The Intel Gift That Keeps On Giving...... The Core/Core 2 Duo

In early 2006, Intel began shipping their new product, code named "Yonah" and "Merom". These new CPUs were designed to take back the crown and restored the luster which AMD had taken in the preceding years. This story really starts a decade before when, from the mid-90s till close to 2000, Intel had been clearly the leader in the processor industry, although AMD had given it a very decent run for their money with the K5/K6 architecture during those years. However, those chips were always seen as being the inexpensive alternative if you couldn't afford the real thing! So, in 1999/2000 Intel was the monarch of all it surveyed with the PIII "Tualatin" follow-on to the "Katmai" and then great "Coppermine" processors. 

Then this happened! Netburst...... otherwise known as P4 (or Pentium 4). It turn out to be a wrong turn in the Intel roadmap. Simple put; they fell in love with speed. I was working in the IT world at that time and remember it clear as yesterday. "Netburst" was the next big thing, it could do everything fast. It was so fast, it required a new type of RAM.... RAMBUS (RD RAM) and even a new socket...... the Socket 423. I remember having to do a budgetary tapdance just to buy system memory for those machines because it was so expensive (and my predecessor had under-spec'd the hardware when that group of machines were bought. They were Dell Optiplex GX400 and a thorn in my side for the next 3 years. The P4s got faster AND hotter, AND faster AND HOTTER. The CPU game went this way for 5 years, until the "Smithfield" Pentium D processors came out in May of 2005. In fact, they ran so hot that most major manufacturers never made P4 small form-factor machines. The Pentium D was essentially 2 of the "Prescott" cores on one die, but it was a change that would be a harbinger of really big things to come. The other shoe dropped in January of the following year when the "Presler" chip was launched. Sure it was still a P4 based Penitum D, BUT it was built on the 65nm process. AND chips were made to go into the new LGA 775 socket which would soon become the host to the really big change.

That same January, Intel slipped the "Yonah" Core Solo and Duo onto the market in notebook form only. This was followed in July with the notebook "Merom" and in August by the Desktop "Conroe" Core 2 Duo processors. These weren't just the "same old, same old": Intel had gone back to it's roots of the last PIII "Tualatin" chip that valued cool-running efficiency versus the flat-out speed of the P4 line. The new architecture put Intel back into the drivers seat where it's been ever since. Not only that, but this series of chips dating back to 2006 weren't replaced till the "Clarkdale", "Core" Series of 2010, weren't just long lived, but can still run current operating systems and quite a lot of productivity software as well. If you're someone who uses a computer to do simple tasks such as websurfing, checking email and consuming some media, the later, "Wolfdale" (desktop), or "Penryn" (notebook) work fine. Now, if you're a media creator....... then I'd say look elsewhere!

If you're wondering where I'm going with this; then here it is! We have 2, ThinkPad T500s in our house right now that are about to go to new homes. My son's old lower-spec'd machine that has integrated Intel graphics, on a 1280 x 800 screen, and my wife's nicer switchable graphics (integrated Intel GMA 4500M or ATI Radeon HD 3650) on a 1680 x 1050 screen. These machines have run very well over the last 3 years that we've had them. My son's only got replaced this fall when he needed to carry a machine to and from school daily. However, in the last couple of weeks, I've run into opportunities to sell both machines. One will go for $150 and the other for $175. Both buyers were happy to be able to get them for those prices and they'll do a good job for the new owners. 

 

Their replacements will be a T530 running 3rd generation i5 bought for $135. It'll need a HDD, but I planing on moving her 512Gb SSD over to it. I'll have to spend about $20-30 for a new palmrest but at the end of the day, this machine will have pretty much cost me $0. My son's current X220 was bought for about $80 (after shipping) from an eWaste dealer. It didn't come with a drive, but did have 4Gb of RAM. I was able to move his old 160Gb Intel SSD into it as well as add another 4Gb of RAM that I had on hand. So that exchange will have made me about $50. This whole story really isn't about the great deals I got on the new machines, but really that those old Core 2 Duo ones were such a great generation that they were still viable enough to get me enough pay for their own replacements!

Intel is Out to Get Me....or at Least Confuse Me Greatly

Let me tell ya, this learning new stuff isn't for the faint of heart! As you know, I've been working on this gaming computer for someone, which in and of itself wouldn't be a big deal if they had a relatively reasonable budget for an up-to-date gaming PC..... say somewhere in the $2000-3000 range. BUT NO, it's $600! What that means is that I had to be creative and learn the "ins & outs" of the gaming computer world, but not only that, but the next level of PC hardware as well.....meaning the Post-Core 2 Duo/Quad era. Just when I finally get comfortable with the various parts of that generation, and having just climbed (almost) to the top of the heap in acquiring a Q9550 "Yorkfield" processor!

First of all; I've kind of learned to hate Intel! Since the arrival of the Lynnfield/Clarkdale, whatever you want to call their various families of processors, there's been a proliferation of CPU sockets. Everything from 1366, to 1150, to 1156, 1155/H2, yada, yada, yada. I hate it. P4 was socket 478 (after that aborted 423), then the Core Duos were the socket 775, now, we've got all manner of sockets! Which is why I finally settled on the 1155. At least that one can go from the Sandy Bridge G2, to the Ivy Bridge without having to buy a new board..... mostly..... if your board has a Z77 chipset anyway. The other ones.... mostly dead ends..... hate it.

Then, there's the whole chipset debacle. When combined with the myriad of sockets, this is a veritable minefield of processor/chipset/sockets to negotiate to determine what one should be bought. Take the Z68 for example. You're a gamer who wants PCIe 3.0, RAM at 1600? Nope, gotta get a Z77 board. Gives me a headache. This whole time, AMD has been pretty much on the AM3 socket. Oh yeah, Intel has been kicking the stuffing out of those guys, so never mind I guess.

Then there's the whole processor thing. Not only do we have the i3, i5, i7 thing going on, but you have "K" spec, "S" spec, and "T" spec processors within the groups as well. Oh, I almost forgot that there are the normal ones with no suffix. Of course, most people are familiar with the "K" spec, unlocked chips, but what about the "S" and "T"? S for lower power (about 65 TDP), and T for ultra-low power (35, or 45 TDP). Actually, for a normal user like, me, these are the ones that are really interesting. On my current Core 2 Duo/Quad platforms, I'm already at more computational power than I need most of the time, but on second generatoin (and later) Core processors, it's really WAY more power than the normal person needs. Yes, I targeted and got a 2500K for the gaming project just in case the kid decides that down the road he wants to play something like Starcraft Crysis, or any other game that is processor intensive. But for me? I'll probably be OK with a lower priced "S":spec 3330S from the Ivy Bridge generation, or even a "T" spec processor like I talked about before. For what I do (which is the same for most people), the money is better spent on an SSD (way faster speed I/O to the board), more RAM (run a bunch of stuff at once), USB 3.0 (way faster transfer speed with removable storage I use every day). So really, my jump to Intel's "Core" series of processors will have nothing to do with processing power, it's having the same (or somewhat better) level of power as I have now, while having a much cooler running machine. Although my 95TDP "Yordfield" is the most efficient of the high-end Core 2 Quads, that's still 50% higher than an "S" spec Ivy Bridge.

During the last week or two, I've spent as much or more time educating myself on AMD's various current graphics offerings. If I could have had the luxury of spending $500 on a graphics card, it would be a no-brainer, but I'm working in the $100-200 market space. On the bottom end of that space is the 7790, and on the top there's the 7850. 

You can see that at a similar price-point, why there's no real need to look at the 7770, while the $35 difference between the 7790 and 7850 actually does pay for something. Now, in this case, it's all about the needs of a gamer (even a lower end one), but I also learned a few things about how much power each of the different chips uses. In AMD's "Southern Islands" line of cards, it's pretty evident that 7750 version of the "Cape Verde" chip doesn't push a ton of polygons, but it only uses 55w, well less than half of the "Pitcairn" 7850. So while I was learning that at a doable price-point for my client the 7850 is a nice pick-up, I also learned that the 7750 will be a really nice cool running card for me.

In combination, the same research has yielded me twice the results! I've found the cool-running CPU along with a low-consumption GPU for me, while at the same time a high-speed, scalable CPU and beefy GPU for my client. I suppose, overall, I'm pretty happy, regardless of Intel's efforts to confound me!

A Sandy Bridge Silent Assassin

A funny thing happened on the way to building a gaming system for somebody else..... pa-dum. Well, actually; here's what happened. Once I had identified that the Z77 platform had some potential to become a fertile area of growth for my in client (Librarian's son), I started turning over rocks to see where I could find some good boards on which to build. Of course, there was the every-present online retailers such as Newegg and Amazon. Shoot, I even went over to Fry's brick and mortar store and touch physical product! But in the end, I ended up at the tried and true eBay and of course, it's poor cousin, Craigslist. In the last post, I detailed the nice package that I was able to land from eBay which resolved several problems at once at a good price. 

However, it wasn't that Craigslist didn't bear fruit; it was that CL didn't bear the fruit that was really useable for a client. In fact, there was a listing that fairly jumped out at me! An ad for a Gigabyte (although the ad didn't say that), GA-Z77X-UD4H motherboard for a $75 asking price. You might ask, what was wrong with that price for a budget build!?! One hitch. The second PCI Express (x8) was broken clean off the board! Now, I don't expect that this kid is ever going to go triple SLI on the machine, but when dealing with a "client" (even one that I'm not planing on making money from), I don't take chances and don't like to deliver anything where something isn't right. And, as it was, I had found that pretty killer deal on the Asus P8Z77X-V Pro board anyway, so I passed.

But the several days, this $75 board is working on my consciousness, nibbling away. If you've read many of my posts, you are probably aware that I have a pretty decent history with Gigabyte product, currently running 3 of their motherboards in my 5 desktop machines. Finally, I gave in, contacted the guy to see if he still had it (he still did) and offered him $65 for it (which he took).

 

The fact is that it's a risk. Although, anyone can accidentally break things, but you find that if somethings broken on a rather sophisticated device like a computer motherboard, there's every possibility that other stuff is broken on it as well. I'm not being a cynic; that's just the way things like that usually go. But I figured, "what the heck", $65 is a risk worth taking, weighed against landing a very nice mid-line board. In the motherboard world, $100 is the low end, $300 is the high end, and $200 is "mid-line". If you've been around computer building for a while, you know that mid-line leans more toward the top than the bottom. And this board cost every bit of $200 less than 6 months ago! Besides.... I had an Ace up my sleeve. Less than an hour after I got home, I was on the Gigabyte website submitting an RMA (return merchandise authorization) asking that this board be repaired or replaced under their 3-Year warranty. I also know that these sorts of connectors are put on by robotics, so if they OK it, I'll get another board. 

Yup, I came home today to find an email, authorizing the RMA with an attached label and questionaire sheet to be returned with the board! That's so cool, I had to include a picture of the motherboard's onboard on/off switch! I really love this feature which most nicer current MBs include. 

Which brings us to the dinosaur.... Although, my old workstation which finally got a quad-core processor earlier this year runs very well, it's really pretty darned old, in that the socket 775 came out in July of 2006 as the successor to the 478! It even originally ran P4s in it! The Q9550 "Yorkfield" CPU that I run in it is literally the last series made for this line. In it's day, they were the coolest (temperature) running high-powered quad cores having been manufactured on the 45nm process. The total TDP of 95w was ridiculously low for a 4 core high-end chip. These January 2009 processors were literally the last of their breed, newer even than the XE (Extreme) processors or the Q9650. 

So, let's just say that in the 4 years since, some progress has been made by Intel (even AMD for that matter). First there was the Gen 1 Sandy Bridge i3/i5/i7-xxx, followed by the Gen 2 Sandy Bridge i3/i5/i5-2xxx, then the Ivy Bridge Series i3/i5/i7-3xxx. Now, on the eve of the "Haswell" invasion, I might have found the reason to put the old dino out to pasture. When that GA-Z77X-UD4H board comes back "strong, faster......", it can be home to any number of Intel's legion of 2nd or 3rd generation "Core" processors. I'd love to jump on that $180 priced i5-3330S processor that I saw last night, but....

In all probability the dragon slayer will be my brother's old i5-2390t which he just replace. Go ahead, click on that chart and see what it says. That's right, I'll probably replace my 4 Core rig with the world's only 2 Core i5! Thought all i5s were quad-core didn't ya? What that.....? Did you see the TDP of 35w? Yes, that's 35w, essentially about a 3rd of my Q9550. Yup, my computing world is about to go silent.....

Family Upgrade Time

You might be thinking to yourself; why is he showing us two images of the same computer? Actually, the upper is the ThinkPad T61, of which we have 3 in our house (more on that later). The lower image is the T500, of which we now have 1 that is partially disassembled here by my desk. Although there seems precious little to give between the two (as anyone can see), there are some key items that make a change worthwhile.

I'm sure that most of you readers know that Intel majorly changed the computing world when they brought forth the "Core" chips back in 2006. For notebook computing, that was the "Yonah" (32-bit), then on to the dual-core (but still 65nm) "Merom" (64-bit), then on to the "Penryn" (45nm) processors before the line move on to the 2nd generation "i" Core, "Sandy-Bridge" series. The ThinkPad T61s have the same CPU socket, but some will only run the late "Merom", and not the "Penryn" processors. I don't know whether that's due to not being able to run the lower voltage (25 watt "P" chips) or it's a "whitelist" issue, but it's a shot in the dark on which machines will upgrade to which CPU. This is where the T500 come into our picture.

If somebody backs me into a corner and forces me to respond to what is the most important factor in terms of a successful Windows computer, I'm going to say..... RAM! Lots and lots of RAM: as much as I can stuff in a machine. Well..... what does one have to do with the other? What I know about ThinkPads is this: the series that were originally equipped with last of the Core 2 Duo processors (Penryn-3M, 45nm/25tdp) will generally come on machines that have a chipset which take DDR3. So, it's not really the processor at all that's the issue; it's the major change in the RAM that it'll take. To put it in dollar terms, what you'll spend in buying a 2Gb module of DDR2 SO-DIMM for your laptop will roughly get you 4Gb of DDR3! To me that's a big deal. A T500 is basically a lighter (slightly), T61 with the fastest/coolest running Core 2 Duo processors which will take DDR3. That's it.... that's all it is..... plus; they can also be bought at almost the same price!!! As an example; I just bought a T500 locally (completely loaded with activated Windows 7, power adapter, 2Gb RAM, 160Gb/7200rpm HDD) for $125. I got home and put a single 4Gb RAM module in it, and it's about to replace my wife's T61 which I'll have no trouble selling for a profit on the turn-around. 

As you know; I tend to do things in a series. So, over the course of the next several weeks or months, I'll probably do the exact same thing with my son's T61, and my daughter's X61. I've already done a little research and found that the X200 (above) can often be had around the $100-125 mark as well. 

The only real question for me is, whether I should go ahead and switch the daughter to a MacBook now or later. She already exhibits all the indicators of an "artsy" child who also loves computers. That's an Apple product wielding kid if I ever saw one. Now, there's a friend of mine who has/had a dead MacBook Air which he may or may-not be able to find. If that comes to fruition, there's clearly a challenging new project, which might cause me to succumb to the Siren call of the devil himself.......

I know that it's not nice to speak ill of the dead, but.... can't you just see the horns sprouting from his head?