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Desktop Pentium M Motherboard Review

Babstar writes "Discussed numerous times on Slashdot, the quiet PC is the holy grail for many, and one step in the right direction could be using a Pentium M (designed for notebooks) in a desktop machine. Here's a review of a desktop Pentium M motherboard. Surprisingly it's also a great game machine."

9 of 262 comments (clear)

  1. MIddle Ground by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    If I want something fanless, I'll get a Via board or vapor from TeamASA. If I want a game PC, I'll get an Athlon64 and put shitty WinXP on it. The Pentium-M might be a good middle ground, but unless you specifically want a Pentium-M, it won't fill either niche really well.

  2. A quiet personal computer? by jim_v2000 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Does that make the iMac the holy grail?

    --
    Don't take life so seriously. No one makes it out alive.
  3. Re:Fans die so quickly by PedanticSpellingTrol · · Score: 3, Insightful

    borked fan ->weird electrical loads -> broken compy

  4. Re:Quiet...that'd be nice for a change... by moonbender · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Just buy a new cooler. Cheap 80x80mm ones go for like 15 bucks, and they perform just as well as your current one. In most systems, either the graphics card of the PSU/case fans ought to be the noisiest, I think.

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  5. Re:Change by Amorpheus_MMS · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I think that's mostly because they don't want their Pentium IV flagship killed by the reanimated Pentium III yet.

  6. Actually, four years ago, they did by xmark · · Score: 4, Insightful

    In Spring of 2000, my LeadTek GeForce 256 came with a fan, a noisy little bugger that failed in less than a year. Here's a picture . So did most of the other flavors (Asus, Guillemot, etc.), as a fan was specified on the nVidia reference design. I ended up taking the fan off, and attaching a large passive heatsink. End of problem.

  7. Re:Slashdotted? by damiam · · Score: 4, Insightful

    An iPod could handle a slashdotting given enough bandwidth, as long as it was serving static pages. Dynamically generated content (such as ASP) is what burns most slashdotted servers.

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    It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.
  8. Objective??? by sloth+jr · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Wait a minute - this is a review posted on a MANUFACTURER'S site. GamePC sells PCs, including, surprise, a Pentium M gaming system.

  9. Re:Cool 'n Quiet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    First of all, all Athlon 64 processors except for the new FX55 have maximum consumption rate of 89W, so I have no idea where your 90+ watt thing is coming from. Not only that, most Athlon 64 processors at lower than 2.4GHz, which is what most people buy, don't EVER consume that much power.

    My desktop HTPC uses true mobile Athlon 64 (older 130nm part). At 1.8GHz with Cool'n Quiet disabled (because my HTPC use requires consistent behavior), even with real-time video deinterlacing app using 100% CPU, CPU temperature stays cooler than my Barton at IDLE. And this is with all fans slowed down.

    True mobile Athlon 64s are rated to consume less than 35W at max frequency, which is 2.0GHz for the new 90nm parts. At minimum speed of 800MHz, it's rated at less than 10W for the new 90nm part.

    Yes, it can be hard to buy one, and they need special care as they're not lidded. The point is that previous poster's statements are not very meaningful even without considering the mobile variety of the Athlon 64.