E2140/E2160 or E4300

[carlosvr6]

At work we are planning on buying 50 computers for a new library/resource centre. The last computers we bought at the school were P4 3.0 and 3.2 with 512mb ram which seem to be running ok on the RM CC3 network. The only other intensive s/w used is Macromedia 8.

I have got some prices for machines with the E4300 cpu in but these are coming at slightly more than the school want to pay. I was thinking of changing the cpu's to either the E2140/E2160 to bring the cost down.

How would the E2140/E2160 fair with the current P4 machines we have?

Is ther a significant performance difference between the E2140/E2160 and E4300?

All will be running at stock.

Thanks

 

[carlosvr6]

There's very little performance difference associated with the missing 1MB of cache between the E2160 and E4300, it's probably even less pronounced using basic applications like Word etc.


I really can't see the benefit of spending the extra on the E4300.

How does/would the E2160 compare to the P4 3.2 systems we already have?

 

[carlosvr6]

The slower chips use less power as well, less cash and slower. Cost saving on electricity.

It's the saving on electricity that has made the school choose the Core2duo processors over others.

How much more power would the P4 cpu's be using than these E2140/E2160 cpu's?

 

[carlosvr6]

Firstly, thank you to everyone who has posted in this thread.

Unfortunately AMD is not a solution for us as our biggest supplier of h/w only support/supply Intel (county contract). Hence why i was asking if the E2140/E2160 was considerably outperformed by the E4300 as this might be an option to bring down costs. Originally we were quoted for the E4300.

The comparison i was making for power and performance between a E2140/E2160 and an Intel P4 3.2 was so that i could draw up a rough comparison of our last systems and these new ones to put forward to the deputy headteacher. Need to justify change of cpu and choice of h/w etc before i can go out and buy 50+ pc's. If i can show the extra performance and power savings between the two systems then it will make my life a lot easier.

 

[carlosvr6]

Performance and anual cost from intel:

http://www.intel.com/performance/desktop/eep.htm


Pretty graphs that show the watts used by a range of intel processors - directly compares an old P4 to a new C2D:
http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=2097&page=3

Thanks for the links, just what i was looking for.

Looking at the links makes me want to get rid of my P4 and buy one of these Core2Duo's.

 

[carlosvr6]

Hopefully it's not just the power requirement that's making you think that!

Partly the reason i must admit but mainly because of the better performance and the fact that i might be able to get the parts through work to save a little more money.

New chip means new board though. Not so cheap then!

Not so expensive either if i can sell my old cpu & mobo and pick up a cheap Asrock mobo or similar. Could still use my ddr memory and agp gfx card as i'm not into gaming. Probably a good time to sell the old bits too before they become worthless.