Core 2 Duo VS P4 HT

My new machine is finally here. Now I have 2 machines to work on! One dedicated for graphics and the other for programming(web), music, bluetooth and internet. I alway wanted to separate the graphics from all the other functions on the computer.

Anyway this new machne is a Core 2 Duo 2.13 GHz which is basically 40% faster and more efficient than regular machines. My other machine is a P4 3 GHz HT which is 30% faster than not HT P4 machines. Anyway I posted a question on Yahoo Answers regarding which is better and here is what I got:

• Core 2 Duo, especially for graphics. The P4 may be faster but raw GHz speed doesn’t always make the difference. I’d put my money on Core 2. It’s like 64 bit computing, a 32 bit processor might be faster in GHz speed but a 64bit CPU at a lower clock rate can get more done in a single strike. It’s like an athletic runner’s heart beat vs. a non athletic person’s heart beat. The non athletic runner’s heart will beat faster but the athlete’s heart pumps more blood per stroke or beat making him faster, (more blood gets to the muscles per shot making him/her run faster and longer.)
• Depends on what you want to do – the P4 has more raw horsepower – but overall the Core 2 Duo will function much faster, particularly in something like graphics rendering.
  If you want a real serious comparison, go to www.tomshardware.com
  The do detailed comparisons of CPUs as well as Motherboards, Graphics and just about everything else there is that’s PC related.
• if P4 is HT enabled…. both are somewhat simillar…. but in terms of processor heat… Core 2 Duo wins…. well depending upon the graphics oriented work that you do i feel you will need more processor usage… so P4 may annoy you if the processor fan keeps running most of the time…. but again P4 will be cheaper.
  Choose judiciously… if bucks are not a problem go for Core 2 Duo with even higher frequency.
• yes….in everything except single threading encoding jobs
  i would recommend amd for graphics though…..much better price for performance

• Yes, because it’s really two processors, so it’s way faster than a Pentium 4. And it’s more efficient. The only bad thing is that it’s more expensive.

So thats a little lowdown on the topic from ‘people’ and not some experts most of whom are biased ‘for’ or ‘against’ something!