[sclug] Cheap'n'nasty Tesco Linux machines

[Jason Rivers]

...

On Fri, Mar 14, 2008 at 9:28 AM, Phillip Chandler <
phillip.chandler at ntlworld.com> wrote:

> My understanding of Dual Core (pretty slim actually, but here goes) is
> that both are only used for things like multitasking and gaming etc. So
> theoretically if your a home user just wanting to do basic stuff like
> check email, surf, write letter to auntie Mildred in Australia, then
> dual core is a waste of money because to do the basics you would only be
> using one core. Therefore the 2nd core is redundant, the first one has
> to be running at 100% for other work to be transferred over to the send
> core. Dual core would also be perfect for places like NASA or a
> university doing vast computations.
>
> If your using one for burning a dvd and the second for playing doom 3,
> then dual core kicks in and works great. But who would be burning a dvd
> and playing doom while their waiting ?
>

urm.... me? - I do that alot - not Doom - but any game really, and they're
normally high end demanding games - but few of them support multi thredding
so are useless (effectively) on a dual core.


>
> So my thinking here is that when they advertise a machine as dual core
> with a speed of "X" which is based on both cores working, then
> technically if your only going to be a home user (as described above)
> then in my mind your not going to be getting the speed stated, your only
> going to get the speed of one core, ie half the speed.
>
> So the questions here are, do I sort of understand the concept of Dial
> Core ? Do I even sound like I know what Im going on about ? Is the idea
> above have some credibility ?
>

almost - the dual core systems don't top one core before using the second -
if I open application X - that kicks in and uses 60% of one core, then I
fire up application Y, depending on the Operating System - this will most
likely go over to Core 2, (and I don't mean an intel chip)

until games start using multiple threads - really there's no actual reason
to have a multi core CPU - as an end user at least.


Jason.



>
> Thanks
>
>
> On Thu, 2008-03-13 at 20:51 +0000, Alex Butcher wrote:
> > On Thu, 13 Mar 2008, Phillip Chandler wrote:
> >
> > > Just been to their web site
> > > ( http://direct.tesco.com/q/N.1999034/No.10/Nr.99.aspx ) and it
> actually
> > > looks quite good considering its only ?139.93. And theres plenty of
> room
> > > for adding extra cd/dvd and hdd. So you could quite easily add a
> > > secondary hard disc, but how would you set the 2nd hdd as the /home
> > > partitions ?
> >
> > Install the disc, partition it, format it, mount the new /home partition
> at
> > a temporary mountpoint, copy the current data from /home to the
> temporary
> > mount point, then unmount, adjust /etc/fstab and remount it as /home.
> >
> > > But seeing as its only supplied with Ubuntu 6.06 Id be inclined to do
> a
> > > fresh install of 7.04.
> >
> > Your call, but the version they've supplied is the Long Term Support
> > version, which is probably more appropriate for less technical users who
> > won't want to upgrade their distro install every six months or so.
> >
> > > I was a bit miffed with the 2nd machine being ?50 more for a 1.9ghz
> > > speed and 512mb ram where as the ?139.93 is 2.66ghz speed and only
> 256mb
> > > ram ? Is this a typo on their part ?
> >
> > The 2.66GHz machine is a Celeron D 331, the 1.9GHz machine is a
> dual-core
> > Athlon with a faster front-side bus, more cache and 64 bit extensions.
> The
> > clock speeds of any two different architectures are not directly
> comparable,
> > rather like comparing car engine designs (e.g. Mazda's 1.3l Wankel
> rotary
> > engine develops 238 horsepower, compared with ~100hp from the 1.4l Rover
> K
> > series).
> >
> > Best Regards,
> > Alex.
> > --
> > Alex Butcher, Bristol UK.                           PGP/GnuPG
> ID:0x5010dbff
> >
> > "[T]he whole point about the reason why I think it is important we go
> for
> > identity cards and an identity database today is that identity fraud and
> > abuse is a major, major problem. Now the civil liberties aspect of it,
> look
> > it is a view, I don't personally think it matters very much."
> >   - Tony Blair, 6 June 2006 <
> http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page9566.asp>
>
>