Pentium 3s

Is the only difference between a Intel Pentium 4 and intel core duo the temperature the processor produces?

In the market for used desktop that will be used for music/internet/spreadsheet/pics/etc. I know how much space/ram I need..but I do not know what processor to get. I heard that the Pentium 4 processors were just as fast as the core duos but the core duos were more efficient and ran cooler thus making them a tad bit faster.

Public Comments

1. Not true. A Core 2 Duo will significantly outperform a Pentium 4 in virtually every application. A Core 2 Duo is built on a far more advanced core microarchitecture that allows it to do more instructions per clock cycle, so a 2GHz Core 2 will easily beat a 3Ghz P4. A Core 2 also has 2 or 4 cores, compared to only 1 on a Pentium 4, which really helps out in certain applications and in multi-tasking. Other than that, yes a Core 2 generates less heat and draws less power than a P4. If you look at this chart, a 1.5GHz Core 2 Duo scores about 300 more points than a 3.6GHz Pentium 4. A 3Ghz Core 2 Duo scores about 4 times more than a 3.6Ghz Pentium 4. http://www.cpubenchmark.net/common_cpus.html Also, you probably want to check this out: http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2795