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

[VanBuren]

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!

http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/05/10/dual_41_ghz_cores/

http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/05/10/

go Intel !!! 

VanBuren

changed link...

[richcornucopia]

Link doesn't work for me.

[TimPawlak]

me eaither

[richcornucopia]

I found the story but can't find a link that works for it.

[VanBuren]

hmm strange, it dosent work for me aswell

try this http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/05/10/

VanBuren

[resopalrabotnick]

stable at 4.1 with normal cooling? sweet.

[VanBuren]

stable at 4.1 with normal cooling? sweet.

Water Cooling Is Recommended For 4.0 GHz

3.8 GHz is all well and good, but 4.0 GHz lets you tackle and beat the current Pentium Extreme Edition 965 (even though it's not yet available at retail outlets). To this end, we boosted the FSB clock rate to a full 200 MHz.

Overclocking by 50 percent shows this 2.66 GHz processor booting at slightly over 4 GHz

Overclocking by 50 percent shows this 2.66 GHz processor booting at slightly over 4 GHz

To keep the system stable at a 50 percent overclocking level, we had to increase the core CPU voltage yet again. We took the same incremental approach described in the preceding section. Finally, when the voltage was increased by 0.2875 V, the system continued to be stable at 4 GHz, even at maximum load!

At 4014 MHz the Pentium D 805 remains absolutely stable and is thus overclocked by about 50 percent.

At 4014 MHz the Pentium D 805 remains absolutely stable and is thus overclocked by about 50 percent.

Although the Pentium D 805 offers only a 1 MB L2 cache, its CPU clock is also 276 MHz faster than the top-of-the-line Pentium EE 965 (equipped with 2 MB L2 cache); this enables the 805 to outperform the pricier chip.

CPU Rightmark also shows a CPU clock rate of 4 GHz.

CPU Rightmark also shows a CPU clock rate of 4 GHz.

This is where the Zalman cooler begins to show signs of stress. In fact, its maximum fan rotation speed isn't enough to handle the terrific levels of heat produced; the CPU gets too hot, and begins to throttle back its speed.

http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/05/10/dual_41_GHz_cores/page24.html'>http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/05/10/dual_41_GHz_cores/page24.html

edit: grrrrrrrrrr link again 

search for it here http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/05/10/

VanBuren

[php]

http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/05/10/dual_41_ghz_cores/page24.html

you keep pasting links with uppercase GH... only lowercase works

[xs1]

My guess is in the future all computers are going to come stock w/ water cooling.  Of course they'll fix the bugs and patent it and whatnot.

[VanBuren]

http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/05/10/dual_41_GHz_cores/page24.html

you keep pasting links with uppercase GH... only lowercase works

i try to change it, but it wont let me 

[Swimmer]

My guess is in the future all computers are going to come stock w/ water cooling.  Of course they'll fix the bugs and patent it and whatnot.

I dont know.. the way the industry is moving it seems that both AMD and Intel are moving to low heat, low clock cycle, high performance processors on advanced architectures..  I think Intel might have just produced a water cooling or alternative cooling kit for some cpu.. I am going to have to search for it but I remember something a while back about it.

As far as the D805.. this is an awesome chip.. To bad you cant really get it from anyone anymore..(Like dell, gateway)  The only real down fall is that fact that you have to use the new 975x which right now is running high 190s and low 200s to get these types of speeds..