In continuation with our desktop optimization series I am going to talk about the Central Processing Unit or the CPU. The CPU is like the engine of a car. In cars engines are matched to meet the performance of the car. If a four cylinder engine is put in a semi truck that is expected to transport cargo across the country it is not going to go very far. The same is true of CPU’s in a computer. The more horsepower your CPU has the more computations your computer can complete in a timely manner.
CPU’s come in many different sizes and designs. Some CPU’s are meant to be work horses that use a lot of power and do a lot of work. There are times when a computer needs to be power conscious and a smaller processor is used even though it has less horsepower. An example of this is a cell phone, laptop or tablet PC. While the end user would like to have as much processing power as possible the battery life of the computer has to be considered. More heat is also generated from faster processors. CPU manufacturers are constantly trying to get more processing power out of their chips while consuming less electricity.
What is most important to the end-user is that the computer is able to run all of their programs without their computer crashing. If you are buying a computer that costs $400 you almost certainly purchased the slowest processor and RAM that was available for that computer. That doesn’t necessarily mean that all hope is lost for that computer. Brand name computers such as Dell, HP, IBM, etc. engineer their computers in most cases from the ground up. That means the component are designed to work with each other. The problem with that some components are proprietary. That means if you have purchase a computer that does not have enough CPU horsepower you may or may not be able to upgrade to a faster processor. Also you may only be able to upgrade the CPU to a small family of processors that are designed to work with that computer. Custom built computers are a bit more flexible in that components are more easily swapped because they are more generically manufactured.
Bottom Line: Some older computers can have their CPU’s upgraded to faster processors. This will help increase the speed and productivity of an older computer. When purchasing new computers I usually get the 2nd to best processor that can be purchased with the system. The 2nd best processor is fast but cheaper, more stable and more people are using it because it has been around longer. I almost never go with the cheapest processor. You usually get what you pay for. Users who are creating animations or 3-D renderings it is sometimes necessary to get the best processor.
If you would like to read more about CPU’s you can do it here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_processing_unit
If you could care less about CPU’s and just want someone else to think about it and take care of it we at Sublime Computers Services will do just that.
Adam Bell
Senior Systems / Network Engineer
Sublime Computer Services
We make your technology work
615-942-0850
adam@sublimecomp.com
P.S.
Custom Computers: Custom built computers are not always better than a brand name computer. If you are going to have someone build you a custom computer make sure they have a long track record of building good machines.
Brand Named Computers: For businesses I recommend brand name computers. (We work mainly with Dell). I recommend a three year warranty on systems. The warranty costs less for the customer than having us come out and troubleshoot and fix the computer just once.
