Upgrade to what and why?
Republished by permission from Accessweb

What are you really upgrading?

It is almost impossible to try and keep up with technology. Every day something smaller, better and faster is developed and launched. We therefore don’t recommend or expect that you have the newest technology in your practice, but it may be a good idea to have a better understanding of upgrading your computer and what it really entails.

Understanding The Processor:

The processor, or CPU, executes program instructions and is the main component of any computer. 

First of all we have a choice of 4 kinds of Intel processors, and this is where the most confusion comes from as there are significant price differences:

Intel Celeron – the low budget processor –

The Celeron brand refers to a range of Intel's CPUs for budget/value personal computers. Considered Intel's "economic" processor, the Celeron branded processors have complemented Intel's higher-performance (and more expensive) brands. Intel has given the brand the motto, "delivering great quality at an exceptional value." Celeron processors can run almost all computer programs, but their performance is somewhat lower when compared to similar, but higher priced, Intel CPU brands.

For example, the Celeron brand will often have less cache memory, or have advanced features purposely disabled. These missing features have had a variable impact on performance. Many of the Celeron designs have achieved a very high "bang to the buck," while at other times, the performance difference has been noticeable.

For example, some intense application software, such as PC games, programs for video compression, video editing, or solid modeling (CAD, engineering analysis, computer graphics and animation, rapid prototyping, medical testing, product visualization, and visualization of scientific research), etc. may not perform as well on the Celeron family. This has been the primary justification for the higher cost of other Intel CPU brands vs. the Celeron.

Now the Core 2 duo and Dual Core thing?

Dual Core is simply a generic term referring to any processor package with two physical CPUs in one. The Pentium D, Core Duo, Core 2 Duo are all current CPUs that have dual cores in one package.

• The Pentium D is simply two Pentium 4 Prescott CPUs inefficiently paired together and ran as dual core.
• The Core Duo is Intel's first generation dual core processor based upon the Pentium M (a Pentium III-4 hybrid) made mostly for laptops (though a few motherboard manufacturers have released desktop boards supporting the Core Duo CPU), and is much more efficient than Pentium D.
• The Core 2 Duo is Intel's second generation (hence, Core 2) processor made for desktops and laptops designed from the ground up to be fast while not consuming nearly as much power as previous CPUs.

Note - Intel has dropped the Pentium name in favor of the Core architecture as Intel is restructuring and refocusing it's efforts to become number one again (and are doing a fine job, might I add).
There are, of course, other differences, but that is the basics of dual cores.

The Extreme is Quad Core!

Intel quad-core technology is a type of multi-core technology that specifically introduces four complete execution cores within a single processor for an increased performance in multitasking and multimedia tasks. Intel quad-core technology is available for desktop PCs, workstations, and servers. Intel quad-core technology is the best for performance from gaming to high end graphics. This is the best there is at this stage, and the most expensive.

Why do I need a screen card?

First of all shared graphics make your PC a lot cheaper and this is the way they usually go when you upgrade. However a graphics card speeds up the processing of graphics by handling it on its own and leaves the computer processor to do processing work. Graphic cards thus take a lot of processing power out of the total.

Do not hesitate to contact your closest Med-e-Mass regional branch to find out more about upgrading your computer!