A 4.1 GHz Dual Core at $130? 288
joshmo97 writes "Tom's Hardware has found that the Pentium D 805 runs stable at 4.1 GHz and outperforms Intel and AMD's flagship offerings in many benchmarks. From the article: 'The Pentium D 805 is a budget CPU, but it puts lots of processors from AMD and Intel to shame. Although it is not based on the latest 65 nm core, this CPU remains stable even when operating at amazing 4.1 GHz. The Pentium D 805 ascends to the throne as the new King of overclocking, knocking out the AMD Opteron 144.'"
and oh, boy, the heat... (Score:5, Informative)
260 Watts. (Score:5, Informative)
That will run up the electric bill just a little.
Trading one cost for another (Score:5, Informative)
Total system cost is so low! (Score:5, Informative)
Sorry for adding to the cesspool of odious car similies!
ARTICLE TEXT (or, "Bite Me, Tom's Hardware") (Score:5, Informative)
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!
As one of our more enthusiastic readers wrote to us a few years ago, when we were chasing new overclocking records on what seemed like a daily basis: "I'll knock your numbers down to the ground." In this case, he was referring to the video encoding performance numbers that a heavily overclocked system could post when compared to a stock PC. We've also seen another similar phenomena in days of yore, which ambitious (but older) users probably remember. For example, the Intel Celeron 300A, for which a 300 MHz clock rate was specified, worked flawlessly at 450 MHz. Foreshadowing our current champ, this low-cost offering also knocked a much more expensive Pentium II 400 into the back seat.
The Pentium D 805 gives Intel an unassuming budget CPU for its processor portfolio, but simply overclocking the device to 4.1 GHz puts it ahead of top-of-the-line high-dollar processors. For overclocking aficionados this means one thing: the AMD Opteron 144, which led the overclocking pack until just recently, has been dethroned by the Pentium D 805. This latter processor is not only easier on the pocketbook, it's also a noticeably better performer, thanks to its dual core architecture - the Opteron offers only a single core.
The Pentium D 805 is based on the first Intel dual core processor, the Pentium D with the Smithfield core. Its predecessors in this family were rated at clock speeds of 2.8 GHz (D 820) to 3.2 GHz (D 840). Both cores in this CPU family come equipped with a 1 MB L2 cache, whereas the most current dual core processors in the 900 series make 2 MB available to each core. For the last year, Intel has brought no new models in the 800 series to market, because the company has switched its fabrication from a 90 nm process to a 65 nm one in the meantime, and has used this smaller building block size only for processors in the 900 series. But then out of nowhere, the old Smithfield core put in another appearance in the form of the Pentium D 805.
By comparison with all the other processors in this series, the D 805's relatively low clock speed of 2.66 GHz doesn't make much of an impression on store shelves. At 133 MHz (533 QDR), its front side bus clock rate is laughable when compared to state-of-the-art CPUs with 200 and 266 MHz speeds.
The Secret Of The Multiplier
The multiplier expresses the ratio between the processor clock speed and the FSB clock. For the Pentium D 805, the combination of FSB and processor clocks results in a multiplier value of 20x. By comparison with other CPUs with 200 MHz or 266 MHz FSB, this is a very high valu
Re:260 Watts. (Score:3, Informative)
"With a heavy load (100% utilization) on both CPU cores, the difference between standard clock rates and overclocking to 4.1 GHz is pretty dramatic. The resulting boost in performance comes at the cost of 216 W of actual power consumed!"
"
Re:Hand picked sample? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Hand picked sample? (Score:5, Informative)
Normally the clock multiplier is in the 10's but on this chip it is 20x. That means that a relatively small change to the FSB clock increases the overall clock speed greatly.
The default FSB speed is 133mhz. 20x133 = 2.66ghz (the original speeds)
By raising the FSB by only a bout 70 mhz to 200 we get a huge change. 20x205= 4.1ghz
It's a relativley low increase in FSB speeds that translate to a much higher clockrate.
Re:260 Watts. (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Longevity? (Score:5, Informative)
What is it with you people?
Here on slashdot no less, a bunch of people decried my overclocking of a Celeron 300A to 450... FYI, its still running right now...
You decried my overclocking of my AMD Barton 2500+ to 3200+... I am still using THAT as my primary machine...
I am aware of the risks of overclocking, but I am also aware of the benifits. I weigh those considerations carefully before doing so. Overclocking not for you? Fine. No problem.
However, it has been working just great for me thanks - and people told me my celeron would just *EXPLODE* or catch fire... or... Whatever...
If you don't like overclocking, don't do it. However, stop whining about the chip frying. If it works, and you keep it cooled, it will probably work for a long time to come.
Re:Longevity? (Score:2, Informative)
Again, the problem is you never know unless you are extremely careful to check results. The desktop processors most likely do not use much self-checking circuitry, so it will require software or human result checking. Since nobody writes desktop software that expects the CPU to be broken and no human should be expected to check every single operation of a computer, there's no reasonable way for anyone to notice that an error has ocurred.
Re:Longevity? (Score:2, Informative)
Took a working Athlon XP 2600+ to 3200+ speeds for a few weeks with aggressive cooling. One day, the machine simply wouldn't boot.
It does happen.
You can do that with any chip (Score:3, Informative)
However, realisticly, you are better just getting a more efficient processor. Get yourself a Core Duo processor. They are currently the best performance/watt you can get your hands on in x86 land, hence Apple's using of them. You can get them independant of laptops and use them in desktops. A T2300 should dissipate less than 30 watts or so (I don't have the precise spec, but the thermal spec only calls for like 30 watts disspaption for the whole Core Duo line).
Re:Longevity? (Score:4, Informative)
Maybe I got lucky... However, I also did my homework first too. I knew my odds. And the odds of overclocking a celery 300A were VERY high. Could mine do 466? No. However, for the price to performance ratio, it was well worth the risk.
If I want a gaming machine that I don't care too much about the power bill, then this overclock "as dangerous as it may be" is worth my time. Besides, do the math, how many low end intels will I have to burn though to equal a chip that is ALMOST as powerful as the overclocked?
HINT, where I buy my chips:
Intel Pentium 4 Extreme Edition 3.73GHZ $1,318.24
Intel Pentium D 805 2.66GHZ Dual Core $171.74
Do the math.
Re:Longevity? (Score:3, Informative)
Stupid software-controlled clock circuitry...
Re:Longevity? (Score:5, Informative)
Here on slashdot no less, a bunch of people decried my overclocking of a Celeron 300A to 450... FYI, its still running right now...
You decried my overclocking of my AMD Barton 2500+ to 3200+... I am still using THAT as my primary machine...
I am aware of the risks of overclocking, but I am also aware of the benifits. I weigh those considerations carefully before doing so. Overclocking not for you? Fine. No problem.
I'm not that shocked by their results to be honest. I do question the overvoltage they are using to get there, however. On air with a completely unimpressive cooler I've taken my Celeron-D 2.93 Ghz chip to 3.6Ghz, just raise the bus up a knotch to the next memory setting. Now the onboard graphics doesn't work at that setting, so you have to have an AGP card - but the board works fine, and at least in the winter & spring temps here can be kept from overheating (though it gets a little hotter than I would like). With summer rolling around I'm going to swap out the heatsink and go with larger intake and exhaust fans. After rebates, I paid $30 for this CPU, and its worth every penny. Considering the Pentium-D 506 is basically two Celeron-D's slapped together, I would fully expect most of them to get to 3.6Ghz with a little care in the right motherboards, at least 3.34Ghz. Of course, this wont happen with the stock cooler. You need to get one with at least partial copper and a bigger fan that runs a little faster.
On the downside of OC'ing, I killed a motherboard overclocking. The chip was fine, everything else was fine, but the drive controller went snap crackle pop. So YMMV, that was in a K6 system (which were poor OC'ers to begin with), I expected the chip to heat up a bit and was prepared to deal with that - I didn't expect the drive controller to die on me. That was at a trivial 20mhz overclock as well, which tells me the components in the board were not up to snuff.
Celerons I've OC'd with impunity. They have been great chips for it, and I've never gone out and purchased a water cooler or any of that nonsense. I've still got a Celeron 300 OC'd, running what, 8-9 years? I've still got a PIII OC'd running 6 years (that I've owned it). I don't expect my current system to last 10 years, I'll likely replace it in 2 as even at 3.6ghz its less suited for the way I actually use my computer than a dual core chip would be. Seeing this does give me another option. Though I'll likely save a little extra money and get a 4400X2 anyway.
Re:Longevity? (Score:4, Informative)
2600+ or 2500+ ?? There is a big difference. The 2500+ overclocks much better because of the FSB speed, you cannot correctly overclock a 2600+ to 3200+ due to the FSB...
Either way, did you identify that the chip was in fact the problem? And if so, how much did the damaged chip cost versus the same chip in a 3200+ version? In the case of this article, you can buy at least 8 of these Pentium 805 D chips for a single 3.8 Ghz Extreme... And the 805 D is faster...
Re:and oh, boy, the heat... (Score:5, Informative)
I haven't put the meter on the P-D machines yet (hopefully I'll remember tomorrow), but I can say that even compared to the 3800 X2s, the 805 DEFINITELY pumps more heat out the back of the machine. The cases have 120mm fans blowing a good bit of air, so the machines don't overheat... the poor schmucks sitting at those cubicles just get sweaty legs.
steve
Yeah, $130 + the cost of water cooling (Score:4, Informative)
I picked up a 805 myself and just like Tom's I could do 3.33 with stock vcore. Read any other ocing articles on the 805 and 4ghz can only be achieved with water cooling. Even if you shoot for 3.8 you are going to need a $60 heatsink and pray it gets the job done.
He also says: "It's noteworthy that the core voltage levels of 2.7 volts didn't read out correctly here."
This isn't true according to my testing. CPUZ shows the correct voltage, well close to it anyways. For some reason currently shipping intel motherboards and nf4 intel motherboards have a hard time supplying the correct voltage when oced and under load. The voltage always drops by a substantial amount, for example at 3.33 it drops from 1.337 to 1.25 while under load. I broke out my multimeter to make sure since I was contemplating upping the voltage in the bios to compensate.
At any rate I would say ocing it to 3.33 is good enough considering the price.
Oh and why fsck did this article need 45 pages?
Re:Trading one cost for another (Score:2, Informative)
Original clockspeed = 2.66GHz (Score:4, Informative)
I mean, c'mon, how many people know what the original speed of the conveniently named Pentium D 805 is off the top of their heads anyway?
What the summary doesn't mention. (Score:5, Informative)
2) The zalman cooler wasn't good enough and would throttle after 3.8Ghz
3) The 4.1Ghz was achieved using water cooling. The CPU is rated at 1.4v max and they had to run it at 1.56v to make this work.
The headline says "A 4.1 GHz Dual Core at $130?" - but you'll need water cooling to make it to 4.1 ghz and that will at least double the price. Not to mention you'de probably need a new power supply.
Re:and oh, boy, the heat... (Score:3, Informative)
I've never had a heatsink fall off or a fan fail (I tend to replace them pretty often, I can't stand it if they start to make extra noise) one of my machines, but my old roomie had the heatsink fall off an old Althon 600 (OC'd to 800) and the machine kept going for quite some time before even showing issues. He told me he heard a "clunk" about a week before, and now the machine shut off randomly at night (he never shut it down.) Ended up just getting a new heatsink and fan for it (the clips broke) and it was fine again. This happened about 2 years ago, and the machine is still working great for him.
I've seen machines go through abuse (mostly ones brought into my shop) that should kill them, but they keep on going. A good example of a horribly abused machine that kept (mostly) going was one brought into my shop because it kept blue screening. It ended up being a bad hard drive. But what seems to have caused the failure is it was in the same room as a wood burning stove and a white long haired cat who like to sleep right behind the computer. The case was filled about 3/4 of the way up with brown stained cat hair. It was pretty disgusting, but after a good vacuuming and a new hard drive, the machine was fine. I believe it was an HP, running an Athlon XP chip (not sure of the speed, probably like a 2600 or 2800.) The cat hair was covering half the heat sink by the time they brought it in to us, and the fan was having trouble spinning (it was fine after being unblocked.) They were just lucky the cat hair didn't catch on fire, pretty sure that would have caused more than just a hard drive failure.
Re:260 Watts. (Score:2, Informative)
A Watt is a Watt is a Watt. It all ends up as heat in the room
Gah
Be silent, 'tard.
Funny Farming (Score:3, Informative)
Funny farming, sure. That's fun to say!