Pentium M...A good gaming chip???

Geminiwave · Mar 19, 2005, 02:14 AM

so I was looking around and it seems that with a bit of overclocking, the Pentium M is actually an extremely good Gaming chip (the Dothan anyway).

I was so impressed with how it gave the FX-55 a run for its money, that I'm actually considering getting one now. I have a way of getting a Pentium M for fairly cheap(in fact I can get some smashed up Dell systems with the 2ghz Dothan chip for pretty freakin cheap) and now I'm thinking about it.

So heres the question...what are the drawbacks?? I know theres gotta be something fishy here. The chip has low clockspeeds, low FSB, and low power. It has alot of L2 cache which is good, but something just doesnt seem right.

Are there any negative sides to this chip? It'd be great to have a high powered silent machine(and the Dothan core is just ASKING for silent cooling solutions)

Lowfat · Mar 19, 2005, 02:21 AM

If they would release a board with up-to-date technology i would probably buy one. The price tag of those mobo's are pricey, and they really aren't that great.

The_Neon_Cowboy · Mar 19, 2005, 03:12 AM

as i've herd thier pretty good chips

itchy5 · Mar 20, 2005, 12:15 AM

asus is releaseing a upgrade board that hooks up to your 478 socket and converts it to a 479. so you could have a rocking fast dothan w/ 533fsb (stock lol) dual ddr400, etc >:P but its not realesed yet

CrapolaJola · Mar 22, 2005, 11:16 PM

These things are great. Either use asus adapater like itchy said or head over to the intel forums @ xtremesystems.org. They have a couple of good boards mentioned for the dothans. I just wish Intel would get back in the game and base their next cpus off this, p4s are just ass raped in most things by a64s now a days. A64s are cheaper, have huge ocs, perform great in games, and have caught up to intel in many multimedia things.

Tipstaff · Mar 23, 2005, 12:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by itchy5

asus is releaseing a upgrade board that hooks up to your 478 socket and converts it to a 479. so you could have a rocking fast dothan w/ 533fsb (stock lol) dual ddr400, etc >:P but its not realesed yet

Thing is the adapters only work on boards that have the extra bios intructions to support them, and so far only 2 of Asus' boards support the adapters with another on the way. Until wide support becomes available your stuck buying Asus.

Inside a laptop.. for sure, the Pentium M is nice, outside of them though.. other than a reduction in heat I can't see people wanting one. When you look at the price of a 2Ghz Pentium M and compare that to a P4.. you could buy a P4 650 (3.4ghz, 2mb L2 cache) for the exact same price. So, why do it?

- Tip

itchy5 · Mar 23, 2005, 12:30 AM

cause pentium m's haul some A$$ a OCed 1.8 got to 2.5 and out benched an amd 4000+ and pentium 5xx series its a fast chip not just low heat :P

Tipstaff · Mar 23, 2005, 12:56 AM

Hmm.. with a comparison like that I see your point.

- Tip

Geminiwave · Mar 23, 2005, 01:47 AM

yeah exactly. When I say that there are "impressive benchmarks" I mean that they are VERY IMPRESSIVE!

These benchmarks are hardly believable. Especially since I heard that Pentium Ms have poor floating point integer math thingies...or whatever...anyway point is that they dont seem to stack up as good gaming chips until you see those benchmarks!

Logla · Mar 23, 2005, 03:07 AM

The Pentium Ms, from what I read, are really good in games but its when it comes to doing things like video encoding that they fall down and the P4s really show what they're made of.

Basically they should be used in systems where you either do nothing but games or you want a near silent pc.

Sandok · Mar 23, 2005, 03:41 AM

I've heard that these things are great! Good in games and many hardcore apps!!!

And imagine the OC potential on a 478pin board with the 479 adaptor!!!

2800@2.5ghz · Mar 23, 2005, 05:55 AM

yea the pentium M is a really good gaming chip, even running at low frequencys. i thinks its becasue its got ultra short piplines which meants it performs well at low frequencies, rather like AMD chips, but for video editing and such it falls, also like AMDs, lol

itchy5 · Mar 23, 2005, 06:14 PM

if asus expands its bios tweak for the adaptor to work on other boards id pick it up w/ a 1.8 dothan and WC it >:P

***Zardon*** · Mar 23, 2005, 06:19 PM

the dothans are ass kickingly good chips, a UK magazine did a minor test last month and they found it was performing on a par in games with a FX55 clock for clock.

Geminiwave · Mar 23, 2005, 11:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Logla

The Pentium Ms, from what I read, are really good in games but its when it comes to doing things like video encoding that they fall down and the P4s really show what they're made of.

Basically they should be used in systems where you either do nothing but games or you want a near silent pc.

...and how often do you do video encoding?

The only encoding I do is ripping Cds onto my computer. Other than that, I do internet...

and then well...

GAMES! lots and lots of games. I'd love a quiet cool computer that does UBER gaming.

***Zardon*** · Mar 24, 2005, 09:48 AM

http://www.driverheaven.net/showthre...231#post577231

Meaker · Mar 26, 2005, 10:30 AM

www.anandtech.com