
There are still some situations in life that are guaranteed to put a grin on anyone's face, even hard-boiled technical skeptics like us. This particular story borders on being a sensation unmatched in our last eight years of hardware reviews. The news, for those who just can't stand the wait any more, is this: Intel has offered a budget Pentium as part of its processor line-up for a little while now. With a simple modification, however, this CPU can outperform every top-of-the-line processor around.
The bottom line is that the Athlon FX-60 and the Pentium Extreme Edition 965 have both met their match - there's simply no escaping this conclusion! This is bound to cause lamentation among the elite circle of users who've invested big bucks in their high-end systems, if not outright wailing and rending of garments. The basic stats for this insignificant-seeming budget processor read as follows: Pentium D 805 clocked at 2.66 GHz, equipped with two processor cores both with 64 bit support. At your friendly neighborhood retailer you can pick up this secret weapon for pocket change - right now, for example, it's available at newegg.com for just under $130. We were quite amazed as the first performance figures emerged from our test labs: stable operation was possible at 4.1 GHz, and without even the need for substantial boosts to cooling!
- A Budget CPU At Top Speeds
- A Budget CPU At Top Speeds, Continued
- Inside the Pentium D 805
- The Secret Of The Multiplier
- 133 MHz FSB: Perfect For Overclocking
- How Is Breaking The 4 GHz Barrier Possible?
- How Is Breaking The 4 GHz Barrier Possible? Continued
- How Is Breaking The 4 GHz Barrier Possible? Continued
- Three Theories Where The Customer Comes Out Ahead
- Which Memory Clock Speed Is Most Suitable?
- The Right Chipset
- Keeping Cool When Power Consumed Tops 150 Watts at 4.1 GHz
- Keeping Cool When Power Consumed Tops 150 Watts at 4.1 GHz, Continued
- Power Consumption Levels Top 200 W
- Power Consumption Levels Top 200 W, Continued
- Energy Saving Functions Lack C1E
- Risk-free Overclocking, Including Heat Protection
- Ready For The 64 Bit Future
- Tom's Hardware Guides Overclocking Diary
- 3.33 GHz Remains Stable At Standard Voltage Levels
- 3.33 GHz Remains Stable At Standard Voltage Levels, Continued
- Trouble Free Operation At 3.60 GHz
- At 3.8 GHz Some Minor Voltage Increases Become Necessary
- Water Cooling Is Recommended For 4.0 GHz
- Water Cooling Is Recommended For 4.0 GHz, Continued
- Overclocking To 4.10 GHz Boosts Basic Clock Speed By 54 Percent
- Overclocking To 4.10 GHz Boosts Basic Clock Speed By 54 Percent, Continued
- Will The System Boot At 4.3 GHz?
- Benchmark Results Show Performance Increases Of Up To 54 Percent
- 3D, Continued
- 3D, Continued
- Video Editing / Video Encoding
- Video, Continued
- Video, Continued
- Audio Encoding
- Office Applications
- Office Applications, Continued
- Parallel Applications - Multitasking
- Synthetic Benchmarks
- Synthetic Benchmarks, Continued
- Synthetic Benchmarks, Continued
- Synthetic Benchmarks, Continued
- Summary Overview: Who's The Winner?
- Conclusion: The 4.1 GHz Dual Core Delivers Peak Performance For Pocket Change
- Conclusion, Continued
Of course, we would like to keep the cost down as much as possible.
We have no idea where the best bang for the buck will be. For us a stable system is more important than blazing speed. Thus, the HP's worked fine for what we originally got them for; it’s just that our graphics and video production software are forcing upgrades in speed and power.
The D850 chip sounds incredible and the power supply we already have to get will handle overclocking that chip. It even sounds like that chip will work in the existing mobo if we can find a way to change the clock speed from inside windows instead of from the BIOS. HP BIOS does not allow adjusting the clock speed in the BIOS but can't BIOS just be changed as well; isn't it just an EPROM?
Anyway, even if we opt for changing out the mobo for another case compatible Asus mobo, we still have to answer the question of which board and chip combination will give us the most stable service for the least cost.
Any ideas that might help us plan the most appropriate upgrade and the least cost?
With the price of components that you need to make this run stable, and the amount of electricity that this would use, a cheap Core 2 and motherboard and DDR2 memory would cost you less in the long run.
Example:
Intel Pentium Dual Core E5200
Kingston DDR2 2x2GB 800MHz
Gigabyte G31M-ES2C
This should cost less than $200.
no hate pl0x