Two old PC's which is faster?

sswats · 10 Jan 2014 at 13:16

I have 2 office PCs. One will be my primary and one will be a secondary in another office.

1st is a Athlon X4 640, 4GB DDR3.
2nd is a Intel Q6600, 4GB DDR2.

Neither is clocked. Although the Intel has an aftermarket cooler on if I choose to. X4 has the standard cooler.
Both have an old 64GB SSD.

Main use will be very basic Photoshop (just airbrush pictures quickly) and other office applications.
Which should I choose to be main PC.

edit. I have spare memory for the Intel so I can go upto 8gb. But its still DDR2.

NutterzUK · 10 Jan 2014 at 13:18

Does either have a graphics card?

NutterzUK · 10 Jan 2014 at 13:22

Based on only the information you have:

PassMark scores:

Athlon: 3,461
Q6600: 2,974

Source: http://www.cpubenchmark.net/

Your Athlon has DDR3 memory, your Intel has DDR2.

The Athlon should be faster. (I think anyway).

NutterzUK · 10 Jan 2014 at 13:23

sswats said:
edit. I have spare memory for the Intel so I can go upto 8gb. But its still DDR2.

Depends how much you use. If you are using more than 4, it will make it faster. If you're not multi-tasking a lot or using memory intensive applications, it will make no difference to have more memory.

Morfinel · 10 Jan 2014 at 13:23

Athlon would be faster especially with ddr3

Stas823 · 10 Jan 2014 at 13:25

I would go for the Athlon system due to ddr3

sswats · 10 Jan 2014 at 13:26

The Intel has an Nvidia NVS300. The AMD is using onboard. I think AMD 3200. cant remember exact.

edit. Cool thanks. AMD it is.

MooMoo444 · 10 Jan 2014 at 13:27

The AMD system, faster CPU, faster memory. Can't go wrong.

Morfinel · 10 Jan 2014 at 13:27

NutterzUK said:
Depends how much you use. If you are using more than 4, it will make it faster. If you're not multi-tasking a lot or using memory intensive applications, it will make no difference to have more memory.

Only if his OS is supporting more then 4GB it need to be 64-bit

sw1ft · 10 Jan 2014 at 13:27

As above and which version of photoshop are you using?

If you're using a recent version of photoshop you may find yourself getting frustrated with both systems really, especially if you're using onboard gfx with both.

On paper the AMD has it but depending on your other hardware the Q6600 could be clocked past it, though you'll still be on DDR2.

sw1ft · 10 Jan 2014 at 13:29

Morfinel said:
Only if his OS is supporting more then 4GB it need to be 64-bit

This.

If the OS does allow it, photoshop can be configured as to how much memory it is allowed so the extra 4gb could help there.