Computer Series: The Processor

The processor, aka the CPU, is the one part of your computer that will define the computers function the most. The kind of processor you get will dictate which motherboard you get. The motherboard is the platform that the rest of your components must run on. So, it’s important to pick a good processor. Also, really when someone says “is this a good computer?” they are really asking about a couple of things, the brand and the processor. Most people today get the basic idea about hard drives and most people don’t have a clue as to what a video card is or what it is for, but most people do have a vague idea of a processor but only enough to get them into trouble. So how do you know if the processor is any good?

Most places today such as Dell will give you a choice in processor. Usually these choices are limited to AMD and Intel. There are a couple of things to do when you are deciding on a processor. First you should consider what you will need to do with the computer. Are you going to be using this to write papers and check email or are you going to be using it for hardcore, 24/7 gaming; most likely somewhere in between. Next, you should consider what you feel the longevity of the system should be. Obviously we all hope that our computer will last through all of time. The reality is that it wont. That being the case you have something else to consider here. Is it worth paying top dollar for a processor that could die in 2-3 years? Another thing to look into is the actual value. What are you getting per dollar (or other currency for the foreign readers)? How noticeable will the 200 MHz and 2MB of L2 cache be? Ok I think I may be getting a bit ahead of myself. Lets start answering some of these questions. Please note, that I’m making the assumption that your use will be somewhere between data entry and frag city.

So, to help you better understand what your decision should be made of lets talk about longevity. No system will last forever. It just isn’t possible. You’ll likely find that things like heat, dust, “oops I spilled my coffee all over everything”, and other factors will play into this. With that in mind, how likely is it that you really need the top of the line processor of today for the next 3 years. The reason I say three years is because in most accounting practices computers are no longer considered assets after 3 years. While a number certainly do last longer, this is a general assumption. Since we’re working on a three year time table what can I imagine will be the requirements of my system inside of three years. What new things will I find to tax the hell out of my processor and ability to run software? There will likely be a boatload of new spyware/adware, applications will likely move more to parallel processing, and new operating systems that try to run more from memory will exist. We can look into that future and see this as being the case so we will want to plan accordingly. We will want to choose a processor that takes advantage of multi-core technology. Why? Because when applications parallelize their functions we’ll be able to capitalize on those gains. This will make our systems incredibly powerful in the future as well as very good now. We need to be able to see a bit into the future to really see what is going to make our processor choice the best it can be. A few years from now the decision may rely entirely on the fact that we need to run web applications and nothing more so that we should really be focused on improving performance between the network connection and the processor. For now, parallelizing processes is where it is at.

We need to look at value. This is something you will always be confronted with when making the new purchase. Is that processor really 1, 2, even 300$ better than that other one even though it only has 1 MHz difference in the speed? Why is it that my computer will be obsolete tomorrow when I bought it today? We can look at these questions and answer them to a degree. But first, we must know a little bit about the technical side of a processor.

We measure processor speed in Hertz. This can be in any variation thereof such as Mega, Giga, etc. So, when you take two processors, A and B, where one is 2.3GHz and the other is 2.44GHz respectively, B is 244 mega-hertz faster than A. What is important to take into account here is the fact that A could very well be perfect for your situation. Processing speed has become fairly cheap. This means that you most likely wont pay our the wazoo for the speed. When you are reviewing the pricing information for your processor you should evaluate the difference in speed. To put this into perspective, a delta of 1GHz is like putting a Ferrari against a Ford, but 200MHz is like putting a Mustang against a BMW. Some slight differences. At this stage in the game, the changes aren’t really all that noticeable. So, the lower cost solution is probably a better choice.

To add in the confusion of processor decision, we discussed a bit about parallel processing. Lets expand on this topic. If you consider the idea of yourself multitasking, taking more than one thing at a time and doing it, you start to see that you are not very good at it. Humans are sequential beings. We take input, process that input, and make decisions based on that input. Computers used to be very much the same way. However, computers have recently come into the multiple input realm. They can do more than one thing and make decisions, all at the same time, well…for the most part. The problem here is not the hardware. The issue lies in the software that developers are making. If you are planning for the future, software developers are really making strides to make their applications use more processors. This means that the future will be grand for those that actually take this insight into account. But, if you need to buy for now then there is no need to get more than two processors. Also, please note that when I say “processors” I’m really talking about cores, processors, cpus, etc. Anything that can take data in and spit out decisions.

With all of this said, this is what I tend to look for when I make processor decisions. I look for new technology that has had a couple months to mature (if that can happen in a couple months). This ensures that there is some shakeout of issues with the processor, and that the people who are far more intelligent than I have had a chance to look at and review the processor. I also look to make sure it’s an acceptable price. I usually tend to spend more on the processor purely because of it’s importance on the rest of the system. I want to try to eliminate it as a bottle-neck for speed since the rest of the build is dependent on it.

Hopefully this helps you out the next time you go to the store or look online and start taking a look at processors. Let me know what you think. Enjoy.