A 4.1 GHz Dual Core at $130 - Can it be True?

[pschmid]

The Pentium D 805 is a budget CPU, but it puts lots of processors from AMD and Intel to shame. Although it is not based on the latest 65 nm core, this CPU remains stable even when operating at amazing 4.1 GHz. What will this mean for the status quo in the computer industry?

 

[benjamin]

The Pentium D 805 is a budget CPU, but it puts lots of processors from AMD and Intel to shame. Although it is not based on the latest 65 nm core, this CPU remains stable even when operating at amazing 4.1 GHz. What will this mean for the status quo in the computer industry?

True, it's quite a feat. However -- the power consumption is obscene, 260 watts at idle. Your £79GBP is very misleading in the need for higher-quality peripheral components.

I'd like to see this kind of effort expended on an 820 and a 920, sure they cost more, but EIST is worth it [considering energy prices over here lately!].

Actually, the 930 is available at £140GBP at some online retailers, it'd probably pay for itself a couple of years down the line. (two-hundred and sixty watts IDLE!) A budget 65nm overclocking review would thus probably be far a more relevant article considering your tech-savvy reader-base. Personally, I'm avoiding the 805. It's tempting, sure, but with the release of the 900 series - there is no contest.

 

[sleepdeprived82]

Add VAT to that £80 as well so its £93 in good old UK. Still a bargin if all of them preform that well.

 

[wun911]

Amazing sitting here speachless... I should throw away the Pentium D 950 and buy four Pentium D 805s! hehehhe

 

[davidflet9]

wait and see what conroe can do! im willing to bet that conroe will replace the 805 as the overlcock champ! :twisted: and its power consumption will be withink reasonable levels :!:

 

[davidflet9]

LOL relax a little no need to get aggressive

 

[ara]

astonishing.... :!:

 

[cknobman]

Sure the overclocking is great and price/performance is unbeatable but I would not touch this with a 10ft pole.

Think about price/performance after running this setup for a year with an average use of 8 hours per day (that is being modest).

Hell, the processor drawing 2XX watts of power all the time would make your electric bill go through the roof!

Over a years time im sure you'd spend $400-$500 more in electricity alone!

Not worth it. Great idea though.

 

[sleepdeprived82]

I dont think any one who is overclocking will give a rats ass what the consumption is like or the size of the power bill. Thats not what its about.
You will prob only have this chip for 6-12 months before the next big thing is out so wo cares how much juice it drinks in the long run. Also most computers can downclock if its not being used. most peoples comps dont run full wack 8 hours a day.

This is about a chip that is £90 besting a £600 chip.

I certainly dont care how much power my computer uses.

 

[Datman]

Each to their own.

It's the same with hotting up cars, some people love to do it. Others don't get it and can't understand why people do.

Sure you shorten the life of the engine and get poor fuel economy (not always), but that's not the point of doing it.
It's all about having fun and enjoying a hobby.

 

[samir_nayanajaad]

that 4.1 is quite insane, I have never heard about the Pentium d before, now I bet when wind of this gets around they will fly out of stores.

Also people who are in the dilemma right now of waiting for am2 or conroe or just build a new system right now have a low cost way to get a dominating cpu right now and not spend a lot, just to have it not perform well enough for them in a few months.

And if they don’t like the power thing they don’t have to go to 4.1 the thing still kicks but at lower clock rates.

One request, could you guys at toms get a phase change cooling solution hooked up to that thing and see if it goes higher yet? Maybe oil or liquid nitrogen could work too?

 

[Sonic_Reducer]

great clocks i'm very suprised with taht small lilte chip going turning in to a huge monster with proper theeth and fangs very very cool but how about hte life span of that processor shure it won't last very long in that oc and the ram to it will take a beat to, but very cool just for showing off.

 

[heulenwolfprime]

The article mentioned a software overclocking app from Gigabyte. Is there any reason an app like that couldn't be expanded to be a SpeedStep clone of sorts? It could ramp up FSB settings and voltages when it detects high processor usage (on either core) and turn them back down when usage drops. That way you could have the best of all worlds: 3.8 GHz speed on air when its needed, low(er) power consumption at idle, all at bargain basement prices. Has this already been done?

 

[captaincharisma]

that 4.1 is quite insane, I have never heard about the Pentium d before, now I bet when wind of this gets around they will fly out of stores.

Also people who are in the dilemma right now of waiting for am2 or conroe or just build a new system right now have a low cost way to get a dominating cpu right now and not spend a lot, just to have it not perform well enough for them in a few months.

And if they don’t like the power thing they don’t have to go to 4.1 the thing still kicks but at lower clock rates.

One request, could you guys at toms get a phase change cooling solution hooked up to that thing and see if it goes higher yet? Maybe oil or liquid nitrogen could work too?

They couldn't if they wanted to anyway ast it staes in the report. They got it at 4.3Ghz where windows XP would boot but when they put ir under any high load it would crash

 

[Aaron McKenna]

Add VAT to that £80 as well so its £93 in good old UK. Still a bargin if all of them preform that well.

RTFA, that's with VAT Still, it's a feat, and taken on the whole I think it'll save you money over the £700 EE. But you chaps are right, there are other options to look into for budget processors that overclock. Just we can't give you every piece of info under the sun in the one article

 

[Skidd]

My machine is time for an upgrade and I was looking for an excuse to cross over.

Just on question about this. Is it possible to run this with a SLI configuration somehow?

 

[Skidd]

It was just a thought. Last time toms took a intel nf4 chipset and match it with a D it didnt work very well.

 

[Skidd]

LOL!!

 

[uber_g]

that pretty amazing when I read the article


the price performance ratio is freakin amazing

- i was getting ready for School ( high school )

i opened my laptop and went to tomshardware.com


and Bam ! a pentium d to 4.1 ghz , i was in totally Wtf !?!?! shock

i mean even to overlcok it to maybe 3.4-3.6 would be good enought for me, without really having to raise the voltage that much

makes u think do u really need those high end Cpu's ?

:O


nice Article u did @ tomshardware.com , pretty shure more peolple r going to look into the Pent D's and maybe even picking up one for themselves.

 

[ALL_YOUR_BASE]

I must say this is a bit disheartening for us fanboys.

I'd like to see a 3800+ overclocked this hardcore and then see who wins though.

 

[ara]

uhhhm, i don't really know how to put this... there is a slight difference in price, and also the fact that this is the slowest dual core (on the intel line at least)... i think comparing something that small to something double the price just doesn't work...

Ara

 

[caamsa]

This would be great for someone who is building a new system. Remember you will need a good quality mother board with options to over clock, new DDR2 memory, a good heatsink or possibly water cooling, monster power supply, and to get those gaming benchmarks a very high end video card. Like I said it would be all fine and dandy for someone building a new system, but if you have another system are your motherboard memory and video card going to be compatible with the new set up? I save a lot of cash when upgrading by upgrading wisely so I can use for parts from the older computer. All this overclocking usually only equates into a few more FPS in a game and like I said before only if you have the best of the best video card. A 6600GT with a 2gig amd chip will only get a small boost from a 4gig cpu. At that point you will be gup limited and not cpu limited. Look at the average FPS for fear. Set to its standard speed it gets 85 fps while over clocked it gets 97 fps. Not such a big deal. So if you go the dough, the time, and the know how go for it.

 

[Skidd]

I must say this is a bit disheartening for us fanboys.

I'd like to see a 3800+ overclocked this hardcore and then see who wins though.

I doubt they would get a 3800+ up to 50% more clock with out some hectic memory and cooling.

Where with this basicly all you doing is taking the motherboard and memory and setting them where they should be running while the side effect is overclocking the cpu. Just my thoughts on it.

Can see all the AMD supporters coming in here a claiming how false this could be just becuase for once Intel did something good and proper.

 

[Skidd]

i doubt even madmodmike would doubt this review. wouldn't put it past someone to claim photoshop was used to edit the screenies though so who knows.

LOL You always get those odd people who would clain the "photoshop" tampering.

9 out of 10 of them would be AMD supporters.

 

[Plekto]

The real trick here, though, isn't to get 4.xx Ghz, but to set it up with their first real(increased voltages) overlocked setup - at 3.6Ghz.

Or got to 3.8Ghz. Hardly any more cost.
The aftermarket air cooler worked fine - all they had to do was tweak the voltage in it to achieve virtually the same results as the 4Ghz setup. No water-cooling, no crazy voltage increases - just a mild overvoltage and about the same power useage as the current top-end Intel chip(so your motherboard won't die 6 months down the line, either) Any board can handle 1.50 volts.

That's several hundred dollars saved for the price of a Zahlman cooler. DIY easy. For most of us, it's a matter of buying the CPU and the cooler and dropping them in. Nothing more.

This reminds me of the older Pentium SX processors from a deacade or so ago. Miserable little things. 25mhz was common(yeah, that long ago - lol) - no heatsink at all. So we all put quarter-pound heatsinks on it, which were about 10x the size of the chip in diameter! - for $6, why not?.

Then you added a fan and soldered in a new clock crystal and presto - 40mhz. This was also a $120 or so chip versus nearly $800 for the big boy.