29 Dec 08 Pentium D 950 Buying Guide
Are you looking for a cost effective processor upgrade? Are you constructiong an new PC from scratch? Either way, the Pentium D, which was manufactured by Intel from 2005-2008, offers a variety of cost, performance, and power consumption options.
The Pentium D line production was stopped in 2008, yet you can still aquire new units on many websites.
The Pentium D processors are a line of dual-core 64 bit x86 processors. The line came in a variety of clock speeds ranging from 2.66GHz to 3.73Ghz. One of the most popular versions is the Pentium D 950 model which runs at 3.4 Ghz, has a 4 MB cache (2×2MB), and a 130W power consumption. The 950 model is a Presler version of the Pentium D line. One can tell this because it features a 65nm process.
Presler is the later of the two models of Pentium D 950 processors manufactured. The earlier model is the Smithfield which had a process of 90 nm. Inital speeds for the Smithfield were 2.8Ghz to 3.2Ghz; however, later an entry level model (805) running at 2.66 Ghz was added. Many users claim this chip was highly overclockable to 3.5Ghz with air cooling and up to 4.0Ghz with water cooling. All of the Smithfield CPUs were made of 2 Prescott cores.
When the Presler models came out in early 2006, nine different models were sold with speeds ranging from 2.8 Ghz to 3.6 Ghz. Some the popular models included:
- 960 - 3.6 Ghz
- 940 - 3.2 Ghz
- 935 - 3.2 Ghz
- 925 - 3.0 Ghz
Many people who are currently looking to upgrade their computer’s Intel Pentium Processor are choosing either the Pentium D 950 or the Pentium D 945. Both of these models offer high speeds at a fairly inexpensive price. Since the Pentium D CPU line is now out of production, the processors are becoming harder and harder to find (as brand new units). The 3.6 Ghz - 960 model is the most desirable; however, supplies of this unit are very hard to come by and the price usually reflects this which is why many are settling for the slightly slower 950 and 945 models.
Many people see that the best deal comparing cost and speed is the Pentium D 950 3.4 Ghz, 4 MB cache, 800 FSB model. Those who run multiple programs at the same time should notice a great increase in speed when running a dual-core processor such as this one. It can be very useful for audio, video, and photo editing applications. If you were to only run a single program at one time, the dual-core may not run faster than a single-core CPU; however, almost all computers can now take advantage of dual-core. Many computers run background tasks such as malware scans, notification programs, and more which can all take advantage of the dual-core technology. It is very rare that anyone today would not have multiple programs running at once to take advantage of this technology.
