Pentium M on your Socket 478 platform: Part 2

Final Thoughts/Discussion

Nathan Kirsch’s Thoughts:

From the second the product arrived for testing it was clear that ASUS has put much time and thought into the development of the ASUS CPU Upgrade Kit. Their goal was to bring quiet and cool processors to the desktop without compromising system performance. I must agree with that goal and feel that ASUS was able to reach it in a cost-effective manner. The DFI 855GME-MGF motherboard retails for $210, where on the other hand the ASUS P4P800SE is only $98, plus the CT-479 adapter that will run under $50. For consumers always worried about the next product coming out, we have some information for you there too. Micro-ATX “Alviso” boards based on the 915GM chipset are due out in a matter of weeks. Information and images on one of these boards, the AOpen i915GMm-HFS, can be found on this thread in the Legit Forums. AOpen confirmed pricing would be set at an MSRP of $300 for their i915GMm-HFS board. Thus, making it nearly double the cost of the CT-479 adapter kit/i865PE motherboard combination.

The idea to put Intel Pentium M ? the chip originally designed for mobile computers ? into desktops has been around for a quite while, and Legit Reviews sees the trend staying around in the future. With Intel seeing companies selling Pentium-M adapters and desktop boards it may be only time till Intel jumps on board and designs a mobile desktop solution. If corporate buyers pick up on the incredibly quite office space that the Pentium M’s bring it may only be a matter of time before the blue giant steps into the market.

In terms of performance the Pentitum M processor runs very well when compared to the Pentium 4 6XX series and AMD Athlon64 processors. This is impressive when you take into consideration the Pentium M lacks Hyper-Threading, EMT64 support, and runs at a lower frequency than most processors on the market. The fastest Pentium M on the market today is the Intel 770 that runs at 2.13GHz.

With all that said the ASUS CT-479 brings a small performance increase, silent computing, and better overclocking results over the i855GM chipset boards that we have seen from AOpen and DFI. Overclockers looking for the unlocked holy grail of voltages have just found their solution and they don’t even have to mod it!

Legit Bottom Line:

The ASUS CT-479 is one of the most cost-effective ways to bring the power and the silence of a Pentium M processor to your desktop.