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

By Tom's Hardware News Team
published

Overclocking To 4.10 GHz Boosts Basic Clock Speed By 54 Percent, Continued

With this message, Asus seeks to inform users that they've exceeded the CPU's specifications, and are now operating outside the safe voltage range.

This CPU offers overclocking potential of up to 54 percent.

At this point we also feel compelled to repeat that our test system continued to be stable for all benchmarks at a CPU clock speed of 4.1 GHz.

Power consumption in the processor climbs to immense levels, thanks to the extreme elevation of input voltage to its cores. Compared to the standard clock rate, this processor consumes 54 W more when in idle mode at 4.1 GHz. At maximum load it's difficult to believe the numbers one reads from the power measurement instruments: the system consumes 146 W more when overclocked to 4.1 GHz.

We beat this CPU with our extremely overclocked $130 Pentium D in nearly every test.

Tom's Hardware News Team
Tom's Hardware News Team

Tom's Hardware's dedicated news crew consists of both freelancers and staff with decades of experience reporting on the latest developments in CPUs, GPUs, super computing, Raspberry Pis and more.

5 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Tnias
    I am quite interested in your post regarding the D 805. Considering that it is now available for around $60.00 (03/20/09), it still sounds like a steal. We just upgraded our Adobe CS2 software to the new CS4 Master Suite, which caused the need for a graphics card upgrade. We have an nVidia GeForce GTX 260, but haven't installed it because our computer is a HP Media Center PCm7350n computers each with a 2.8 GHz CPU on a ASUS P5LP-LE mobo. Your article seemed to imply that there is software available that might adjust the clock from inside windows and we are wondering if it can on that mobo or if we will have to get a different mobo. If so, we are wondering what might be our most cost effective but stable options. We are certainly going to need a new power supply for the GTX 260, which requires 525 Watts. We are looking at just putting in PC Power & Cooling’s, Silencer 610 EPS12V power supplyand letting it go at that, but we are also thinking about upgrading the CPU and mobo if necessary.

    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?
    Reply
  • amnotanoobie
    TniasAny 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.
    Reply
  • salh
    Sweg.
    Reply
  • smeezekitty
    4 year old thread!
    Reply
  • salh
    11206355 said:
    4 year old thread!

    no hate pl0x
    Reply