Intel Pentium 4 Vs. Atom: A Battle Of The Generations

[donzel]

Most people know that Intel’s Atom is a slow, low-cost processor. But does it even offer enough performance to take it beyond desktop processors nearly a decade old? Today we're comparing a modern Atom CPU to two Northwood-class Pentium 4-based PCs.

We were sorting out some old hardware in one of our test labs and wondered what to do with our old Socket 478 Pentium 4 gear. Disposing of it doesn’t feel quite right, and we know that many Pentium 4 systems remain in service. Clock speeds between 2 GHz and 3.4 GHz still provide sufficient performance for a home server or backup PC, so why not put up two different Pentium 4 systems against single-core and dual-core Atom solutions to see how today’s low-cost computing solutions hold up?

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/atom-d510-pentium-4-nettop,2649.html

[ranns]

didn't read the link but how's the outcome?

[Ghosthunter]

didn't read the link but how's the outcome?

Obvious outcome. Intel Atom (DC) outperforms Pentium 4 with less power required to operate.

I have an old Intel Pentium 4 system (an old retired file server) at the office. The new low cost Atom (DC) based desktop units I bought for my staff performs much faster than the P4.

[ranns]

Obvious outcome. Intel Atom (DC) outperforms Pentium 4 with less power required to operate.

I have an old Intel Pentium 4 system (an old retired file server) at the office. The new low cost Atom (DC) based desktop units I bought for my staff performs much faster than the P4.

Same ram size?

[Ghosthunter]

Obvious outcome. Intel Atom (DC) outperforms Pentium 4 with less power required to operate.

I have an old Intel Pentium 4 system (an old retired file server) at the office. The new low cost Atom (DC) based desktop units I bought for my staff performs much faster than the P4.

Same ram size?

The one in the article, I didn't catch if they did used the same ram size. I assumed they did for the test.

The one in my office, somewhat. P4 got 1gb ram. Atom got 2gb. Both running XP. But you got to consider that the P4 is using an old SCSI HDD while the Atom was using a brand new SATA HDD.

[ranns]

your P4 is using SCSI? damn! and I was only using IDE lol

[Ghosthunter]

your P4 is using SCSI? damn! and I was only using IDE lol

Like I mentioned, it was our old office file server kaya SCSI was specified way before for it.

It's replacement is using SATA RAID-1 mirroring so no need for a scsi adapter.

[donzel]

Clock-for-clock analysis, IMO, Atom is faster than Pentium 4 0.13u Nortwood.
Intel Atom Pineville (2010) = AMD Athlon (K7) Palomino (2001)
Intel Atom Pineville (2010) < Intel Pentium III Tualatin (2002)