Old Computer Question... Confused

[tMac85]

So I purchased a computer 3 years ago, and was reading the box and noticed its specs.

It reads...

Averatec 6100
Intel Pent. 4 Processer at 2.8 GHZ
15.4 Wide Screen
512 MB
40GB hd
802.11g wireless.



now the thing that got me is that it is a 2.8 GHz
isnt that very good for a computer 3 years old.
im not very good with computers but apple laptops dont even go to 2.8.

could someone explain if this is a great computer or just average ( i understand memory and harddrive are not the best but...)

and what would you say it is worth. its hardrive was just replaced and is like new.

thanks

 

[Much Ado]

That's a 2.8Ghz Pentium 4. Not a patch on the Core2Duos, i'm afraid.

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/common_cpus.html
See the link above, it helps show how Ghz means very little when comparing chips.

 

[Muzzway]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megahertz_Myth

Yep, gigahertz are not everything when comparing processor performance.

 

[GilGrissom]

The family desktop we have is nearly 4 years old now, that's 1Gb RAM, 3.6GHz P4, 360Gb Hard drive and 256Mb Graphics.

So yours is probably around average for 3 years as this one was a high spec one at the time.

Remember that Apple (as with most people for that matter) use dual core now so the GHz number isn't the only factor (again, it was never really the only deciding factor anyway).

Also remember that before Intel, Apple used PowerPC processors which enters us all back into the age old argument of "PowerPC Versus Intel". Basically PowerPC processors were usually lower on the GHz number than the Intel counterparts, but that didn't always make them slower. So that's why Apple has never really had GHz numbers that high.

 

[tMac85]

so what would you say it was worth? I mean is it a good computer to keep ( i now have a mbp.) or should i sell it?

thanks for the quick response as well.

-t

 

[goodtimes5]

If you have a MBP already, sell the old laptop.

 

[maestro55]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/3A109a Safari/419.3)

It is only worth what people Are willing to pay. I say keep it and install Linux on it as you won't be able to fetch over $300 for it seeing as there are so many more faster machines at low low prices on ebay and such as it is. Not a bad system and would run Linux with no problem.