How do I check if my Dell 745 has a Core 2 Duo processor?

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I bought a new Dell 745 desktop system. I paid for Core 2 Duo 2.1 GHz, but the system is showing Core 2 in the Properties. It should display Core 2 Duo instead of Core 2.

Are Core 2 and Core 2 Duo the same thing?

jahanzaib

Posted 2013-06-17T16:50:49.233

Reputation: 7

6Download and run CPU-Z and confirm you have the exact CPU you paid for. – Karan – 2013-06-17T17:02:01.590

And, get the CPU-Z for your system from http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html

– nik – 2013-06-17T17:21:31.540

The exact model of the CPU would be nice. Core 2 Duo is the specification for a dual-core product. Core 2 is the product line which covers a single core, dual core, and quad core products. Without the specific model we can't tell you what you puchased. – Ramhound – 2013-06-17T17:56:44.467

Answers

Core2 is the name is the name for a microarchitecture. It encompasses a whole CPU family

There are single core CPU's based on the core2 architecture.
There are dual core core2 CPU's based on the core2 architecture. (Often called core2 duo)
There are quad core core2 CPU's based on the core2 architecture. (Often called core2 quad).

Thus calling a core 2 duo a core2 is perfectly valid.

^{Analogy: (cars with engines)

A car with a 1 horsepower diesel engine is diesel engine based.

A car with a 2 horsepower diesel engine is also diesel engine based.

A car with a 4 horsepower diesel engine is also diesel engine based.}

^{In all cases it is safe to call the car 'diesel engine'/'core2' based.}

All this means there is nothing obviously wrong.

However you can easily check things: First see which CPU you are supposed to have.
(Go to the Dell site and enter the service tag. That should show you all the details of your optiplex).

Then either:

Use CPU-Z. (which is how I would do it)
Or look for a CPU identification during POST.
Or open the box and look at the physical CPU (which is likely beneath a huge passive cooler).
Or go to start, settings, control panel, system. (XP) or start, control panel, system (win7).

Once you have the model of your CPU you can find more information about it on this site.

Hennes

Posted 2013-06-17T16:50:49.233

Reputation: 60 739

Is the information in Control Panel » System unreliable? It should show the model number, which can easily be searched online. – Daniel Beck – 2013-06-17T17:38:57.157

@DanielBeck that seems like the easiest place to check, if you ask me. It should be correct. – nhinkle – 2013-06-17T18:00:06.103

I must admit that I never thought about that option. I will add it to the list. – Hennes – 2013-06-17T18:52:14.180

Start > Run > MSInfo32

This will display the WMI info from the GUI.

MDT Guy

Posted 2013-06-17T16:50:49.233

Reputation: 3 683