What does Passmark CPU score really mean?

jrau

Honorable
Jun 19, 2012
134
0
10,690
I'm trying to get a grip on what it would take to have a PC that feels a lot faster than the one I have.

I have a PC from 2005 running an AMD Athlon 64 3500+ CPU that has a Passmark CPU Mark score of 562. I'm thinking on building a new PC with an Intel chip for general purpose use (web, streaming video like Netflix and DVD movies, big Excel files) at as low a price point as I can with upgradeability in mind.

I see these CPUs available on newegg today as the cheapest in each "family" ... all 1155 socket chips ...

> Celeron G530, $50 ... Passmark CPU score 2269
> Pentium G620, $64 ... Passmark CPU score 2486
> Pentium G850, $88 ... Passmark CPU score 2801
> I3-2100, $120 ... Passmark CPU score 3863

Compared to what I currently have the cheapest CPU has a score 4 times better.

*** Does this suggest that a new PC would run 4 times faster overall?***

I'm thinking the CPU will go in a new mobo that would support an IB chip in a year or so ... making me lean towards a very cheap CPU now that I toss at some point.

I have a 7200 rpm drive now so little room for improvement there but I would go from WinXP to Win7, old drive connection to SATA3 and old on-board graphics to something better (not a card but better). Maybe a SSD if that would be a huge difference.

Looking for thoughts before I spend real cask and don't get better than what I have!
 
You are using a very old single core CPU with a very old architecture. anything is going to feel like a massive upgrade.

The stuff you want to do is extremely basic, any of the CPUs will do it. if you want to game at all get an i3. there's no reason for you to worry about upgrading later with the things you want to do.

fill out the form in the new build section

www.tomshardware.com/forum/261222-31-build-advice