Computer System Speed Comparison

Computer Speed Tests for the Average Person

This section is my attempt at showing the differences between processors and how their performance ranks.

Computer Speed Analysis:

CPU Descrip.	CPU Speed	CPU Cores	CPU FSB	CPU Cache	64 Bit	Mobo FSB	Sys RAM	Video	CPU Rank	Benchmark
AMD Athlon X3	3.2 GHz	3	2 GHz	1 mb	Yes	1 GHz	4 GB	ATI 5450	2715	4.09 sec.
AMD Athlon X2	2.4 GHz	2	1 GHz	1 mb	Yes	1 GHz	2 GB	ATI X600	1050	9.15 sec.
Intel Dual E2140	1.6 GHz	2	800 MHz	1 mb	Yes	1 GHz	1 GB	TBD	907	10.75 sec.
AMD Athlon64 3800	2.4 GHz	1	1 GHz	512 mb	Yes	1 GHz	2 GB	On Board	610	14.99 sec.
AMD Athlon64 3500	2.2 GHz	1	1 GHz	512 mb	Yes	1 GHz	2 GB	Nvidia 6600 GT	567	16.15 sec.
AMD Sempron 3100	1.8 GHz	1	256 MHz	256 KB	No	533 MHz	768 MB	ATI X300	450	19.20 sec.
Pentium 4	2.8 GHz	1	533 MHz	512 kb	Yes	533 MHz	768 MB	ATI X300	415	20.98 sec.
Celeron	2.6 GHz	1	400 MHz	256 kb	No	400 MHz	768 MB	On Board	295	20.98 sec.

Take a look at the above chart and see how your computer stacks up. All of the machines shown above will get on the internet and surf the web. If you need a budget gaming machine I would stick with machine with CPU ranks above 550. What does this mean for you? Do not overpay for older Pentium 4 machines and before you shell out your hard earned dough on a computer make sure you check your CPU's performance rating.

So What Does this List Mean?

In layman's terms I would never buy a used or refurbished computer slower than a Pentium 4 2.8GHz and even then I would not pay more than $40 -$50 for it and only if it came with a decent amount of memory and good hard drive. My most surprising budget build was the AMD Athlon 64 3500. It was fast enough of a machine to play Nexuiz, a 3D fast paced FPS for Linux. I am sure the 2GB of RAM and Nvidia 6600GT video card helped.

Data Sources: CPU rankings were obtained from www.passmark.com, an excellent source of CPU data. The benchmark numbers are actual measurements that I received from performing the CNC Blowfish test on the Linux Mint 11 operating system.