Last Draw for Core 2

[Eug]

The Bay Trail Atom Z3735F (quad core at 1.33 GHz). This is pretty much my beater, take anywhere, use on anything, long battery on the cheap kind of device. I expected this thing to be nearly unusable for even basic web surfing with 2 GB of RAM and a CPU that benches 1/3 of my 6 year old laptop, but I was quite surprised.

4 tabs opened in Firefox (one a video), a 24 page Word document, a small Excel file, and a couple pictures lands me at about 81% RAM usage (1.6/2.0 GB). Lack of disk activity indicates no or very little thrashing.

Aside from the occasional hiccup, my expectations for this thing were far exceeded. Granted, it's a pretty far cry from surfing on Nala (my desktop) with a couple windows of 20 tabs each, but it is what I'd consider to be a good surfing experience, though perhaps my expectations were so unreasonably low that any semblance of usability I find as a good result.

Ah I see. While still slow, it should should be considerably faster than my Atom 330 dual-core 1.6 GHz... as long as you stay under that RAM ceiling... which can be hard though.

Win 10 also helps by the way. My Atom 330 was even slower with Win 7.

edit: I also very much like the fact that I can toss this device onto my bed and type onto it for hours without regard to clogging any intake vents or running out of battery. It's for these sorts of usages why I like the Atom 2-in-1 devices.

That's what Core M is for.

I'm waiting for a while to buy though, since I want hardware 10-bit h.265 HEVC decode support in the next computers I buy. My strategy of waiting until 2009 to buy machines with hardware h.264 AVC decode support served me well, so I'm applying a similar strategy now. I will wait until 2017 to buy new machines with hardware 10-bit h.265 HEVC decode support.

 

[tortillasoup]

As I said, settings are identical. What I'm describing is slight difference in performance, not a hardware or software configuration setting. Even on a simple web page, I can tell the difference.

You still didn't address the issue. You keep saying the settings are the same. You haven't shown that you actually bothered to check to see if hardware acceleration was enabled in both browsers equally. Also, technically speaking, "settings" shouldn't be "identical" because of hardware differences. Also, that laptop may have some certain power saving features enabled that you're not even aware of. Whether that means it idles at a lower clock speed or is slow to increase its clock rate when there is a demand. You mention seeing elements of a page being drawn, on this Core2duo I'm using, the pages on anandtech just appear instantly. I'd have to go to a crappy website like bloomberg.com for there to be a noticeable difference in performance. Computers that new should not have much of a performance delta between the desktop and laptop especially on pages that aren't heavily complex and threaded.

I'm waiting for a while to buy though, since I want hardware 10-bit h.265 HEVC decode support in the next computers I buy. My strategy of waiting until 2009 to buy machines with hardware h.264 AVC decode support served me well, so I'm applying a similar strategy now. I will wait until 2017 to buy new machines with hardware 10-bit h.265 HEVC decode support.

I'd wait for H.265 AND AV1 (Aomedia) support before jumping the gun. But yeah, having H.264 support has made a big difference in performance.

 

[VirtualLarry]

The Bay Trail Atom Z3735F (quad core at 1.33 GHz). This is pretty much my beater, take anywhere, use on anything, long battery on the cheap kind of device. I expected this thing to be nearly unusable for even basic web surfing with 2 GB of RAM and a CPU that benches 1/3 of my 6 year old laptop, but I was quite surprised.

4 tabs opened in Firefox (one a video), a 24 page Word document, a small Excel file, and a couple pictures lands me at about 81% RAM usage (1.6/2.0 GB). Lack of disk activity indicates no or very little thrashing.

Aside from the occasional hiccup, my expectations for this thing were far exceeded. Granted, it's a pretty far cry from surfing on Nala (my desktop) with a couple windows of 20 tabs each, but it is what I'd consider to be a good surfing experience, though perhaps my expectations were so unreasonably low that any semblance of usability I find as a good result.

edit: I also very much like the fact that I can toss this device onto my bed and type onto it for hours without regard to clogging any intake vents or running out of battery. It's for these sorts of usages why I like the Atom 2-in-1 devices.

I agree. I'll miss Bay Trail when it's gone.

Edit: It's like the epitome of "Good Enough Computing".

 

[escrow4]

I agree. I'll miss Bay Trail when it's gone.

Edit: It's like the epitome of "Good Enough Computing".

Good enough ain't good enough when it comes to a desktop. Bay Trail is and was a dog.

Anyone see the Core 2 10 years old benches? Its ancient.

 

[Zodiark1593]

Good enough ain't good enough when it comes to a desktop. Bay Trail is and was a dog.

Anyone see the Core 2 10 years old benches? Its ancient.

I agree that Bay Trail isn't good enough for a desktop, nor to serve as a primary machine at all. Atom serves best as a cheap secondary or tertiary machine. Cheap x86 capability and long battery life for less than $150.

As for the Core 2 Duo, most regular users will benefit far more from an SSD than an entire platform upgrade. If demanding tasks like encoding were thrown into the mix, then yes, a new machine is warranted, but relatively few do much beyond browsing, video, perhaps some web apps, social media and Flash games. For these, a C2D is more than plenty.

 

[Sheep221]

Dude that "an SSD" is ridiculous term, where does everyone learn that stuff?

 

[Zodiark1593]

Dude that "an SSD" is ridiculous term, where does everyone learn that stuff?

Depends on how the abbreviation is pronounced.

If you were to say it abbreviated (S - S - D) you would put "an" before it. "An SSD"

If I were to pronounce the entire series of words, Solid State Drive, then the "a" would be put before it. "a Solid State Drive"

The rule in English vocabulary has something to do with how the word, in this case a noun is pronounced. If the word is pronounced beginning with a vowel, then an "an" is used. If a consonant, then just "a". Something to note is that this rule doesn't take into regard the letters in the word itself, rather, the pronunciation.

In the case of "SSD", the individual letter S is pronounced as "e-ss". As the pronunciation begins with a vowel, you would use an "an" before it.

In the case of "Solid State Drive", only the sound of the letter "S" is used in the pronunciation.

This distinction exists where abbreviations are used. "A SSD" would not be grammatically correct.

 

[MajinCry]

My laptop is a shoddy i3 350m. At stock, it's equivalent to a Core 2 Duo e2700, if I remember correctly. But since the laptop's thermal goop is dried up, I'm having ta underlcock it to around 500Mhz. Still browses just fine with around 12 tabs up.

Chuck in a video, though, and it'll shut down. But eh. The enthusiast lads are just outta touch with how much perf a compy needs. I remember surfing comfortably on my T43 about a year ago, 'afore I got sick of the 40GB hard drive.

 

[Eug]

I'd wait for H.265 AND AV1 (Aomedia) support before jumping the gun. But yeah, having H.264 support has made a big difference in performance.

Hmmm... Is AV1 even on the radar for the near to mid term for Intel chips?

My problem is I might want to upgrade my laptop within the year. My 2009 laptop will no longer be supported by the latest version of OS X coming later this year. Waiting one year is fine, but waiting 3 years probably a bit too long.

But then again, this Core 2 Duo surfs pretty OK. I don't really feel like investing $$$ to upgrade to 8 GB DDR2 though on a machine this old which won't be getting any OS or security updates after this year.

I might change my mind though if installing macOS 12 Sierra is a trivial hack for my laptop. It has the necessary hardware after all.

http://dosdude1.com/sierrapatch.html

 

[tortillasoup]

I'd just stick with the laptop you have until it becomes unusable. There really isn't a huge performance difference with newer computers unless they add more hardware accelerated features which at this point, they haven't.

 

[Eug]

The main reasons I want to upgrade are for high DPI screen, lighter weight, and longer battery life. USB 3 too.

 

[tortillasoup]

The main reasons I want to upgrade are for high DPI screen, lighter weight, and longer battery life. USB 3 too.

get a used one with those features? Just too expensive for a side upgrade IMO.

 

[Sheep221]

Depends on how the abbreviation is pronounced.

If you were to say it abbreviated (S - S - D) you would put "an" before it. "An SSD"

If I were to pronounce the entire series of words, Solid State Drive, then the "a" would be put before it. "a Solid State Drive"

The rule in English vocabulary has something to do with how the word, in this case a noun is pronounced. If the word is pronounced beginning with a vowel, then an "an" is used. If a consonant, then just "a". Something to note is that this rule doesn't take into regard the letters in the word itself, rather, the pronunciation.

In the case of "SSD", the individual letter S is pronounced as "e-ss". As the pronunciation begins with a vowel, you would use an "an" before it.

In the case of "Solid State Drive", only the sound of the letter "S" is used in the pronunciation.

This distinction exists where abbreviations are used. "A SSD" would not be grammatically correct.

Well thanks for info then, didn't know that:awe:

 

[Zodiark1593]

Well thanks for info then, didn't know that:awe:

In a twist of irony, writing seems to be my strongest skill. At one point, due to some habitual procrastination, I wrote an entire research paper on the same day it was due (topic was competitive spending). 10 pages, no rough draft, MLA format with citations. Got an A+ on it. My teacher was quite surprised when I told her.

:whiste:

 

[Hi-Fi Man]

Just got a ThinkPad L460 with an i3 6100U (2.3GHz 3MiB L3, HD 520) to replace my late 2009 unibody MacBook with a Core 2 Duo P7550 (2.26GHz 3MiB L2, GeForce 9400M). The ThinkPad blows away the MacBook when it comes to browsing. My MacBook was still very usable and responsive but ThinkPad is definitely a noticeable and significant upgrade. Both machines had the same SSD and browser as well.

The i3 6100U also runs extremely cool, the fan turns on only under max load and is very quiet with temperatures still being far lower than the Core 2 Duo. Skylake may not be that impressive on the desktop but when thrown into a mobile form factor it's extremely impressive.

 

[nerp]

Just got a ThinkPad L460 with an i3 6100U (2.3GHz 3MiB L3, HD 520) to replace my late 2009 unibody MacBook with a Core 2 Duo P7550 (2.26GHz 3MiB L2, GeForce 9400M). The ThinkPad blows away the MacBook when it comes to browsing. My MacBook was still very usable and responsive but ThinkPad is definitely a noticeable and significant upgrade. Both machines had the same SSD and browser as well.

The i3 6100U also runs extremely cool, the fan turns on only under max load and is very quiet with temperatures still being far lower than the Core 2 Duo. Skylake may not be that impressive on the desktop but when thrown into a mobile form factor it's extremely impressive.

Sure is. The i5-6200U in my x260 is quite the chip. Speedy but runs so cool and low power. The real improvements in recent processor generations are really evident in the laptop stuff.

 

[tortillasoup]

According to various benchmarks, it's only 100% faster. That's not really a whole hell of a lot. Would not be surprised if your webbrowser didn't have hardware acceleration enabled. A lot of older systems pre-sandybridge have their hardware acceleration features disabled and you have to force enable them to take advantage of it.

Night and day difference when I force hardware acceleration on my P8400 core 2 duo thinkpad T400 which by default has hardware acceleration disabled in Firefox or in Chrome. I also assembled an older T410 with a 2540m Core i5 and the performance difference between the two machines isn't noticeable at all likely because I have hardware acceleration in the browsers force enabled.

 

[BUTCH1]

I too still reside in socket 775 land, get a xeon quad on Ebay for like $25-40, My rig is basically the same as yours but I use the Xeon OC'ed to 3.9Ghz. Yea, throwing CPU$$ at 775 is dumb but not at the $30 level. With a 7790 my score is 6.9, meh, I can live with that, I don't play many games or do much in the way of encoding either. I found this huge aluminum HSF at a local shop for $7 used, I think it's made by Foxxcon, I call it the "aluminum meatloaf" LOL.

 

[Hi-Fi Man]

According to various benchmarks, it's only 100% faster. That's not really a whole hell of a lot. Would not be surprised if your webbrowser didn't have hardware acceleration enabled. A lot of older systems pre-sandybridge have their hardware acceleration features disabled and you have to force enable them to take advantage of it.

Night and day difference when I force hardware acceleration on my P8400 core 2 duo thinkpad T400 which by default has hardware acceleration disabled in Firefox or in Chrome. I also assembled an older T410 with a 2540m Core i5 and the performance difference between the two machines isn't noticeable at all likely because I have hardware acceleration in the browsers force enabled.

Hardware acceleration was enabled on the MacBook (GeForce 9400M) and I think most people would consider 100% as quite a bit.

The i3 6100U loads pages faster, runs the heavy pages a bit smoother, and higher than 1080p is also now viewable.

 

[2is]

You open up a dozen tabs, start a 60p video somewhere, run word and an email client, then I usually have an FTP client open, files are going to different HDDs, might crack an encoder open a Core 2 will just melt. If you just to want to browse Xvideos then sure use a Core 2. If you actually use a PC for work then nope. I've hit 4-5GB base usage on my 16GB 5930K box.

I don't cheap out on desktops. They are the centrepiece I work on. Everything else is tablet or phone. Core 2 is useless for me at least. And if I used a box near every day I wouldn't use an i3 either.

This is quite a different statement then the one you made earlier and came under scrutiny for. You grouped an i3 into the same category as a Core 2 and only provided the task of web browsing. Now you've eliminated the i3 from the argument and added a half dozen other simultaneous tasks.

 

[tortillasoup]

Hardware acceleration was enabled on the MacBook (GeForce 9400M) and I think most people would consider 100% as quite a bit.

The i3 6100U loads pages faster, runs the heavy pages a bit smoother, and higher than 1080p is also now viewable.

Did you actually go into chrome://flags or about:troubleshooting for firefox? Or are you just assuming the hardware acceleration features were enabled? Pics?

 

[Hi-Fi Man]

Did you actually go into chrome://flags or about:troubleshooting for firefox? Or are you just assuming the hardware acceleration features were enabled? Pics?

Yes I did go into about:troubleshooting to verify (quartz drawing, OpenGL compositor, and WebGL renderer)... I don't have the machine anymore.

 

[Mir96TA]

I think I am going to sell this MB, CPU, and Memory. Buy some thing like i3-6300 MB, and memory. It uses lot of electric. Now I have a metered electricity, now I need to reserved.
This upgrade should save me 100 watts in TDP.
What will be a good combo ?
Also what is the value ($$)for old MB CPU and memory ?
Thanks

 

[Thinker_145]

Till the end of 2015 I was using a Core 2 Quad @ 3.2Ghz and I can say for sure that it is more than adequate for all sorts of general computing and casual usage. A dozen chrome tabs are not a problem. SSD is the most important thing to have for smooth general usage and of course adequate ram is always important.

Sent from my HTC One M9

 

[nathanddrews]

I recently rebuilt a few C2D and C2Q machines, complete wipe and reinstall of Windows 7 SP1. Even with 4GB RAM, the machines felt very fast for general computing. What changed was allowing Windows Update to download and install updates. Applications took longer to load, files took longer to access, it was very interesting to watch performance degrade before my eyes simply by updating Windows. If I had more time, I would do benchmarks to quantify what I feel.