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Intel Core Duo/Solo question

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Thinking about getting one of these but am a little confused.

Are all Core Duo/Solo cpus S479? a lot of the websites selling them say they are S478. Are these older ones?

Thanks.
 
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From what I know...

They all have 478 physical pins, but because the pin configuration is different, you can't put the mobile processors onto the normal S478 Intel boards straight away. You must either use a dedicated M/B designed for mobile processors (expensive), or use an adaptor (Asus CT-479) which coverts the pin config from the desktop 478 to the mobile 478 (but called 479).
 
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Thanks for your reply.

Still not really sure as Intel's website (http://www.intel.com/support/notebook/sb/CS-022128.htm) says they produce them in 478 Micro-FCPGA and 479 Micro-FCBGA configurations.

Everywhere that has them in stock says 478-pin.

The motherboard I was hoping to buy (ASUS N4L-VM DH or AOpen i945GTm-VHL) are S479.

I think I may wait a while anyway as the Core Duo's are expecting a price cut soon and the AOpen board which is better is not actually out yet in the UK.

Any chance OcUK will be stocking these items?

Thanks.
 
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Core CPUs cannot be used in any boards designed for 478 processors, nor can they be used with the Asus CT-479. The best board for them is the Aopen i975Xa-YDG which is rare and expensive.
 
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You need a MB that supports Core (old pentium M boards will not work)

ASUS N4L-VM DH
MSI 945GT Speedster-A4R
Couple Aopens

I've got and like the Asus
 
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The Asus one is only about £100 now so is considerably cheaper than the AOpen boards. The only reason i'm waiting for the AOpen boards is because they have DVI built-in which is great for my purposes.

Do Asus sell an add-in card for DVI functionality and if so is it available?

Anyway, my original question was regarding the actual Core Duo processor. There seem to be different ones available with the same model name. Some stores say they are 478-pin and others refer to them as S479. I'm not really sure if they are the same thing or not and, if they are different, would they both work in the Asus board for example?

I am currently looking at the cheapest one: Core Duo T2300 (1.6GHz).

Thanks.
 
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Hi,

Thanks for the link and info.

Can't believe you got the T2500 for only £135! That's a great price.
I can only afford the T2300 at around £160. T2400 seems ok at £195 but the T2500 jumps to £280+.

I'm looking to build a small (mATX or mITX) low power system for general use but not gaming. I've decided to get a Core Duo as they seem ideal at only 31w. But that's as far as I have got with speccing the system. Still need to decide on the case but that sort of depends on the motherboard I get. It won't have any optical drives so the smaller the better. Also I may get one of those PicoPSUs as they can handle upto 120w which I think is enough.

As for motherboards, so far considering:

ASUS N4L-VM DH (mATX)
AOpen i945GTm-VHL (mATX)
AOpen i945GTt-VFA (mITX)
 
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Well, the ES versions are much cheaper....


ASUS N4L-VM DH (mATX) I have this one, think its pretty good, although not for an overclocker. It uses 77w idle and ~105w loaded (7600gt)

AOpen i945GTm-VHL (mATX), expensive, but does have DVI and the lowest power needs of any Core board.

AOpen i945GTt-VFA (mITX) not out yet?
 
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What are ES versions?

I'm going to wait a few more weeks before I put the system together so hopefully the price of the AOpen will come down as it is a new board.
AOpen i945GTm-VHL is going for around $233 in the US which I think is around £130. Probably won't get the i945GTt-VFA because it is probably going to be even more expensive and mATX is small enough for me.

ASUS N4L-VM DH seems to be a great board though from the reviews I have read (I won't be overclocking so that is ok). I'll get this one if the AOpen board doesn't come down in price to below £150.

Regarding the power needs, how come the AOpen uses less power? I thought they both have the same mobile version of the chipset?

Thanks.
 
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ES means engineering samples, these are not retail chips, no warranty therefore less to buy.

I've seen the Open i945GTm-VHL around £190, if its like the previous pentium m board, then prices will stay high. It has low power needs because it uses laptop SODIMM DDR2 ram slots.
 
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From what I understand this is how it goes:

- ALL have 478 Pins.

Socket 478 - desktop socket for Northwoods, Celeron(s) (D's).
Socket 479 - mobile socket for Banias and Dothan cores
Socket 480 - This is the name loosely tagged to the Yonah socket.

All have the same number of pins but different config of one corner to prevent people from putting them in existing sockets.
 
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david25, you mentioned the MSI 945GT Speedster-A4R (cheapest £120 so far). Seems to be good compromise as it has a DVI port but considerably cheaper than the AOpen board.

Does anyone know what the power usage is for this board compared to the Asus and AOpen? Is it reasonable to assume it would be greater than all of them due to it using the GT chipset not the GM chipset and using regular DDR2 slots?

Smids, never heard of Socket480? I thought Yonah was Socket479?

Thanks.
 
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david25, thanks for the link and all the other help - really appreciated.

Just trying to figure out what the actual differences are between the Asus's 945GM chipset and the MSI's 945GT chipset. They both have the same graphics core I think so just wondering if GM has special power saving functions as it was meant for laptops (e.g. speedstep may work slightly differently).

Anyway, narrowed my choice down to the Asus and MSI now. £190+ for the AOpen is way too much, there is no way that it is that much better if at all.
 
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Hi,

GT is desktop and GM is mobile (i think!)

My asus works fine with rightmark or windows power saving.

The reviews dont really give a good indication of power for the two chipsets. I've even seen that the asus is faster than the aopen 975 board in low level test. Overall I wouldnt worry.
 
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Doctor.Bob said:
I have the asus board & have dvi output from a Hewlett-Packard R-DVI-ADD2 which I got from a uk supplier.

Excellent. Would it be possible to tell me how much it cost and where from if it isn't a competitor?

Thanks.
 
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