What Determines Computer Speed?

[program not responding]

Dear Forum,
I have a 5 year old Dell Dimension 4700. It is a P4 running at 3GHz, with 1GB RAM.
Looking at the new Dells, they are like 2.5GHz. How could this be? Do they run slower, or faster than my 5 year old?
Thanks!
Mike
 

[Calum]

Newer processors (most likely, in this case, either Athlon X2 or Core 2 Duo) are much more efficient.
They also have more than one core, so can process more than one thing at once.
The speed difference is incredible - GHz is only one measurement of speed, and can only be used to directly compare processors from the same family.
Think of GHz as engine size on a car - an old 6 litre engine in a tank or something will be slow, but a turbocharged 1.4 litre in a small car will be very quick.  Not an exact analogy, but I hope this helps a little.

[Blade285]

The RAM is usually faster and there is more of it in newer computers.
SATAII for hard drive connections also speeds up the computer a lot.
PCI-E 2.0 is also a lot faster (for graphics card connectors).
Together with dual or quad core, it makes a very significant difference- and 45nm technology means processors can have more power and a higher cache size than in the same space of the old ones.

Basically, everything has got smaller and therefore faster in the same amount of space

[program not responding]

Thanks guys!
One more question: Is it worth getting Vista now, or still better to go with XP? I will probably still be using Office '2000.
Thanks!
Mike
 

[Karnac]

Stick with XP......wait for the next Windows OS...its being fasttracked due to the publics disdain for Vista.

[Glitch]

The overall processing speed of your computer is based on your CPU as Calum has stated...

Any additional hardware, such as RAM, SATA drives, etc...does not make your computer's processing speed any faster...though it does have an impact on your computer's overall performance.

[Blade285]

On that computer Vista wouldn't run very well. You need over 1gb for it to run at all nicely. Windows 7 is in beta release now and is basically what Vista should have been.
Even Windows 7 won't run very well on that computer these days, unfortunately.