CPU's, what's the difference...

[Hitman]

Hey, well I've been looking at CPU's on ebuyer, and I couldn't help but notice the price and speed of this processor:

Intel Pentium 4 651 3.4GHz 800FSB Socket 775 2MB L2 Cache OEM Processor
£64.61 inc vat
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/142969

Compared to this one:

Intel Core i7 940 2.93GHz Socket 1366 8MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor
£459.87 inc vat
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/151478

I'm not great with the parts of a PC, but I know a bit; the first one is faster and cheaper, yet the second is a tad slower yet more expensive... how come? Has it something to do with the OEM thing? I also see that the Level 2 cache is less, but still. I thought maybe it's because there's no heatsink or fan, but they're cheap too.

Could somebody clear up why it's cheaper and faster... thanks!

[Recursion]

Pentium 4 is far outdated now, the Core i7 runs on far better technology to put it in simpler terms.

[Hitman]

Righto, but the price difference for what you get... I don't understand why.

[Kyle!]

Righto, but the price difference for what you get... I don't understand why.

It's not always to do with the clock speed, the i7 is faster basically.

[N!ck]

Hey, well I've been looking at CPU's on ebuyer, and I couldn't help but notice the price and speed of this processor:

Intel Pentium 4 651 3.4GHz 800FSB Socket 775 2MB L2 Cache OEM Processor
£64.61 inc vat
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/142969

Compared to this one:

Intel Core i7 940 2.93GHz Socket 1366 8MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor
£459.87 inc vat
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/151478

I'm not great with the parts of a PC, but I know a bit; the first one is faster and cheaper, yet the second is a tad slower yet more expensive... how come? Has it something to do with the OEM thing? I also see that the Level 2 cache is less, but still. I thought maybe it's because there's no heatsink or fan, but they're cheap too.

Could somebody clear up why it's cheaper and faster... thanks!

a) The core i7 is quad core (so in essence, 4 * 2.93GHz)
b) Pentium 4s get very hot and generally aren't very good (considering you could get a much better performing AMD CPU for a similar price)
c) The i7 is much more efficient than a P4. That means it can do more processing with each GHz frequency it has. As a model, for instance, say the P4 could do 2 calculations per Hz, the i7 may be able to do 3 calculations per Hz. Therefore, in this model a single 2GHz i7 core would be as fast as a 3GHz P4 core. You can't really compare them like that though which is why it's just a model.

[Recursion]

An i7 at say 1.8GHz will outperform that P4.

[Hitman]

Ah, thanks for clearing that up guys. I never knew that, always just thought it was the clock speed that mattered.

Thanks again!

[Tomm]

Also the i7 supports a faster FSB and DDR3 RAM.