The Pentium M 770 (2.13 GHz) is really cheap now

[MrMaguire]

Recently I've noticed that the second highest clocked Pentium M is really cheap on eBay. Much cheaper than it was four years ago. You can get one for $5.40 from China. The Pentium M 780 is a lot cheaper now too, at $16.97, again from China. Small change compared to the $100+ that sellers wanted for them four years ago.

But these CPUs all look so pristine and new. Surely they're not taken from old laptops? Not that many. Are these new old stock, or has a company been reproducing them to meet the demand?

I'm thinking that these are indeed reproductions. Question is: what are they like compared to the real thing? Has anyone bought one of these?

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Sorry if this is not in the right forum. I was going to post it in the T4x forum, but obviously there are more ThinkPads that use Pentium Ms.

[ajkula66]

But these CPUs all look so pristine and new. Surely they're not taken from old laptops?

I'd bet that indeed they have been taken from the old systems.

Are these new old stock, or has a company been reproducing them to meet the demand?

NOS from somewhere else than China would be something I'd be more inclined to believe in...

As for the demand...what demand? A couple of thousand people still upgrading old systems?

[MrMaguire]

NOS from somewhere else than China would be something I'd be more inclined to believe in...

As for the demand...what demand? A couple of thousand people still upgrading old systems?

Yeah. That's enough demand if you ask me. I've seen a lot of Pentium M laptops, and hardly any of them with the 760, 770 and 780 CPU in them.

It's the same story with the T7200 Core 2 Duo. The prices have plummeted in recent years. You can get a T7200 on eBay for $6 from China. There was enough demand for those CPUs previously that upgrading a Core Duo laptop really wasn't cost effective.

[ajkula66]

Yeah. That's enough demand if you ask me. I've seen a lot of Pentium M laptops, and hardly any of them with the 760, 770 and 780 CPU in them.

Then you haven't seen too many T43p systems...

[MrMaguire]

Then you haven't seen too many T43p systems...

This is true

[Qing Dao]

Recently I've noticed that the second highest clocked Pentium M is really cheap on eBay. Much cheaper than it was four years ago. You can get one for $5.40 from China. The Pentium M 780 is a lot cheaper now too, at $16.97, again from China. Small change compared to the $100+ that sellers wanted for them four years ago.

But these CPUs all look so pristine and new. Surely they're not taken from old laptops? Not that many. Are these new old stock, or has a company been reproducing them to meet the demand?

I'm thinking that these are indeed reproductions. Question is: what are they like compared to the real thing? Has anyone bought one of these?

_________________

Sorry if this is not in the right forum. I was going to post it in the T4x forum, but obviously there are more ThinkPads that use Pentium Ms.

There are no such things as reproductions. They are all 100% real. Also, you wouldn't be able to tell if a processor was brand new never used or pulled from a laptop and cleaned. I'm sure that there are plenty of both NOS and used parts floating around.

I've bought some new processors that were very old and not system pulls because they could not have been, like engineering samples and BGA with pins added.

[MrMaguire]

Hmm. Now that I think about it, reproducing something as complex as an Intel processor is probably much more difficult than other things.

I suppose that means that the cheap CPUs on eBay do not come from an infinite resource. In that case, I wonder how long it'll be before the supply dries up.

[ajkula66]

In that case, I wonder how long it'll be before the supply dries up.

Long enough for the systems utilizing these CPUs to become obsolete, or turned into glorified typewriters.

My T43pSF which is as maxed out as humanly possible is having more and more of a difficult time keeping up with simple daily tasks, with web browsing being the biggest problem.

[Dekks]

My T43pSF which is as maxed out as humanly possible is having more and more of a difficult time keeping up with simple daily tasks, with web browsing being the biggest problem.

My X30 functions fine as an office machine on spreadsheets WP, but put it anywhere near a JS heavy modern webpage it just wants to roll over and get a belly rub.

[MrMaguire]

I'm actually using a Pentium M as my daily machine. It's a Dell Latitude D610 (basically a 14.1" T43), with a Pentium M 750, 2.5GB of DDR2 (but only 2GB is usable), 120GB hard drive and integrated graphics. It's sitting at ~1.97GB of RAM usage. Too bad the 915 chipset doesn't support more than 2GB.

Right now I'm updating my Windows 2000 virtual machine, modifying system bitmaps on my Server 2003 virtual machine, burning a DVD in ImgBurn, browsing the web in Firefox and I've also got Mozilla Thunderbird open. Browsing the web is mostly uneventful, but when I encounter a website that's trying its hardest to be modern and use every little bit of Java Script that it can, the system does struggle.

It all depends on what OS you're using, and most importantly, how high your standards of performance are. It'll play YouTube videos in 360p resolution, which is good enough for me. I'm running Windows XP Pro with SP3, Windows Vista and 7 don't run well at all.

Strangely enough, I have a Latitude D810 with the Pentium M 780 in it, plus 2GB of RAM and the ATi Mobility Radeon X600. To me it honestly doesn't feel any more capable than my D610, which is strange, although it is better at running Vista and 7.