Intel Pentium D 820 Processor Review

[Apoptosis]

Today, Legit Reviews takes a look, and gives you our impression of Intel's budget dual core processor -- the Intel Pentium D 820.



"With some major cooling we were able to get more than 1GHz from our overclocking attempts. That extra 1GHz turns the Intel 820 from an entry level dual core processor to a really fast CPU that enthusiasts will love..."


http://www.legitreviews.com/article.php?aid=210

[stmok]

I just signed up to the forums as I have a quick question regarding the Pentium-D 820 overclocking.

Based on your experience, do you think its possible to get 3.5Ghz (250Mhz QDR or 1Ghz FSB) on aircooling with relative ease?

(Say if I was using one of those Thermalright or Zalman cooling solutions)

[capper5016]

In short, no.
This might be the hottest processor I've seen yet. Remember its basically 2 prescott cores on the same chip, meaning you need water to get an 800MHz over clock out of it.
I'd say you will be lucky to get 3.3GHz on air, though a 500MHz O/C on ait is not bad at all.

[capper5016]

Also, you mention a Zalman cooler......I figure the CNPS 7700, because of its popularity. I don't recommend this cooler to anyone. Although I haven't reviewed it, I use it on my test bench for air cooling and find it to be marginally, I'm talking less than 5%, better than stock cooling

[stmok]

So I guess I'll either wait for "Yonah" or the price of A64 X2s to come down with a lower model (I hear of 2Ghz one called A64 X2 4000+ may be coming later in the year).

Maybe a low-cost Opteron mobo that supports dual-core?

[Duke3d87]

I liked the review, i still think that the Pentium D is a highly bottlenecked CPU. I want to see the performance of the EE version overclocked with a high FSB.

[capper5016]

I was running the 840EE at 4.00GHz, I could run it there 24/7, play games, run benchmarks, but if I tried to turn off HT, the system wouldn't even boot. not sure if the CPU was bad, or if there just isn't much play in the thing.

[gvblake22]

Nice job on the article; very nice to be able to see some direct differences between the regular D and the EE. I would however have liked to see some temps with the stock heatsink seeing as this is a processor for the "masses" and I would say that the "masses" do not have a $1000+ Extreme Phase Change cooling system sitting in their livingroom...
Any benchmark/testing results compared to a single core CPU?

[capper5016]

Well, I don't have a stock cooler anymore, and as far as temps I touched on the fact that it is actually two Prescott cores, so heat will be an issue.
As to single cores scores, you can go back to earlier reviews where we used the same benchmarks. I'm trying to think of a way so that readers can access benchmark scores and compare them, without having to include every score in every review.
I didn't focus on the 840EE or dual core so much as Nate has already covered both extensively in earlier reviews, and I used a phase change because I just bought it and wanted to see how far this procvessor will go, i think its kind of obvious that not everyone is going to have $1000 to spend on a cooling solution.
Please take the review for what it is, a review of a processor at stock speeds covering a wide range of benchmarks, and my attempt to take it as far as it could go.

[gvblake22]

Well, I don't have a stock cooler anymore, and as far as temps I touched on the fact that it is actually two Prescott cores, so heat will be an issue.
As to single cores scores, you can go back to earlier reviews where we used the same benchmarks. I'm trying to think of a way so that readers can access benchmark scores and compare them, without having to include every score in every review.
I didn't focus on the 840EE or dual core so much as Nate has already covered both extensively in earlier reviews, and I used a phase change because I just bought it and wanted to see how far this procvessor will go, i think its kind of obvious that not everyone is going to have $1000 to spend on a cooling solution.
Please take the review for what it is, a review of a processor at stock speeds covering a wide range of benchmarks, and my attempt to take it as far as it could go.

Yeah, definately, I'm not trying to crap on your review at all! You did a very nice job and I agree that it is always nice to see the overclocking potential of a CPU when heat is not an issue and I'm sure if I had a Mach II I would be doing the same thing!

For including previous benchmarks on the same test system, couldn't you just add all the scores into the table and just keep adding to the table? It looks like those graphs are just made with Excel. I'm sure it's probably not that easy for reasons I don't know yet and you would have already thought of that if it were possible...

Ok, I'm done here, I'm not making any sense anymore

[capper5016]

We could, but then a 2 hour posting job turns into a 4 hour job going back and forth trying to find data and create new tables.....then you have to factor in people complaining because their scores are 2% different, or manufacturers complaining that they got better results, etc.
I choose just to focus on the topic of the review, and allow people to look back over previous reviews if thewy want to compare scores.

[capper5016]

Yeah, definately, I'm not trying to crap on your review at all! You did a very nice job and I agree that it is always nice to see the overclocking potential of a CPU when heat is not an issue and I'm sure if I had a Mach II I would be doing the same thing!

I know you aren't crapping on my review! I think my point is that there are roughly 20 reviews around the web, and if we all write the same way or focus on the same thing, then you won't get a different perspective on the product.
Whenever i start writing about something, I look at what others have written and try to go at it from a different point of view. I also like to look around forums and see what people want to know or whats important to them. I hope that this approach makes us a little different and brings more members in.

[Duke3d87]

I think said this earlier, I was impressed by your review, I have yet to see a review on overclocking dual core processors in debt. Also, tomshardware only focuses on overclocking via the multi, and with the dual core, i prefer ocing via the FSB.

[Spartan117]

Is it Possible to OC the Pentium D 820?

And if i wanted to how would I?


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