AMD Athlon 64
The Athlon 64 is AMD's single core mid range chip intended to compete with the Intel Pentium 4. It has done its job well the industry standard Intel chip line is under heavy fire from the value based AMD chip line. In general an equivalently rated AMD 64 processor performs as well or very close to its Pentium 4 competitor across the board. The P4 generally takes the cake in overall performance but they cost more as well. In our opinion the Athlon 64 is a good solid processor with a price tag we like, price for power I will take an Athlon 64 any day. If you are looking to juice every ounce out and money is not an object look to the Intel chips.
AMD Sempron
The Sempron is AMD’s answer to the Intel Celeron chips. Intended for simple computing at a good value these compete very well. I have run very closely rated Athlon 64’s and Sempron’s in similar units (not for gaming) and thought the Sempron ran as well or better than the 64 for startup, shutdown, and most other simple O/S tasks. We think these chips shine if you are looking for an inexpensive computer that works well for internet, word processing, and business applications.
AMDAthlon 64 X2
The X2 is AMD’s flagship Dual processor, packing two Athlon 64 chips on one die. As one would image this is fantastic for multitasking, and multiprocessing applications, however two processors doesn’t simply double your speed. These chips perform on most applications very similar to their Athlon 64 single core chips except in special instances where the multiprocessing can be taken advantage of. Unfortunately we felt that not only did the dual processors not double the speed that it did double the difference between their Intel counter part dual core chips. I you need a dual core processor for multi tasking or applications that thread go with the Intel line up.
Intel Core 2 Duo
The Core 2 Duo is the strongest performer in the dual core corral. Though has lower clock speeds than many of the other chips the amount of calculations it can do have gone up. This is thanks in part to more cache memory. The increased cache really puts this in a class of there own they are extremely fast in all departments making them the clear winner on any performance based system. I still feel unimpressed with these chips but there’s no denying that they are the fastest, and most reliable consumer end processors available right now.
Intel Pentium D
The Intel Pentium D is the entry level Intel dual processor chip. I has the highest clock speeds of the lot, and the least power. Really nothing spectacular or interesting about this chips, one chip two processors. Our least favorite of the dual cores, and a real underdog from Intel. The processors themselves run fine and get the job done we just don’t find these to be satisfactory in that they don’t any longer fill any category that needs filling. Not fast enough for strong performance, not inexpensive enough for value, and not really strong enough for anything in between. If you want a dual core look to the AMD X2 or the Intel Core 2 Duo.
Intel Pentium 4
Intel’s single core flagship processor boasting lot of power and the reliability you would expect from Intel. Definitely industry standard and absolutely a good, strong chip; but….. No frills. Ingenuity seems lacking, few new features, clock speed well within our wildest imagination, we’re not impressed. Although if you need a good gaming machine this is the chip for you, the dual core chips have brought the price on these down quite a bit and do next to nothing for video games. This is really the only scenario in which we recommend these chips anymore.