The 1066MHz and 800MHz CPUs usually require different sockets/chipsets.

All the CPUs in your list will perform very close to one another.

dr_st wrote:

The 1066MHz and 800MHz CPUs usually require different sockets/chipsets.

Yes, you have to consider the socket specifications for these mobiles very well:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socket_M (Core Solo / Core Duo / Core 2 Duo / Pentium Dual-Core / Celeron M / Celeron)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socket_P (Core 2 Duo / Core 2 Quad / Core 2 Extreme / Pentium Dual-Core / Celeron M)

I have an unbranded Mini-ITX motherboards which can handle Yonah+Merom Core Mobiles, through Socket M. I found that CPU World states the packages or sockets for these processors in an inconsistent manner. Fortunately the wikipedia page for socket M is pretty good now. But the processors you list are mostly socket P right?

I would guess the difference between the T4500 and the fastest cpu in that list (p8600?) is ~3%.

BinaryDemon wrote:

I would guess the difference between the T4500 and the fastest cpu in that list (p8600?) is ~3%.

Pretty sure the difference will be a lot larger than that. Having worked on thousands of laptops over the past 15 or so years, the bus speed and the cache makes quite a bit of difference.

According to the Passmark scores of both, you get:
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/midlow_range_cpus.html

P8600 - 1,535
T4500 - 1,335

Or 8.7% difference in that one benchmark.

You will also have higher RAM throughput as well as programs that can use the larger cache be much faster.

P series == 25w TDP (as opposed to 35w) and always 45nm.

I'd say, if your MB/laptop uses Socket P, you have no reason to use T7xxx or T5xxx C2Ds (all 65nm) and any Pentiums/Celerons, unless you have some on hand. And, if your MB/laptop doesn't use the crippled GL40 chipset (limited to 800MHz FSB), go with a 1066MHz FSB chip as a rule. The incremental improvements (related both to performance and power consumption) made to the microarchitecture between Penryn and Merom are analogous to that of Wolfdale vs Conroe on LGA775.

Also, you meant T7500, not P7500. Avoid that one, nonetheless.

cyclone3d wrote:

Pretty sure the difference will be a lot larger than that. ... 8.7% difference in that one benchmark.

I looked at a few more benchmarks and you are right. Seems like the P8600 winning by 13-15% is not uncommon.

I guess I need to decide if that is worth the price or not...

And if I'm spending £3.55 on an p8600 I might as well spend £37 on a Q9000 2GHz 4c4t 6MB 1066MHz quad core right guys...

I have an odd itx motherboard which I think came from a school computer. Apparently it can do both 800 and 1066MHz.

Apparently it can even do 1333MHz fsb, but I can't see any CPUs that run at that FSB.

I wonder if the motherboard lets you set the FSB manually. If so, then you can have a nice overclock with a mobile CPU.

The motherboard arrived today. It doesn't let you overclock, or change anything really. It is from RM, who make PCs for schools. It's so locked down It's begging to ask me for an administrator password even when I just look at it.

It'll make a slightly usual XP PC though as it has a standard PCI-E, and the integrated GM45 chipset can probably run W98 games nicely to (not that I can find drivers at the mo).

If you look up the datasheet for the CPU, you should be able to figure out what pins to connect in order to force 1333 FSB.

Almoststew1990 wrote on 2019-02-07, 22:08:

The motherboard arrived today. It doesn't let you overclock, or change anything really. It is from RM, who make PCs for schools. It's so locked down It's begging to ask me for an administrator password even when I just look at it.
It'll make a slightly usual XP PC though as it has a standard PCI-E, and the integrated GM45 chipset can probably run W98 games nicely to (not that I can find drivers at the mo).

Two years later, and I assume I now have the same Mini-ITX board as the topic starter: "i45GMt-HR ecoquiet 300" originally sold by RM, but I think it was designed by AOpen. It is related to the AOpen i45GMt-HD. But this -HR has more practical connectors on the board. Including a PCI-Express x16 slot and ATX power.
The BIOS is indeed rather plain, but practically it works well enough, and supports all the latest socket P processors. Currently running this T9400 ES, but I intend to swap it out for a P9600 soon. OS is Windows XP x86.

RM, after their early years making their own systems didn't often produce their own equipment. Certainly by the time we were in the P2/P3/P4/Core generation they were rebranding mostly OEM boards from (usually) Intel and Asus.

The university I work at used to buy thousands of these things in the early 2000's and they were some of the cheapest beige-box rubbish you could get. The quality control was atrocious; I remember around 2004 several batches of their systems (as in dozens at a time) arriving with free viruses (blaster worm, I believe) embedded in the pre-loaded Windows XP image... it had clearly gotten in to the master image they were imaging all shipped devices with.

Whilst this board is long gone a year or so ago, by coincidence I bought a similar board - Aopen i945GMm-HL. This is MATX and has a few extra slots, but it 's socket M and is limited to the early Core 2 Duo's and comes with a T2300. These CPUs are also a lot harder to come by it seems!

megatron-uk wrote on 2021-03-09, 09:19:

RM, after their early years making their own systems didn't often produce their own equipment. Certainly by the time we were in the P2/P3/P4/Core generation they were rebranding mostly OEM boards from (usually) Intel and Asus.
The university I work at used to buy thousands of these things in the early 2000's and they were some of the cheapest beige-box rubbish you could get. The quality control was atrocious; I remember around 2004 several batches of their systems (as in dozens at a time) arriving with free viruses (blaster worm, I believe) embedded in the pre-loaded Windows XP image... it had clearly gotten in to the master image they were imaging all shipped devices with.

That is an interesting background story. Those infected OS images are inexcusable.

Strange choice for RM to supply "mobile on desktop" systems. Mobile on desktop was not very common, from the consumer brands I only found AOpen advertising them, with their "MoDt" series.

I do recommend this "i45GMt-HR ecoquiet 300" for those who wants to mess around with Socket P processors. The connectors are practical and the CPU support is among the best. The four CPU heat-sink connector holes have fixed threaded bushings, so I did make sure to get the original heat-sink as well. This particular board has not been damaged by evil British school kids, only that the DVI port looks very worn. But I have no intention of doing anything with intel GMA graphics.

The more luxurious socket P processors are very nice IMHO. They even sold Quad cores for it with a whopping 12MB L2 cache. Cherry picked mobiles for lower voltage use. Note that there is not much x64 use for them. Practically you are limited to 2x2GB SODIMMs. (Theoretically 8GB DDR2 or DDR3 combinations are possible, but practically not really.)

Almoststew1990 wrote on 2021-03-09, 12:17:

Whilst this board is long gone a year or so ago, by coincidence I bought a similar board - Aopen i945GMm-HL. This is MATX and has a few extra slots, but it 's socket M and is limited to the early Core 2 Duo's and comes with a T2300. These CPUs are also a lot harder to come by it seems!

You found the ITX format too small maybe?

That mATX one is also a nice board. Exactly like an AOpen i945GTm-VHL that I once considered. Supposedly there is a minor difference in chipset between those two.

Many Socket M CPUs are OK I suppose, but the top list is obviously a set of just four: T7200 / T7400 / T7600 / T7600G. These are the 4MB Cache Merom cores. The T7200 should not be that difficult to find, or expensive. I have a T5600 and T7200 myself.

I have no T2300 for socket M, but do have a T2330 ES for socket P. It is a 533MHz FSB model. This FSB speed is too low for the motherboard, so I had to insulate CPU pin BSEL1 to test it (at 667MHz FSB).

If you ever feel like combining the more modern socket P with the mATX format: There are Asus Pegatron IMISR-VM boards on offer as well. Though i read it requires a modded BIOS to run some of the later mobiles. Edit: Again this was sold by RM, as Ecoquiet 965. Has GM965 chipset and therefor maximum FSB is 800Mhz.

My board has arrived with a T5500 - 1.66GHz. It was advertised as coming with a T2300 but they appear to have the same specs and I'm upgrading anyway!

However All of the Socket M T7 series are expensive (compared to the price of the board). I'll get a T5600 which is 1.83GHz 2MB for £6, with the next best option T7200 being £21 (more than I paid for the board!).

The Socket-P P9600 mini-system is finished now. OS is still Windows XP x86. The passively cooled HD 6450 video card was getting a bit too warm. It was suggested the later Geforce GT 710 may work under Windows XP. It turns out it works reasonably well. My findings and benchmarks are here.
https://msfn.org/board/topic/182534-geforce-g … ws-xp-findings/