By Suzana What is the Best Laptop Processor
One of the most frequently asked questions when choosing which new laptop to buy is which processor is the best one to get. The answer is not as simple as naming a processor brand or model. There are a number of things to consider in order to determine which processor is the best for your needs.
First of all there are only two main commercially available processor manufacturers: AMD and Intel, so you will only be choosing from two brands. Chances are you have already heard about Intel processors such as the Intel Pentium 4, Pentium Dual Core, Core 2 Duo, etc. Quite a few people do the foolish thing and buying an Intel processor because it is the brand they have heard of, or because uncle bob says to get one.
In truth, you should never buy a processor because of its brand, as the brand has no effect on the processors performance. Instead, you will need to search the internet for reviews of specific processor models so that you can determine their performance levels. What you need to look for, are performance benchmarks of each processor when running a certain program. These results will usually be expressed as graphs to help you make sense of the results.
The other thing to look out for is how well the processor you are looking at performs in the programs you will want to use on your new laptop. There is no point buying a processor that is good at playing games if all you want is to surf the internet and use office applications as the processor will be way too powerful for your needs and you will end up unnecessarily paying for performance you will never use.
If looking through processor reviews seems a little too daunting for you then don’t worry just go by the following recommendations. Those of you looking use your laptop for office applications, email or just internet surfing, will be fine with the cheapest laptop processors on the market today. Any single core AMD Sempron or Intel Celeron processor will be more then enough for your needs. If you want to do all of the above but at the same time chat to friends on instant messaging or VOIP programs like MSN messenger and Skype, listen to music or watch videos and movies, then you will want to look for any dual core processor. Even the cheapest of the dual cores will do such as the Intel Celeron Dual Core or the AMD Sempron X2.
It is only when you want to do computer gaming, video and music editing or graphic design that you will need a more powerful processor such as an AMD Athlon Dual Core / Turion or Intel Pentium Dual Core / Core 2 duo with more than 2Ghzs. However please bare in mind that for these programs you will also need a dedicated graphics card so dont splash out on the laptop with the fastest processor you see, check if it has a good graphics card too.
