then you cannot specify a make of processor, you specify your requirements and it is up to the supplier to tender the correct specification of equipment.

 

Your other option is to use the OGC Buying solutions website or Catalyst contact suppliers as these are pre-negotiated by the government and you don't have to go through the official tender process.

[localzuk]

The processors you quoted are of a lower spec than you already have.

 

Also, if you are going to tender rather than quotes then you cannot specify a make of processor, you specify your requirements and it is up to the supplier to tender the correct specification of equipment.

 

Your other option is to use the OGC Buying solutions website or Catalyst contact suppliers as these are pre-negotiated by the government and you don't have to go through the official tender process.

 

You can specify whatever you want in a tender! For example, we specify for our door lock/access control tenders that they must be Paxton Net2 devices, and ASSA barrels.

[teejay]

On a quote request yes, on a request to tender then no, all you can do is put a requirements specification. If that specification is only met by one manufacturers equipment then that is fine, not a problem.

[localzuk]

On a quote request yes, on a request to tender then no, all you can do is put a requirements specification. If that specification is only met by one manufacturers equipment then that is fine, not a problem.

 

No, you are incorrect! Tenders can specify anything you want - you are the one tendering! Otherwise, you'd never be able to do a tender for an expansion of a system already in place. Why do you think you can't? Where are you getting that rule from? I've asked several people here now (finance officer, and someone who has a husband who runs a now large company) and they both say the same thing.

[Guest richard_s]

I'd definately stick with those and as richard said a RAM increase is your best bet. If they're still not cutting it, then there is another problem somewhere.

 

See I can have a good idea

[teejay]

No, you are incorrect! Tenders can specify anything you want - you are the one tendering! Otherwise, you'd never be able to do a tender for an expansion of a system already in place. Why do you think you can't? Where are you getting that rule from? I've asked several people here now (finance officer, and someone who has a husband who runs a now large company) and they both say the same thing.

 

From our council regulations:

 

3. Qualify and prepare proper specifications for the product or service required avoiding the use of brand names. Where it is impossible to avoid using a brand name, you must quantify this by using the words "or equivalent". To ensure genuine competition, the specification must be wide enough to allow more than one supplier to compete for the business. If the specification is so tight that only one supplier is able to meet the requirement, that supplier is less likely to quote competitively, and you may be asked to justify your reasons for the tightness of the specification.

[el_coolius]

ok people

back to the topic

heres what we have and what ive been offered

check the attachment

Specs.doc

[teejay]

Yeah, sorry for taking it OT.

Both the specs are well below what your current machines are.

[Dos_Box]

The E8400 is a fanstastic chip, especially considering it is 2 years old. We have put one in the server in our concept 'server-room-in-a-box' for BETT. I have one in my media PC and see no reason to change it yet. What yu need is more RAM and possibler faster HDs. Dell never put decent HD's in tehir desktop systems and faster drives with larger caches should compliment your 755s very well, as well as saving a fortune in replacing the systems. If you do need new computers I would wait until the i5 chip becomes a bit more widespread personally.

[Guest Guest]

On a scale of 1-10, 10 being the best.

 

If your currect CPUs are a 10

The Athlon will be around a 5

The Atom will be around a 2

 

The only processors on the market which are better than the ones you've already got are the i5 and i7 generation Intels, and the high end 8xx, and 9xx Athlon and Phenoms.

 

The AMDs will set you back around £100 give or take £30 depending how fast, where as the Intels start at around £200. And thats just for the CPU. Add a £150 motherboard...

Edited December 8, 2009 by Guest

[dgsmith]

Are you sure that it is an E8400? The spec sheet the OP posted shows the L2 cache as being 4MB, and the E8x00 series have 6MB. If it actually has got 4MB, then it could be the E6850 Conroe core which is also a 3ghz processor but has 4MB L2 cache.

 

Even if it is only the E6850, then that is still a fairly good processor and still better than what the OP has been offered.

 

Current RAM is 2GB already which is also good. Not much more you can do there except maybe double it, but then you probably wont see a great difference for what the PC is used for. HDD I guess is the next thing - size increase? Maybe even SSD though that might be overkill.