Is it time to change your PC?

"My configuration still takes the road."

Typically this is the kind of question is fairly regularly when it is demanding or chronically to the approach of the holidays of end of year/anniversaries. Many of us so rushed on an Athlon 64 or Athlon 64 X 2 during the last decade of the fact of their very good performance in a globally accessible pricing.Intel signed his return to large pumps mid-2006 with the Core 2 which had better performance and better performance to offer AMD. Configurations using these processors are still very many at the present time. But how they behave from the bullets of today? We opposed platforms LGA 775 and LGA 1156 to respond.

Extent to which has progress been substantial?

For some time, CPU are gradually gaining in performance and functionality while remaining in the same thermal envelope (between 65 W and 130 W). In 5 years, the number of hearts is quietly passed from one to six (and even 12 in the AMD Opteron). The frequency on the other hand, fell (Intel found only on the latest Core i7 level D and Pentium 4), despite the progress of the fineness of engraving: 65, then 45 and now 32 nm. Intel was able to more quickly ensure these transitions, which allowed him to improve the density of transistors and thus to be more generous with the cache that AMD.Similar transitions were made at the level of graphics cards: If most have only a single GPU, all are massively parallel architectures. The increase in the performance of the GPU is directly linked one execution contained in each bullet hearts. In addition, as NVIDIA ATI have developed modes multi GPU with two, three or even four cards by configuration. There is also that graphics cards have also found usefulness outside the games via ATI Stream and NVIDIA CUDA and OpenCL programming tools. In 5 years, the maximum consumption of cards while doubled or tripled (a Radeon X 1800 XT had a 81 W TDP, a Geforce GTX 480 requires 250 W), but clearly, the performance per Watt exploded.The DDR3 is now the memory the most sold type. If the frequencies have not ceased to increase, the DDR3-1333 is suitable for most of us. This being, having 4 GB or more became imperative with some programs coupled with a 64-bit Os. Those who can have replaced their drive system hard DSS, which are more quiet, high-performance i/o and display a low consumption. With operations in reading, SSDS are untouchable but cannot say the same in writing where there is good and less good. Is the cost per gigabyte that still is a real drag.

Let us not forget the motherboards: SATA 3 Gb/s came in 2007 with the NCQ, high range models are often entitled to Advanced RAID features, USB 2.0 ports have multiplied while the eSATA is sometimes required. HD audio chips, gigabit Ethernet and PCI Express ports are remained constants, although the PCI Express 2.0 has started to become widespread with the advent of the Intel P45 chipset. The current motherboards embark on economy of energy and overclocking functions advanced while USB 3.0 and SATA 6 Gb/s start to become common.