The only things I do on a computer are internet, basic applications (word, excel, powerpoint, etc) and media on iTunes. I don't play games or edit video or anything of that nature. Is there any benefit at all in getting a computer with a high-end processor? One consideration is future-proofing myself against obsolesence. Will my computer be more useful 5 years from now if I get a quad-core processor now instead of a dual-core processor?
Porn!
You can get a dual core cheap now. Toshiba are good and will last
Waste of money. Look where the price break is relative to speed and # of cores and buy that. For example if they want an extra $10, $20, $70, then select the $20 upgrade. That's what I do. Also if you are buying a laptop buy from a big $B company like HP, Toshiba, Sony, Apple. Why because notebooks are made cheap and break easily and the big companies have the best customer service.
Based upon your computing needs, you really don't need a quad-core processor machine. As the previous post said, you can probably find a fairly nice dual-core machine with a healthy amount of RAM at a bargain price, and it will still suit your needs 3-5 years from now.
If you want to future proof yourself, make sure to get one with HDMI out, USB 3.0, a solid state drive, and a "sandybridge" processor (intel core i series). Most computers released right now don't have this stuff, but in about a month they all will and it is a major leap forward. So I highly recommend waiting about a month or two because you will be able to buy a computer that is many times more powerful at the same price. Even if you're just dicking around on the internet, all this stuff will really enhance the experience.
That's way too expensive to get the latest a greatest. It's a gamble because the lastest hw interfaces may not take off or they may quickly become obsolete. With cloud computing, virtualization, Wimax/4G LTE/blazing NTT 4G, and hundred CPU core servers coming, who knows what consumer computers will be like in a few years. We may just need iPads and iPad clones ? Who knows. That's why I always buy the most reasonably priced consumer computers and devices sold in the present.
This is ridiculous. You can always wait for something better. Why get a 32 nm sandybridge processor when you can wait 1 year and get a 22 nm ivybridge processor. By that point entry level will be quad-core and high end will have 8 cores. You can always wait for something better. Just get something that works for what you want. If all you want to do is internet, word processing, light image editing, listening to music then you don't need much
The Oracle wrote:
If you want to future proof yourself, make sure to get one with HDMI out, USB 3.0, a solid state drive, and a "sandybridge" processor (intel core i series). Most computers released right now don't have this stuff, but in about a month they all will and it is a major leap forward. So I highly recommend waiting about a month or two because you will be able to buy a computer that is many times more powerful at the same price. Even if you're just dicking around on the internet, all this stuff will really enhance the experience.
There's no end to wasting money on performance. You can get the fastest single Supercomputer CPU in the world, the Sparc T3 by Oracle/Fujitsu, or the most cores on a single chip, 100 by Tilera. Just buy the best value for the best price you can find today.
I still use my Commodore 64 - only computer I've ever needed.
bowel movement expert wrote:
The only things I do on a computer are internet, basic applications (word, excel, powerpoint, etc) and media on iTunes. I don't play games or edit video or anything of that nature. Is there any benefit at all in getting a computer with a high-end processor? One consideration is future-proofing myself against obsolesence. Will my computer be more useful 5 years from now if I get a quad-core processor now instead of a dual-core processor?
The biggest problem people have with "second tier" machines is the way they manage them. More often than not it's unnecessary services running in the background, routine maintenance (defrag, disk cleanup, etc) that is not done regularly and bloated software (IE/firefox, outlook, word, excel) that slows a machine down. Take a machine from 3 years ago, strip it down to core applications and it will do just fine for another couple of years. If nothing else, add more memory, remove programs you haven't run in more than 6 months, disable unnecessary services and you should be fine.
Understand that the trend of new machines is to focus on the integration of more powerful graphics. Essentially, the TV and the PC will merge a few years down the road; but, machines are not there yet. Most people don't really need the true computing power multi-core machines offer in efforts to compensate for under-developed OS graphics subsystems as a lot of this processing if off-loaded to the graphics card anyway. Much of the current marketing drive to dual/quad processors is unnecessary: 1) because software is rarely written to take advantage of parallel cores as of yet and 2) most applications don't utilize that much juice because they are still focusing on the 32-bit address space. Many of the hidden utilities absorbing the power of modern processors are internal housekeeping and, in most cases, truly unnecessary. Get a cheap machine, keep it clean and save your money.