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More Analysis Of Pentium M Desktops

Posted by timothy on from the rocky-start-does-not-mean-doom dept.

Hack Jandy writes "The Pentium 4 has gotten enough attention lately as a slow, over heated monstrosity; but does Intel's Pentium M fare any better? Intel's decision to introduce the Pentium M as a desktop processor (East Fork) may not be all it's cracked up to be. Sudhian has an in-depth article, and Anand has benchmarks (on Linux!). I will stick with my Athlon 64, thank you very much."

9 of 347 comments (clear)

  1. Pentium M clocks down too much by dotslashdot · · Score: 4, Interesting

    My experience with Pentium M is that it clocks down BIG time if you don't plug in the power cord. So much so that the laptop is virtually useless. YMMV.

    1. Re:Pentium M clocks down too much by n1ywb · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I've been using my Fujitsu Lifebook P5000 1GHz P-M for a few months now, and I have to say I don't really notice the performance difference when it clocks down. It's still perfectly useable. The only time I really notice it is when I'm compiling or something, and even then it's pretty fricking fast IMO. People are spoiled by fast CPUs nowadays, consarnit.

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    2. Re:Pentium M clocks down too much by MooseGuy529 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      That's totally bogus.

      If you are running a modern, ACPI-enabled OS, processor speed is fully controllable by the OS. My Pentium M sits at 600 MHz all the time, unless I need it, and then it throttles up to 1700 MHz as needed. My guess is that you are running Windows, since Linux uses the highest clock speed unless you install a throttling daemon (I use speedfreqd.)

      I do know, however, that the Pentium 4-M throttles down a ton, because its power management features are less efficient and the battery life would be less than an hour. As it is, most only get 1 to 2 hours.

      What OS are you running, anyway?

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  2. Best place for AMD systems by augustz · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I've gotten old enough that I no longer thrill at the idea of building my own system. I'm looking for something quiet, very reliable, and inexpensive. Performance comes behind these critiera.

    Basically I'm looking for the Dell equivelant in the AMD world, someone who cranks them out in great quantities. I checked out HP etc, wasn't blown away. Also open to a smaller shop if they come with a good recommendation (and without the insanely gaudy cases, no rounded plastic please).

    1. Re:Best place for AMD systems by St.+Arbirix · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I would have said Netlux but they recently pulled a fast one on me. My laptop from them is an oversized clunky beast... but it's a 2.00Ghz machine from the summer of 2002 that cost me $1100, an amazing deal at the time (Clemson school laptops were $1500 1.5Ghz IBMs).

      And talk about dependable... I've taken it apart about 5 times, once to paint the exterior with my own designs, cut holes in the casing, etc and it still works fine. Occasionally the flourescent light for the LCD would flicker out but that was just a matter of opening her up, unplugging the screen, and plugging it back in a couple times. The parts are all Sony, Fujitsu, Toshiba, and other brand names... the laptop runs really hot and sometimes the harddrive (Toshiba) will click a few times and stop working on me which has been happening for a year and just a matter of letting it cool down. Since I never actually move the laptop (there are 6 firewire drives daisy-chained off of a poorly placed 4-pin port in the front center of the laptop) I plan on shelling out the slot fan and copper radiator in favor of some cheap water-cooling experiment (hopefully involving a decorative waterfall).

      My basic point is that a well rated off-brand computer store from pricewatch.com will land you with a Volvo among computers that outruns Miatas, isn't winning design awards, and despite the fact that sometimes it shuts off by itself or won't start immediately it can always be depended on to come up with a few retries and not get any worse with age (my girlfriend's 1984 tank/Volvo is just like this).

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  3. A very neat processor indeed by elh_inny · · Score: 5, Interesting

    When I browsed through the test, I headed directly to the database section and I was positively surprised, P4M excels in this area.
    In my computing I actually find hard disks to be a bottleneck. I use databases all the time and any improvement in that area is a plus.
    I bet Gentoo fanboys will lament on processor's performance while compiling, I think it has more to do with the lack of the optimisations yet and what's even more important I don't compile much, I just use the computer.
    Overall I find this processor to be a very attractive solution for a typical desktop computer.
    It's a great base for a SFF or even smaller computer with more than adequate computing power.

  4. Pentium M by MrRuslan · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I have no clue why would anyone buy this. I mean Pentium M is great for laptops because of the lower power consumption but there is very little to gain from it on the desktop. It is very overpriced for a standard workstation onfiguration where somone dosent need power. I mean it saves power but not enogh to make it worth the trouble.

  5. 64-bit goodness by pp · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Was unfortunately left out. I mean, Athlon 64 makes a fine Pentium 4 competitor when running a legacy 32-bit operating system, but it's so much more. Those cool extra registers you get in 64-bit mode make the thing just scream!

    And no, the intel EM64T stuff isn't even competing in the same league, 40-45% slower with 40% more GHz is what I've seen in real-life workloads (heavy numbercrunching). For some other types of loads it does just about as well as the a64/opteron, though.

    Revised x86_64 support (possibly in the pentium m core and in the same price range as the new 90nm a64's) and Intel has a chance. That and Microsoft delaying 64-bit Windows for a couple more years.

  6. Intel is trying to shift the battle, not catch up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    My parents and the bulk of the people out there do not need a 64bit 5ghz monster under their desk. And honestly most of thosethat have them probably only use the power 5-10% of the time, if that.

    Intel could care less about us, they care about Fortune 500 companies that buy computers by the truck load... and what those companies care about is saving money. 5-20W here and there don't really mean much to you and I, but when you're footing the electric bill for several hundreds or thousands of people then giving everyone barn burners to run Excel starts to look pretty foolish.

    You might as well be comparing a Prius and a Ferrari or a jumbo jet and an SR-71.

    Use the right tool for the job folks.