OhioGuy wrote:
> I've been looking at the various processors out there for nearly 6 months
> now, and in the past week became aware of a new release from AMD - the
> Athlon LE CPU.
>
> 45 Watts
> 2.44 GHz speed (may overclock to roughly ~ 2.8 GHz)
> $50 shipped from Newegg
> AM2 platform
> 1 Megabyte L2 cache
> 3 year warranty (full box version, with heatsink & fan)
>
> Anyone have any thoughts on this? I bought 3, primarily because:
>
> A) I don't need multi core support at the moment, since most of the software
> I use wouldn't benefit from it
>
> B) I leave my system on 24 hours a day to record HDTV programming. This
> will save me 1.1 Kilowatt Hours a day, or about $5 per month on electicity.
> That means the processor will be FREE (pay for itself) after just a year
>
> C) It's roughly comparable to an Athlon X2 3800 out of the box (but not
> after overclocking it)
>
> D) when I DO decide to upgrade to dual core in a year, or year and a half,
> the current $160 dual core processors will be dirt cheap, and I'll still be
> able to sell this thing for $35 with a 1.5 or 2 year warranty on it
>
>
First of all, download these docs.
AM2
http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/cont...docs/33954.pdf
Previous sockets
http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/cont...docs/30430.pdf
There are two power numbers of interest. "TDP" is what is advertised on the
site you buy the processor from. That is the power consumed at 100% utilization.
The second number of interest, is what power does it draw when it is idle.
Check out "Halt/Stop Grant" and "Min Pstate", and multiply the current in the table
by Min P-State voltage, like 1.1V or whatever. Add in the I/O power as well.
As an example, consider this device. You cannot really find these, but it is
fun to pretend. See PDF page 23 of the 33954 document and ADD3800IAA5CU, a
35W TDP processor. 2.0A * 1.000V + 3W I/O power totals 5W or so in idle.
And it is a dual core.
http://products.amd.com/en-us/Deskto...ail.aspx?id=65
http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS5266283568.html
"Although "shipping" for nearly a year, short supplies have resulted in street
prices upwards of $400 for the retail box version."
Remember that other parts of the computer draw power, and some chipsets
are now a power sucking embarrassment.
Just some trivia,
Paul