Hans Hendrady

The most important part of your computer can also be one of the most difficult to choose. Between Intel and AMD, models lines including Pentium, Core 2 Duo, Athlon, Sempron, and more, GHz ratings that aren’t comparable between companies, things start to look pretty complicated. PCWorld offers one of the most comprehensive guides on the subject, but let’s look at just the basics.

For most users, two is the magic number for cores. Two cores will offer excellent multitasking capability, and because they’ve become a de facto standard for new PCs, they’re reasonably affordable, too. Three or four cores will obviously offer more performance – especially for processor-intense applications like video editing – but most users simply won’t take advantage of all the extra horsepower.

Clock speeds (ex. 3.2GHz) are still an important indicator of CPU performance, but can only really be compared within similar lines. A 2.0GHz Intel Atom processor is faster than 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor, but not necessarily faster than a 1.8GHz IntelCore 2 Duo. Other factors include front-side bus speed, onboard cache, whether it’s a 32- or 64-bit processor, and many more. Check out PCWorld’s guide if you really want to understand how they all interact to make up performance.

As with many aspects of PC buying, you generally get what you pay for, so let price be a rough guide to processors when the tangle of naming schemes and specs proves to be a little bit too much, and do research on the individual processor you’re considering buying to get a better idea how it will perform with what you intend to use it for.