Originally posted by Grantref
This should not be your biggest concern. Why should it bother you if you get a processor that is phased out in a month or two, as long as the processor you get is a good value for the price and meets your needs? I mean, you can still buy pentium 4 processors and motherboards for them, even though they've been long-since replaced by Core and then Core 2.
This is true, but it all depends what you're trying to do. Picking up on my earlier post:

* Heavy games?
You'll probably want a superb video card. Today's video card might play tomorrow's games, but yesterday's card probably won't.

* Number crunching / simulation?
Major work like ray tracing, molecule folding, and stuff like that, will need some serious grunt in the CPU. You don't want to buy yourself a P4 for this work.

* Word processing and basic internet work?
You have few needs. Get yourself something secondhand, P4 is fine, P3 might even do if you're on a tight budget. (I wouldn't recommend anything less than P3. Not worth the hassle.)

* On-site work with clients or suppliers?
Get yourself a laptop, and if your business depends on it, make sure it looks professional. But even so, a P4 laptop will probably suffice - Pentium-M certainly would. No need for dual core and stuff.


I saw an Intel ad for their dual core CPUs a little while back, but I can't trace it now Basically, it was saying that dual core means you don't notice when Windows Update is running. That's all. Worth spending heaps more dollars on? Not yet, I reckon. Most Windows apps can't exploit multiple CPUs because they're simply not written to. In fact, using dual core to perfect advantage is practically impossible in an office environment - you'd only get the true benefit if you're doing some kind of heavy analysis. (You may get _some_ benefit, but not a 100% increase in productivity.) Everyone's waiting on someone else. Waiting for RAM. Waiting for hard disk. Waiting for the user (this is very common). Waiting for the user to finish browsing Thresh Forums..... well, apart from that.