The $500 Gaming Machine, 2007 Edition

Intel Processor: Pentium Dual Core E2160

All Intel current processors with G and L steppings have improved energy efficiency in idle mode, making them almost comparable to AMD's Athlon X2 lineup. However, the Intel CPUs still require slightly more power, which can be tolerated considering their better performance and typically larger L2 cache size (not in this particular case, though). Different from AMD's processor, the L2 cache is shared between the two processing cores. It supports the Execute Disable bit, 64-bit extensions for the latest operating systems and Enhanced SpeedStep to reduce clock speed in idle mode. However, the Pentium Dual Core does not support virtualization technology.

Patrick Schmid
Editor-in-Chief (2005-2006)

Patrick Schmid was the editor-in-chief for Tom's Hardware from 2005 to 2006. He wrote numerous articles on a wide range of hardware topics, including storage, CPUs, and system builds.