Hyperthreading help

[carlosvr6]

To cut a long story short. We brought 50 new pcs & monitors for the school i work in recently, from a supplier well known to most education establishments.

Since these PC's (Pentium 4 3.0 HT) have been installed they keep randomly freezing. So this carries on for over two weeks and then the supplier comes up with a fix. The fix is to turn off Hyperthreading in bios. So now were in a situation where the computers are working fine but we are arguing that we have paid for something which in effect is now running at a slower speed. Today they have turned round and said that if we can prove they are running slower they will replace them all (they are already in the process of changing all 50 of the Xerox TFT monitors).

So i wanted to ask are we right in saying that we have paid for something effectively running at a slower speed?

If so, how do we prove this? Any good links etc.

Thanks

 

[carlosvr6]

are they custom built i.e. is it down to your spec you choose or is this a product they sell loads of ?

MW

Not custom built. We get a list of preferred suppliers (usually 3) from the local authority. From there we have a choice of computers they are able to supply. We can take out things like cdroms, floppy drives etc but very limited really regarding specs.

 

[carlosvr6]

what are they used for ?

MW

Nothing too intensive.

Mostly Office 2003 and the Internet. Year 10 and 11 also do a lot of Publisher, Frontpage and use Mayura draw.

 

[carlosvr6]

Faster or not, nevertheless, you ordered P4 HT PC's and that's what you paid for. If you have to disable HT for the PC to run, then this is obviously a manufacturing fault and they should take them back and replace them.

But, in practical terms that would be a lot of hassle, i assume they are already installed and operating? If not get them replaced. If so, try get a refund for the fault, but upgrade the BIOS and XP to get HT working!

That is exactly my point as i think that some sort of refund should be made. If they were to replace them i would get them to send someone to take them out and install them because it would be a waste of 2 days work for me and my colleague. Would also mean students cant use the two computer rooms for a day or two.

Same with the BIOS really. If they need updating then really they should get someone in to do it.

We are ordering another 60 computers in Easter and i sure wont be ordering anything from them, even if they are the cheapest.

 

[carlosvr6]

If they don't work as advertised, then they are not of merchantable quality, hence you can send them back for replacement to something that is of merchantable quality.

Can you link me to where you got the information from please?

Thanks

 

[carlosvr6]

As said, you've paid for HT systems and haven't got that. There is plenty of benchmarks on the web that will help you prove your case that HT is faster in general desktop usage than a non-HT machine. It sounds like they just can't be bothered to send someone down to update the BIOS of 50 machines.

Not being lazy but could you link me to any sites from which i can print off some benchmarks. I can find some webpages but need them to be from reliable sources to present a case.

They are sending someone to replace the 50 monitors though cos my department sure isn't spending the time doing them.

 

[carlosvr6]

Thank you everyone for your help.

This is the reply i got from Intel:

An Intel(R) processor with Hyper-Threading Technology will be able to perform tow threads almost at the same time, while the processor without Hyper-Threading Technology will be able to perform only one thread at the same time.
Please keep in mind that the software that you are running needs to be designed to support Hyper-Threading Technology. If you need to know if the software is designed to support Hyper-Threading Technology, I would recommend you to contact the software developer.

I will put everything forward now to the Deputy Head and he can discuss it with the supplier.