Pentium M & DFI 855GME-MGF (page 9: Conclusion)

Conclusion

With the Pentium M, Intel has an incredibly efficient architecture, which is also far from its maximum potential. The faster versions are currently clocked at 2.13 GHz, but without increasing the electric input, the Pentium M is able to reach equivalent performances to high end processors with relatively simple overclocking and minimal power consumption.

Under these circumstances we may ask what it left to the Pentium 4 and NetBurst architecture? We say not much, except for with software optimized to work with this architecture, as we have seen with TMPGEnc. Results were obtained, however, with a much higher power consumption. With the Pentium M, Intel has a processor able to challenge the Athlon 64 in two areas where the Pentium 4 has difficulties; thermal dissipation and performance with games.

Of course, the Pentium M isn’t perfect. The first downside is that in terms of motherboards, only a small number of models are available, and they are very expensive (around US $270). Also a motherboard like the DFI 855GME-MGF has several limitations, some due to the chipset (only 4 USB, and 0 in front of the computer) and others due to DFI’s choices (it’s only possible to use one PCI slot when the AGP is used though this is minimal if the FireWire and the network are integrated). Also, even if we appreciate that the motherboard is sold with a cooling system, we have some reservations on DFI’s choice of component.

The other negative aspect concerns the processors themselves. They aren’t widely available and are quite expensive. The 1.6 GHz will cost you US $ 215 (EU 220 €), the 1.8 GHz US $ 300 (300 €) and the 2 GHz US $ 435 (430€). This is rather expensive, but we have to keep in mind that all processors are based on the same core. They are easily overclocked so it’s not indispensable to buy the 2 GHz version.

In considering all aspects we still feel that the Athlon 64s are a more balanced choice compared to the Pentium M for the performance/ thermal dissipation / price ratio. The Pentium goes further for thermal dissipation, so it will be a really good choice for fans of silent computers, a growing number of people who still want great performance. Hopefully this product will be more and more widespread, especially with the release of motherboards based on the new i915GM/PM chipsets, such as the AOpen i915GMm-HFS released few days ago and which has even more functions.