[mythtv-users] What is a "dual core processor"?

[Ian Clark]

2008/12/4 Marc Barrett <mnealbarrett at cox.net>:
[snip]
>
> There are older processors which are still technically  "dual core", and I was
> wondering if they would work.  There is the Pentium D, and the "Pentium
> Dual Core".  As well as many processors from AMD, but I admit that I know
> very little about AMD.  Which of these older "dual core" processor lines
> would work, and how fast of a system would I need?

It's actually quite a difficult question to answer. Most dual core
CPUs you can actually buy will probably manage ok though. Especially
if you offload a lot of the work onto the graphics card. (See the
VDAPU stuff discussed here recently.)

For what it's worth, my mythbox is a 2.4GHz dual core AMD system, with
a Geforce 7 gfx card. It uses about 52% cpu to decode and play BBC-HD.

My laptop is a Pentium-M at 1.4GHz and can almost play the same
content... almost.

> For example, I saw a Pentium D system at 3Ghz on Dell's outlet site for under $300.

This is where it gets a bit confusing, intel decided to keep the
pentium name for their low end processors, however most of the current
Pentium processors are actually based on the core2 core, rather than
the pentium 4 core they were a few years ago. Unfortunatly they were
both called the Pentium-D if I remember correctly?

A good indicator is the speed, if it's around the 2GHz mark you'll
probably be getting a core2 based system; but it's always best to
check. (Look for things like 'Wolfdale' and 'Allendale', these are the
2 cores to look out for, these are core2 based cores, with a reduced
amount of cache and a lower FSB, they're supposed to be quite good.)

> The cheapest  "Core 2 Duo" is about $400, for a 1.8Ghz system.
>
If you want a myth system it's worth looking at AMD, they're quite
cheap also, and have some good motherboards out there.

You can pick up a dual core AMD, with a couple of gig of memory on a
microATX motherboard with integrated geforce graphics (for the VDAPU
stuff) for around 145 UKP, and that's a dual core 3GHz CPU and decent
corsair memory.

Cheers

Ian