Are High-End CPUs Worth The Money?

Rampaging Goatbert (aka Jeff Feld) has posted a story at Newsforge about something you may want to argue about with your boss or significant other. Specifically, whether high-end CPUs are worth their high prices. Personally, I look even lower on the processor food chain, but watching those price-curve inflection points makes the runner-up chips pretty tempting. Your mileage will almost certainly vary.

$33 to be the best? Hell yeah (you 1.33Ghz losers)

[IvyMike]

If your decision is between a 1.33Ghz athlon and and 1.4Ghz athlon, and the price difference is only $33, then of course it's worth it to get the 1.4Ghz! Otherwise, every time your friends use the system and say, "Wow, that's really fast! What is it, a 1.4Ghz?" you have to bow your head in shame and say, "No...it's a 1.33Ghz." You might as well throw Windows ME on it! When you're getting the hot rod of systems, it's not about bean-counting, it's about style.

Treadmilling

[r_j_prahad]

Almost as quickly as Intel or AMD can release a faster CPU, Microsoft releases an OS that runs like shit on anything less. If the CPU designers don't keep pounding relentlessly away at Moore's law, we could theoritically have an OS from Redmond that won't run on anything.

Wouldn't that be nice.

Re:More to it

[Anonymous Coward]

Are you on crack? New products are notoriously less reliable than old products.

For instance, cocaine was pretty bad, but nowhere as low quality as cocaine II, AKA crack. And don't get me started on meth!

Oh great

[Mr. Sketch]

Newsforge about something you may want to argue about with your boss or significant other.

Like I need anything else [slashdot.org] to arge with my significant other about. We fight enough about [redhat.com] other [slackware.com] things [goatse.cx], but she just doesn't understand. Oh well.

Re:One crucial point

[fobbman]

To answer your other point, why market the 1.4 to everyone if only a small market needs it?

Because those penile-enlargement products aren't working as well as advertised, so they must look for other ways to over-compensate.

Re:$33 to be the best? Hell yeah (you 1.33Ghz lose

[robbins!]

Plus, the extra .07 Ghz really helps your dating profile.

I find this quite hillarious

[Dynedain]

.....that there is 6 times as many posts here on /. than on the original Newsforge article..... Does that mean /. is running the 1.4Ghz and Newsforge the 1.33?

Re:You cost $300,000 a year?

[Doomdark]

That'd be a good justification for installing workstations in the bathrooms. Or maybe toilets at the cubicles.

Hehe. Nice idea... But how well would it go with the "paperless office" ideas? About the first idea... umh... having work stations with Internet access in restrooms sounds kind of kinky.

Re:google

[MAXOMENOS]

In some cases it makes sense to have a single blazing fast cpu.

Take Mozilla for example....