Ok, just out of curiousity, with the recent energy efficient computing (and believe me, I'm on the bandwagon), why has no one compared the Conroe-L (Celeron 4xx series) single-core processor to its dual-core counterparts in terms of processing power and power consumption as well as to its older single-core equivalents (Pentium 4/Sempron/Athlon)?

If anyone knows of how they compare, or has seen any reviews let me know. I believe these [seemingly] efficient processors are more than enough power for the average email/surfing/word-ing user. Let me know your thoughts on the subject.

I've wondered about this too. I've been thinking about upgrading my laptop for the last year or two, and I've wondered about the power requirements of a dual-core vs a single-core, since I don't play games or render video files on a laptop, I wouldn't need the extra core and would love to get a little extra battery life.

I haven't seen any benchmarks, but I suspect that it doesn't make a lot of difference, although I'd appreciate it if someone had some better information.

Anyone else have thoughts on this topic, or is everyone ignoring it because it conserns 'inadequate' single-core procs?

http://www.matbe.com/articles/lire [...] /page5.php

In terms of power consumption, the lack of EIST hurts the Conroe-Ls at idle. At full load, it's very thrifty. Probably less than 20W. I would probably spend the extra bucks for the E2140 which has EIST and still has very good power consumption.

Ultimately it depends on what the consumer wants the PC to do.

I built my HTPC a few years ago. I wanted it to be quiet and to consume very little power because all it is being used for was to record TV programs, play video and music. I built it around the Athlon XP-M 2600+ which allowed me to select the clock multiplier. I installed it in to a BioStar that allowed me to undervolt the CPU (which was nice).

However, it is showing it's age and I intend on using the parts from my current PC to build a new HTPC. I will upgrade to Penryn, but not sure if I will go Quad Core or not. Having a C2D E6600 in an HTPC may be going overboard, but I intend on playing back Blu-Ray movies and more importantly, encode video using the H.264 codec which is very demanding on the CPU.

Technology drives demand, and my demand will be high. However, I do not intend on overclocking my E6600 so that I can cool it passively. It is interesting to note that my next HTPC will likely cost more than a replacement primary PC since I plan on installing 4 1TB drives in it (RAID 1) to store all my H.264 videos and FLAC music (I hate MP3s).

Wow. What a trippy power consumption benchmark. Celeron 420 goes from 75 watts idle to 79 watts under full CPU load. Weird.

Thanks for the link btw, very cool!