A Budget CPU At Top Speeds

[peat moss]

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

Was just reading this from Toms hardware site seems hard to believe .

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.

Link : http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/05/...res/index.html

[fkdup74]

I was reading that for a bit.

That beast eats 474W under full load clocked at 4.1 GHz.

[clocker]

474w?

Jeebus criminey!

So let's see here...you can buy the chip for cheap and then spend $599 on the PSU to power it and another couple hundred on cooling to prevent meltdown.

What a bargain, sign me up.

[Virtualbody1234]

The 474 watts was for the whole system under load. Not just the CPU.

They had the whole thing running on a Tagan i-Xeye 480 W PSU.

[peat moss]

I don't pretend to be an expert but can't you o/c it just a liddle bit , still would seem a bargoon eh . Oh course some numb nuts would still try with the stock cooling . Just thought it was interesting .

[fkdup74]

The 474 watts was for the whole system under load. Not just the CPU.

They had the whole thing running on a Tagan i-Xeye 480 W PSU.

Yes. But, a 2.6 GHz X2 4800, which I'd take over a 4 GHz Pentium D any day,
eats 203 W for the system under full load.
You could probably up the clocks on that and still be, say, 175W shy of the Pentium.
And watts aren't cheap over, like, 500 or so.

True story: I was on lunch today, went to pick up a PSU for this extra box.
I've been wanting to play around with the Neo HE 550. Triple rails. 17 or 18A per.
It was going for $169.
The Smart Power 2.0 500 was $99. Dual rails, 17/19A I think, not too bad.
Guess which one I got?
Hint: estimate the price per watt over the 500 mark....it was a no-brainer for me.

[clocker]

Guess which one I got?
Hint: estimate the price per watt over the 500 mark....it was a no-brainer for me.

I give up...it's too early for quizzes.