Intel System
ECS G33T with Intel G33 Chipset
ECS’s G33T is a simple MicroATX motherboard based on the G33 chipset, which typically would be used for office PCs. However, it will work properly in any desktop PC, as it comes with all important features, including four SATA/300 ports, Gigabit networking, and a D-SUB display output based on the integrated Intel graphics engine. That’s not a glorious chip, but it’s powerful enough to run an office/multimedia PC, and graphics performance can be upgraded by plugging in any PCI Express 2.0 graphics card. Thanks to its three phase voltage regulator, the G33T runs very efficiently as well.
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400
The Core 2 Duo E8000 series, which is based on Intel’s 45 nm manufacturing process, is the most energy efficient dual core processor available today, and is the most powerful dual core model as well. This especially applies to the 3 MB cache versions, which were released some months after the 6 MB processors. We recommend going for any version, as the performance differences among them are small ; if you stay below 3 GHz, the power consumption will also be low even under load. All E8000 Core 2 Duo processors have a total of 6 MB shared L2 cache, and they will run in all current Socket 775 motherboards. It’s usually possible to exchange an Intel dual core for a quad core processor, should you need more performance.
