Socket Adapter Brings Pentium M to Desktop 197
EconolineCrush writes "Intel's Pentium M processor is widely regarded as the company's most compelling chip, and although desktop versions of it won't be available until next year, a new adapter from Asus allows users to run a Pentium M on existing Socket 478 motherboards. When coupled with a compatible motherboard, the CT-479 adapter is much cheaper than existing Pentium M desktop platforms, and also offers better performance by allowing the processor access to dual-channel memory configurations. Considering the Pentium M's frugal power consumption and great clock-for-clock performance, this could be an interesting upgrade for those looking for a low-noise system."
Fairly Cheap (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Fairly Cheap (Score:3, Informative)
more than you would want to pay for a chip+adaptor
Re:Fairly Cheap (Score:2)
Re:Fairly Cheap (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Fairly Cheap (Score:2)
Tom's Hardware goes into good detail on why the Pentium M is superior, but the basic reason is vastly lower power consumption by not using unnecessary
Re:Fairly Cheap (Score:2)
Re:Fairly Cheap (Score:2)
Second, what thefts? Intel bought out portions of DEC when it collapsed. Using rights to IP you've bought isn't theft.
However, the rest is correct. RAMBUS was a big waste of time and money, and the P4 is based on a lot of bad ideas, and as a result doesn't perform that well. Why are we stuck with it now? Because there's a lot of big egos at Intel who can't admit it was all a mistake. Unfortunately,
Re:Fairly Cheap (Score:3, Informative)
And, for the record, the PM already contains the only two good features the P4 ever had: SSE2 and the QDR bus. And that's on top of all the wonderful features of the PM that have nothing to do with the P4.
Yeah, Intel is really insecure right now. They're too ashamed to admit that the P4 was a massive fucku
Re:Fairly Cheap (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Fairly Cheap (Score:5, Informative)
awesome (Score:5, Funny)
Re:awesome (Score:5, Funny)
Re:awesome (Score:3, Funny)
Re:awesome (Score:2)
Actually, the P4-M is still around, unfortunently. Seen mostly in bottom of the line budget notebooks, where it is still barely cheaper than the Celeron-M, or in those big gamers notebooks that can heat a small house.
Re:awesome (Score:2)
Re:awesome (Score:2)
However, that doesn't necessarily mean that a desktop user will beat a laptop user. Put someone who's never gamed before in front of the deskto
In other news... (Score:2, Funny)
Next logical step for quiet PC's. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Next logical step for quiet PC's. (Score:2)
Kjella
Re:Next logical step for quiet PC's. (Score:2)
Re:Next logical step for quiet PC's. (Score:4, Informative)
An SI-97 and a Panflo ultra quiet fan, it's nice and cool, and the loudest thing on the computer is a pair of WD ATA hard drives.
The biggest drawback to intel right now for me is the 80-100+W TDP on most of their chips.
I look forward to a dual core Yonah ~40-50W part.
Re:Next logical step for quiet PC's. (Score:4, Informative)
Pentium-M 778 - 1.6 GHz - TDP of 10 watts
Pentium-M 780 - 2.26 GHz - TDP of 27 watts
Celeron 380 - 1.6 Ghz - TDP of 21 watts
Re:Next logical step for quiet PC's. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Next logical step for quiet PC's. (Score:2)
Re:Next logical step for quiet PC's. (Score:5, Interesting)
Laptop RAM capabilities are usually limited at 1GB or 2GB.
Laptop CPUs cannot generally be upgraded.
Those are probably the big reasons.
Re:Next logical step for quiet PC's. (Score:2)
Re:Next logical step for quiet PC's. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Next logical step for quiet PC's. (Score:2)
With that, the Pentium M is an overclocker, game enthusiast's dream. If you could get it to run (Vcore problems I would assume forthright), it could soar to the cycle-rate of the P4's t
Re:Next logical step for quiet PC's. (Score:2)
Then buy an external monitor. You can either have portability or a nice large screen. With a laptop you get the former.
So? At present, that's more than enough for the majority of users. When need for more actually materialises, expect to see laptops with support for more RAM.
Yep, that's a problem. Then again, I've been using an Athlon 1.33GHz
Re:Next logical step for quiet PC's. (Score:2)
Heck, I have a spare AGP video card, spare 80G hard drive, spare soundcard --- combine it with an AOpen Metropolitan XC Cube EY855-II [newegg.com] for $225, and it's looking like a pretty good deal.
Re:Next logical step for quiet PC's. (Score:2)
$500 more is a good first guess, but I think you're shooting low. I'd suggest "More than twice as expensive" as a good starting point.
As a data point, I recently got a new laptop and built a new destop for my cousin. In both cases I took full advantage of the internet and got everything as cheaply and efficiently as possible.
For systems with the following specs:
~1.8 ghz gaming processor (Athlon 64 3000+ for the desktop, Pentium M 750 for the laptop); 1 gig of RAM; 80 gig hard drive; PCI Express GeFor
Re:Next logical step for quiet PC's. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Next logical step for quiet PC's. (Score:3, Insightful)
Based on this post, I'd guess that (pick one)
1) You've never used a laptop system.
2) You've only used a dysfunctional laptop system.
3) You are tight of means.
I resisted having a laptop,
'compelling' chip? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:'compelling' chip? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:'compelling' chip? (Score:2)
Re:'compelling' chip? (Score:3, Insightful)
PentiumM in desktop vs Mobile Barton in desktop (Score:5, Insightful)
Is the PentiumM that much better, or is it just the CPU du jour?
Re:PentiumM in desktop vs Mobile Barton in desktop (Score:2)
Picture the idea of a processor that uses less than 30W max (give you a hint, no other current processor comes close), and outperforms similarly speced processors without overclocking.
And at least according to Tom's Hardware, with overclocking it easily outperforms every processor on the market in most areas.
We're talking about a processor that produces so little heat that you can ditch all of those loud and/o
Re:PentiumM in desktop vs Mobile Barton in desktop (Score:3, Informative)
Re:PentiumM in desktop vs Mobile Barton in desktop (Score:3, Insightful)
Again, it's not a 1:1 battle for the least watts of heat like it's not a 1:1 battle for more Mhz. There's other factors.
I think the Pentium 3.. erm.. Pentium M is a fine chip and I always liked the P3 more then the P4. P4 turned me off from the start with it's lackluster performance and expensive Rambus RAM. Pentium 3's continued to beat the P4 in performance for some time until the P4'
Re:PentiumM in desktop vs Mobile Barton in desktop (Score:2)
No other processor [tomshardware.com], eh? Take a good, long look at those Winchester core power measurements. 33w for a 2.2 GHz processor, full-load, and 27w for a 1.8GHz, full-load. They sip much less than 10w when idle under Cool n Quiet, similar to the Pentium M.
While the PM uses less power, the Athlon 64 is certainly a close second. Now, take into account that the newer revisions of the A64 offer
Re:PentiumM in desktop vs Mobile Barton in desktop (Score:2)
Still uses more power than the 27W of the P-M at max load though.
Also, performance per clock? Um... show me a benchmark that pits the P-M against those Winchester AMDs. I haven't seen one yet, but going against the benchmarks over on Toms, it doesn't look like it is as efficient to me...
Re:PentiumM in desktop vs Mobile Barton in desktop (Score:2)
Re:PentiumM in desktop vs Mobile Barton in desktop (Score:2)
Re:PentiumM in desktop vs Mobile Barton in desktop (Score:2)
The A64 is a pretty good tradeoff, it does more work than the P4 per clock cycle but can still clock pretty high.
There's no use comparing clock per clock performance between two completely different architectures. Sure, you can overclock th
Re:PentiumM in desktop vs Mobile Barton in desktop (Score:2)
Review, Pentium M on desktop hardware (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Review, Pentium M on desktop hardware (Score:5, Insightful)
Covered by AnandTech back in March. [anandtech.com] Now that's gettin old.
Re:Review, Pentium M on desktop hardware (Score:2)
How about a more scalable solution? (Score:4, Interesting)
We need more of these solutions. Just for the utility of it, I want a computer for general purpose use; consider a Transmeta solution, and then have a Pentium M co-processor that I can enable or disable when I need it to boost an application, or even better a Hitachi SuperH 128bit solution for quicker and greater math precision. I'm waiting for the days to return when computers were modular, separate FPUs from the die core for example, like back in the late 80's when the manufacturer gave you the manual that has all the BIOS function calls and circuit schematic in such an open manner.
All I see today is a bunch of unnecessary IC bloat, taking advantage of increasing transistor efficieny to use more transistors and obtusely dissipate more heat with a design that is bigger than the previous. Is progress to obsolete computers or give what is needed? I would settle for a fab-shrunk 8-way computer based on the earlier technology because it worked. Where are all those great designs going to, or is it just a fighting statistic? How about a 386 PDA? Anyone seen one yet?
Re:How about a more scalable solution? (Score:2)
But yeah, personally I'd like to have a cluster of 68030s built on a modern fab process. Most of what you need a PDA to do could easily be handled by one of those processors, and you could probably fit a dozen of them in the same silicon as a Pentium 4 core...
Re:How about a more scalable solution? (Score:2)
A dozen? Don't be so conservative. :) I couldn't find any transistor count number for the MC68030, but this page [redhill.net.au] says the MC68040 had 1.2 million transistors (quite a jump up from the 68,000 of the original MC68000).
A Pentium 4 seems to have either 55 million or 125 million, depending on the core generation (those are "Northwood" and "Prescott" cores, respectively), all according to this page [pcstats.com]. There might be newer generations still, I'm not 100% up to speed on Intel CPUs.
Thus, you can fit either 55/1.2 =
Re:How about a more scalable solution? (Score:2)
Re:How about a more scalable solution? (Score:2)
Re:How about a more scalable solution? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:How about a more scalable solution? (Score:2)
The idea of the package was that you could emulate any computer (and multiple ones at the same time, from some of the hype) and typically faster than the equivalent machine of the day. Looking at the software, it was equivalent to Shapes [uni-mainz.de]
Re:How about a more scalable solution? (Score:2)
Quite cool.
Re:How about a more scalable solution? (Score:2)
Great (Score:5, Funny)
Re:how about (Score:3, Informative)
Where in the hell did you get your numbers? 89W is absolutely INSANE for any PIII processor.
PIII-500E FC-PGA 1.6V 13.2W
PIII-1.0G (6-B-x) 1.15V 12.1W
And the 10W P-M is not typical, but a real rareity. Most are ~25W. eg.
Pentium M-1.5G 1.484V 24.5W
Personally, I would LOVE to get my hands on a PIII 933MHz or 1.0GHz system. Should be cheap, accepts all the old PC133 RAM I've got lying around, and really, really low power. Otherwise,
More info on tomshardware.com (Score:4, Informative)
Re:More info on tomshardware.com (Score:2, Funny)
I haven't heard of that site. But I'm sure it's very precious.
Fantastic! Power consumption saves the day (Score:3, Interesting)
On a similar note, who remembers the OverDrive for your old 486?
Re:Fantastic! Power consumption saves the day (Score:2)
Getting a new motherboard +Pentium M processor will probably cost you $600. How much electricity costs will it save you? I bet not $600.
Re:Fantastic! Power consumption saves the day (Score:2)
Well, you can notch up two for crazy... Everything about 95 felt wrong compared to 3.1...
My favourite experience was walking onto a customer site last year where they were still running an old machine with 3.1 and getting to use it in a "production" environment... It made those years of playing with one at home feel so much more worthwhile...
Re:Fantastic! Power consumption saves the day (Score:2)
Windows 3.1 was a decent OS, atleast for the time. With stable drivers and good hardware, it didn't crash that much so long as you were able to avoid DLL hell. Also, it didn't have the registry from Windows 95 - which would get bloated and randomly corrupt requiring a reinstall. Windows 3.1 had plain text config files like win.ini, system.ini, config.sys, autoexec.bat, and others I'm forgettin
Confused by story blurb... (Score:2, Interesting)
Which is it?
Re:Confused by story blurb... (Score:4, Informative)
Does that explain the apparent contradiction?
DFI 855GME-MGF i855 (Score:2)
WTF?!? more erroneous info? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:WTF?!? more erroneous info? (Score:2, Informative)
AOpen products (Score:3, Informative)
Re:AOpen products (Score:2)
That's a pretty big letdown to me, as I have been wanting a desktop Pentium M since Pentium M's existed. Th
Northbridges... (Score:5, Informative)
It seems nobody ever talks about the Northbridge, which, IMHO, will over-take the CPU, within a year, as the hottest component in a computer. If you take a year-old system, and put all the components (CPU/RAM) in a brand-new motherboard, you'll see the power consumption go up 10-20 watts. Why do you think they are now requiring fans on many of them? Even the motherboards that don't have one, commonly NEED one. They just leave it off because they know people don't buy motherboards with fans on the northbridge.
They just assume case airflow with be enough to keep the northbridge within spec, which is rarely true. Many people with unstable systems may assume it's a CPU or software problem, while pointing a fan at the northbridge heatsink may be all they need to do to solve the problem. I have some Asus and MSI motherboards that are guilty of this (SiS and VIA chipsets).
What pisses me off (personally) is that repeated requests to Asus, MSI, VIA and SiS for power specs on their chipsets/motherboards have been completely ignored. For that reason, I have kept using my old systems (brand-new Asus motherboard wasting space in my closet) and will not upgrade until I can find specs on motherboards (idle/load) before I buy them.
Re:Northbridges... (Score:2)
Re:Northbridges... (Score:3, Interesting)
More like the northbridge will disappear in a year or two, at least on AMD platforms. AMD has already integrated the memory controller on-die, and there are rumours of Socket F including an one-die PCI-E controller.
What's left for a northbridge to do?
Re:Northbridges... (Score:2)
Yes, on AMD platforms, which are in the minority. This story is specifically about Intel.
Intel has not made any indication that it plans to get rid of the northbridge like AMD has.
Re:Northbridges... (Score:2)
A P4 can consume up to about 100 watts of power, which is significantly more than 10-20 watts.
Re:Northbridges... (Score:3)
Notice the bolded section. The previous generation of northbridges weren't drawing 0watts.
Your figures on P4 power consumption is completely wrong as well. They are commonly drawing more than 130watts, but their power consumption increases have ceased, but northbridges are increasing in power consumption dramatically.
Empirical Results (Score:2)
Not to say there isn't even more room for improvement. But I, for one, am impressed.
Pentium M versus Athlon 64, poor comparison (Score:3)
I'd be very curious to see the difference in power usage (and benchmarks) between a Pentium M (plugged into a 478-socket system) and a low-voltage Athlon 64 (laptop version) plugged into a similar desktop board.
Not the difference in power usage by the processor, mind you, but the difference in power usage by the entire *system*, and at the various stages of idling.
A pentium M northbridge will use significantly more power than an Athlon 64 northbridge. And Athlon 64s do an amazing job of throttling down to low powerlevels (enough that they can be cooled via passive cooling, and I believe they survive the heatsink-fell-off test.
Re:Pentium M versus Athlon 64, poor comparison (Score:4, Interesting)
Why I'm answering this is that you're being very ignorant of the fact that the Pentium M, relatively unchanged, is the next Intel desktop CPU, therefore completely invalidating your statement that a Laptop CPU vs a Desktop CPU isn't fair, or irrelevant in any way. Simply put, the Pentium M is about to destroy the competition when it comes to IPC, the entire system around.
A Pentium M northbridge will use more power, this is obvious; it's got to deal with DDR2 memory, it's got to deal with PCI Express and all of these other controllers on the bus. AMD trying to stick all of these controllers on to the CPU is only relocating the heat, and at the cost to the consumer; now every time a bump in CPU speed comes about, I'm going to have to throw out my whole system.
AMD64's do a great job throttling, but I'm sorry to burst your bubble; Enhanced SpeedStep is far superior when paired up with software that can use it right. Fine-grained CPU speed speeds can drop the Pentium M to virtually no output, and it can still run a screensaver or two
Stop being ignorant. The competition's about to get red-hot again, and we're the ones who will benefit. Choosing sides too early's only going to cost you more money in the long run. And as I'm due for a new desktop very soon, I'm watching the playing field very, very closely.
Slashdot Submissions? (Score:3)
Tom's Hardware and Anandtech reviewed this stuff like 5 months ago; I think one of them even got slashdotted for it.
HJ
I tried it (Score:5, Informative)
How good is it? I have no idea, since I broke a pin on it while trying to get it to work.
Here's a warning to everybody thinking of trying it: The adapter is held in the motherboard's CPU socket only by the locking mechanism. The design makes it quite easy to apply pressure in such a way that it will rip the adapter off the motherboard's socket.
For some reason, the instructions go like this:
Insert adapter, insert CPU, lock CPU with screw, add heatsink. But I found that it's very uncomfortable, and risky. Be really careful when doing that, especially while installing the heatsink.
On the next time I'll probably do it differently: insert the CPU into the adapter, lock it, then insert the adapter into the motherboard and add the heatsink.
I broke it because I thought I was applying too much force while trying to fix the CPU and didn't turn the screw far enough. After removing and inserting the adapter several times I finally realized I didn't turn it all the way, but that must be when I bent the pin.
Server? (Score:2)
Or perhaps a low-cost, energy-efficient home or small-office based server, yes?
broken laptop (Score:2)
As a note, the processors *should* work in any motherboard t
Re:But it's not 64 bit! (Score:3, Insightful)
Seriously, expect to see lots of improvements in the Pentium M. I'm sure dual core and the Intel 64bit extensions will be added in to the line. It's likely the desktop versions won't be called Pentium Ms.
Re:But it's not 64 bit! (Score:2)
Also, Mac OS X is highly portable. Intel makes 64 bit x86 CPUs. Who is saying there won't be 64 bit Mactel machines?
Re:But it's not 64 bit! (Score:3, Insightful)
Because Apple sells more than just Power Mac G5s. The Pentium M would be perfect for Apple's consumer lines (Mac Mini, eMac, iMac, iBook) and Apple's PowerBook line, because of its low energy consumption and good performance (compared to the G4 that the Pentium M will replace). iBook and PowerBook users won't have to worry about their laptops frying their laps, for one. Plus, perhaps we might see some of that Centrino stuff in Apple's notebook lines, since they will probably use the Pentium M.
As for the
Re:But it's not 64 bit! (Score:2)
Re:But it's not 64 bit! (Score:2)
But Pentium Ms use less power so your point is irrelevant.
Re:But it's not 64 bit! (Score:2)
Re:So What... (Score:5, Insightful)
"Additionally, we were able to raise the FSB from 133 to 160 MHz without any trouble at all. The result was that our 2.13GHz Pentium M 770 ended up running at 2.56 GHz! At this clock speed, our two year old platform was able to beat the processor heavyweights Athlon 64 FX and Intel Pentium 4 Extreme Edition in all 3D games! "
At 27 watts max compared to 155. How much was that Athlon 64 FX again?
Re:So What... (Score:2)
I don't know, but according to PriceGrabber.com, the Pentium M 770 is $625.
Re:So What... (Score:2)
Re:So What... (Score:2)
Maybe now, but not in all points of the past. Back in the mid-K7 era, there were times where there weren't any excellent chipsets for AMD. The leading choice was VIA, which really didn't sound like a good idea given their history of compatibility problems and non-compliance with PCI bus mastering. AMD made solid chipsets but they really didn't keep up with memory technologies. At least now, nVidia chipsets are available for AMD.
Re:So What... (Score:2)
Re:So What... (Score:2)
Back to the future. New Intel marketing motto for the P-4: "Netburst? Nevermind."
Re:I just don't understand (Score:2)