According to this Inquirer article, Hitachi is releasing Pentium-M based desktop PCs. Isn't that nice?

Now all we have to do is source Hitachi's mobos and we're in business!

Oh, BTW - WELCOME TO SPCR!!! Nice first post!

.. and source all the leftover 1.4 - 1.6 GHz Pentium M's that Intel will have laying around after the May 1st (?) roll-out of the new models!!!

-Dan

You can buy Pentium-M's from Mwave, and probably other places as well.

Thanks Ralf! Although this was my first post, I have been reading & learning a lot at SPCR for over a year now. I guess they call me QuietSmurf for a reason ... Anyway, I thought this news about desktop PC with Pentium-M's inside was too big to go by unnoticed. But, given the response, I think I have misjudged its importance?

Well I certainly think it's important, so two thumbs up for posting it.

We had a couple of large Pentium-M threads going for a while but they sort of petered out due to the lack of suitable (i.e. available and less than $400) motherboards. Perhaps that cadre of SPCR'ers has drifted away to build PIII-S systems instead...

Personally, I think this 100W+ CPU stuff is headed in the wrong direction. As computers become more and more a part of the average home, people are going to want to integrate them into their lifestyle. They're not going to want jet powered, room heating screamers, they'll want quiet, unobtrusive systems that can do the task they need. A 150W+ 5GHz P5 system is not needed in an enviornment like this, but a 40W 2.5GHz Pentium-M would be just perfect.

eh, /end rant.

/Ralf waits for desktop Pentium-M boards to become available. And he's not holding his breath.


BTW - There's an interesting thread here.

well i'm still interested in this type of system too. i'd love a Pentium M in a Zen type case (but with AGP). there just hasn't been too much news lately, though. i want to build my parents a small, quiet system so i've been waiting for more P M news. not sure i can wait much longer though... i've been eyeing some mobile XP chips that are pretty low power and are available now.

and Ralf, i totally agree with your rant. CPU speeds are high enough for most people... we need to work on power efficiency.

Hmmm - speaking on 100W+ CPU's.

What about the 110 - 150W GPU's?

We somewhat need a "Pentium-M / Centrino for GPU's". That'd be a nice thing.

The way things are going, the next gen graphics cards will need THREE PCI'slots. Not necessarily for the heatisnk, but more as a safe-zone, so as not to MELT other PCI cards soldering ...

I caught a picture of the latest release from NVidia over on SFFTech and they require not only an agp slot, but also 2, count them 2, 4 prong molex power lines from the PSU... The kind that go into your hard drive.

Insane!!

It aint just the noise. Eventually we're going to have to consider the PC's impact on the electric bill, if we don't already. When I read about 450 watt power supplies and higher I think to myself I don't want a computer the eats up 450 watts. That's real dollars at the end of the month.

To me, energy consumption (or heat, if you prefer) is as important as silence, since my PC is hidden in a small closed closet. I can deal with some noise as it is masked by the closet. But after a while I have to open the closet door to let out the heat - and the noise. From that point of view, it's a pity that S3's DeltaChrome cards are unavailable (at least over here in the Netherlands) that take only 5 watts but are comparable (in terms of performance) to a Radeon 9600. Imagine a system with a Pentium M, a DeltaChrome and a Samsung HDD ... Now, if only I could get any of these in Holland ...

Oh well, never mind. I'm going a little off my own topic here.

I'm interested in the P-M, Quiet, it's just that I lost a lot of interest after doing shopping for P-M CPUs and boards. Mobos for the P-Ms were around $400 and weren't even full featured. I tried bidding on P-M CPUs on eBay but was outbid. Just a functional system with Mobo and CPU tallied up to around $700. I finally bought the Shuttle Zen and that will do me just as fine for now.

I guess it's a matter of time, before they come down in price, it *IS* after all, a new market.

However, I am quite hopefuly that it'll grow (thus becoming cheaper), and there's no reason why it shouldn't. Banias/Dothan have EXCELLENT performance, EXCELLENT heat-production (or, lack thereof).

Now, we just need decent chipsets + boards for it - to the desktop .

Uh, did anybody else catch the Zalman HP80 cooled Epia Mod there?

I always thought this would be possible, but never got around to trying this.

Doesn't look very stable though. I would definitely find a way to secure that huge heatsink.

I'm thinking that modding a Zalman HP80 may be my only hope to passively cool my Lippert Thunderbird. I don't feel like returning my 1.3GHz Pentium M and paying $250 for a downgrade to the passively cooled 1.1GHz Pentium M THunderbird.
Yeah, f#ck you, Lippert.

-Ed

Will Pentium M rule?

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/05/07 ... els_tejas/

And AMD weighs in with its own 35W product.

http://www.cooltechzone.com/reviews/cpu/amdcpu_001.php

Thanks for those links, John. They're worthy front page news.

But for PC silencers, the pressing question is still "When will we have affordable full-featured desktop boards for P-M?"

I gave up on ordering the Radisys LS855. When they started saying it would cost more than $600 for one, that is. :rolleyes:

Too bad the industry is dragging their knuckles on this one.

It's only a matter of time before Home Theater computers are more popular that not everyone will be hiding them in equipment closets, and actually having them in their living rooms and bedrooms. Then people will start getting annoyed by their 500 watt screaming space heater.

-Ed