VOGONS


First post, by AshleyPomeroy

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First post. After upgrading an old laptop a while back I find myself with a box of bits - an 1.83ghz Pentium M, some memory, a couple of hard drives, a graphics card. I remember that the Pentium M had good reviews when it was new, and although it was sold as a mobile chip there were a few small-form-factor PCs and motherboards that supported it. I remember a glowing review from Tom's Hardware and a wave of "silent PC" builds. It's odd to think of the Pentium M as a retro CPU but it's over ten years old now.

Obviously it doesn't make economical sense to built a Pentium M desktop nowadays - it would be cheaper to buy a ten-year-old laptop and hook it up to a monitor - but was there a definitive "this is the best" Pentium M socket 479 motherboard? I imagine that performance would be on a par with one of the slower Core Solo chips. AOpoen appear to have made some neat barebones XC Cube systems and there's one on eBay right now, although irritatingly it doesn't have the custom PSU.

Reply 1 of 10, by Rhuwyn

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I've researched doing a Pentium M build as well but never pulled the trigger. My understanding is they make really good Windows 9x machines. Here are a couple motherboards I've seen they are all over ebay and I've never not been able to find them. Keep us updated on what your progress!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-ASUS-Motherboard-M … 1cAAOSw0vBUixGd
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Asus-5188-2756-HP-Pav … mPtNGln3TaQd5Ew

Reply 2 of 10, by Imperious

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Asus made a socket 479 adaptor for quite a lot of their intel 865 and 875 based socket 478 mobos. I have one in my P4P800dlx with a P4P800se bios in it for better overclocking options.
Unfortunately they are nearly impossible to get hold of nowdays, even 2nd hand.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/1650/2

There are better socket 479 motherboards around than the 2 You have linked to though. I'm not sure what the models are but I've seen some with PCI-express slots and ddr2 memory options.

Atari 2600, TI994a, Vic20, c64, ZX Spectrum 128, Amstrad CPC464, Atari 65XE, Commodore Plus/4, Amiga 500
PC's from XT 8088, 486, Pentium MMX, K6, Athlon, P3, P4, 775, to current Ryzen 5600x.

Reply 4 of 10, by nforce4max

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Rhuwyn wrote:

I've researched doing a Pentium M build as well but never pulled the trigger. My understanding is they make really good Windows 9x machines. Here are a couple motherboards I've seen they are all over ebay and I've never not been able to find them. Keep us updated on what your progress!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-ASUS-Motherboard-M … 1cAAOSw0vBUixGd
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Asus-5188-2756-HP-Pav … mPtNGln3TaQd5Ew

Those boards are junk, if OP really wants to do a proper PM desktop then get this board or go with the Asus option.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?It … N82E16813130539

Built mine almost three years ago and it is a nice gem plus this board works with modern graphics cards 😉
Just don't push the chipset clock beyond 159mhz or so or the sata controller stops working. You can use standard socket 478 coolers if you take an IHS from a celeron.

On a far away planet reading your posts in the year 10,191.

Reply 5 of 10, by BSA Starfire

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I run a MSI Speedster with Pentium M 1.79 GHz, DDR2 RAM & a PCI-e Geforce 6800, it's a brilliant little machine.

286 20MHz,1MB RAM,Trident 8900B 1MB, Conner CFA-170A.SB 1350B
386SX 33MHz,ULSI 387,4MB Ram,OAK OTI077 1MB. Seagate ST1144A, MS WSS audio
Amstrad PC 9486i, DX/2 66, 16 MB RAM, Cirrus SVGA,Win 95,SB 16
Cyrix MII 333,128MB,SiS 6326 H0 rev,ESS 1869,Win ME

Reply 6 of 10, by Standard Def Steve

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Another MSI Speedster owner here. Pentium M 755 @ 2.72GHz and a GTX 260. 43K in 3DMark01. Wonderful, very stable little board.

P6 chip. Triple the speed of the Pentium.
Tualatin: PIII-S @ 1628MHz | QDI Advance 12T | 2GB DDR-310 | 6800GT | X-Fi | 500GB HDD | 3DMark01: 14,059
Dothan: PM @ 2.9GHz | MSI Speedster FA4 | 2GB DDR2-580 | GTX 750Ti | X-Fi | 500GB SSD | 3DMark01: 43,190

Reply 7 of 10, by Reckless

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For many years I ran a 2Ghz M760 in a P4C800-E Deluxe motherboard with the Asus CT-479 adapter. It was without question the best system I've built/owned. It was quiet and generated no heat even though it was damn fast though It was crazy expensive mind you! Sadly bits of the motherboard started to die on me and I finally binned it when I spent more time pressing reset than using the PC!

I still have the M760 and Asus adapter as being so specialised, they would never find a home in another PC.

Reply 8 of 10, by Carlos S. M.

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I have a Pentium M 750 on the same MSI Speedster at stock clock, 2 GB DDR2 and a Geforce 210

I once got the Pentium M work with a GT440 although didn't run bechmarks yet

What is your biggest Pentium 4 Collection?
Socket 423/478 Motherboards with Universal AGP Slot
Socket 478 Motherboards with PCI-E Slots
LGA 775 Motherboards with AGP Slots
Experiences and thoughts with Socket 423 systems

Reply 9 of 10, by matze79

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I also had a Speedster with 1.6@ 2Ghz Pentium M 2Mb Cache.

I used a 8800GT with 512Mb inside, running very well.

https://www.retrokits.de - blog, retro projects, hdd clicker, diy soundcards etc
https://www.retroianer.de - german retro computer board

Reply 10 of 10, by Carlos S. M.

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About the ASUS CT-419, is a rare adapter and only some Socket 478 ASUS motherboards supports it

Asus P4C800 (i875P)
Asus P4C800 Deluxe (i875P)
Asus P4C800-E Deluxe (i875P)
Asus P4P800 (i865PE)
Asus P4P800 Deluxe (i865PE)
Asus P4P800-E Deluxe (i865PE)
Asus P4P800 SE (i865PE)
Asus P4P800-VM (i865G)
Asus P4GD1 (i915P DDR400)
Asus P4GPL-X (i915PL)

What is your biggest Pentium 4 Collection?
Socket 423/478 Motherboards with Universal AGP Slot
Socket 478 Motherboards with PCI-E Slots
LGA 775 Motherboards with AGP Slots
Experiences and thoughts with Socket 423 systems