Wednesday, May 11th 2011

New Sandy Bridge Based Celeron Processors Detailed
Amidst the rather high-profile launch of Intel's Z68 chipset platform, Intel Smart Response technology, and Larson Creek SSDs, Intel is also readying its cheapest processors for the LGA1155 platform, this time carrying the Celeron brand. Based on the new Sandy Bridge processor architecture, the single-core Celeron G440, and dual-core Celeron G530, Celeron G540 processors stick to the very basics in terms of feature set.
The chips lack Intel HyperThreading or CPU Turbo Boost, run at low clock speeds, and have just 2 MB of L3 cache enabled. The G440 is a single-core/single-thread chip clocked at 1.60 GHz, with 650 MHz graphics (1.00 GHz Turbo), and 35W TDP. The G530 puts on a second core, is clocked at 2.40 GHz, with 850 MHz (1.00 GHz Turbo) graphics, and 65W TDP. The series is topped off with G540 dual-core, which is clocked at 2.5 GHz. Expect these chips to take up sub-$100 price points.
Source:
CPU World
The chips lack Intel HyperThreading or CPU Turbo Boost, run at low clock speeds, and have just 2 MB of L3 cache enabled. The G440 is a single-core/single-thread chip clocked at 1.60 GHz, with 650 MHz graphics (1.00 GHz Turbo), and 35W TDP. The G530 puts on a second core, is clocked at 2.40 GHz, with 850 MHz (1.00 GHz Turbo) graphics, and 65W TDP. The series is topped off with G540 dual-core, which is clocked at 2.5 GHz. Expect these chips to take up sub-$100 price points.
33 Comments on New Sandy Bridge Based Celeron Processors Detailed
On topic, I wonder if the quad-core cheapo/broken processors will appear under the Pentium brand. Overall though, this is silly. Why have two (maybe three) craptastic labels? We don't need Core i3 and Celeron. Why can't just Core i3 be used? Is Celeron so craptastic that they don't dare tarnish the Core i# with it? Silly Intel.
Contrary to popular belief, office computers actually need to be a bit faster than "the cheapest money can buy", I noticed that productivity increased when I upgraded my dad's old Pentium III to a Pentium D, and again when I got him an i3 laptop.
I throw my 1.6 coreduo out of the window because of browser performance, any flash contained website hogs it completely
Most of that speed difference is simply accounted for with a hard drive speed difference. Anything past a core2duo I doubt you would see any difference for basic office use, simply because CPU power is no longer the limit. 99% of the waiting is slow hard drive loading.
Lets look at the G530 and G530. Ok, so they both lack the HT that the 2100T has, big deal, it doesn't help over work at all. Also the G530 is clocked the same as the 2100T and the G530 is 100MHz slower, again in an office setting that isn't going to make a difference. The 2100T lacks turbo boost just like these Celerons, but it does have an extra 1MB of cache, meh probably not going to make all that much difference.
Ok, so they are 65w parts, but how much of a cost difference does that really make in power usage? Lets start with the G450, we know it will be under $100, but we don't know how far under $100, so we'll assume $99 just to give you the benefit of the doubt here. So the price difference is $35 between the 2100T and the G450. Now, a 30w difference in power usage between the two, means 405 days of 24/7 use before the price difference is made up, that is over a year(assuming $0.12/KwH, which is what I pay). If you assume the price on ghe G530 is $75 that gives it almost 2 years before the cost difference is made up.
That also assume that the processor is fully loaded the entire time, the fact of the matter is that the processor will be idle or near idle 99% of the time. And when the processors are idle, the power usage difference is next to nothing anyway so really if you want to make up the difference in power consumption, it will likely take longer than the computer is in service, even if it managed to stay in service for a decade. With the 2100T you are only talking a 100MHz speed difference and 1MB of extra cache, do you really think that will increase the lifespan of the computer in an office environment? I don't.