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    Yonah -> Merom, what are the limiting factors?

    Discussion in 'Dell' started by PanamaMike, May 24, 2006.

  1. PanamaMike

    PanamaMike Notebook Evangelist

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    If I buy a Dell laptop today, and plug in a Merom tommorrow, what performance things will I be missing?

    So far, from what I've read, it will be possible to just plug it in and will work with no BIOS mods. However, I also read that the FSB clock doesn't change. Currently at 166mhz when something like 300mhz is needed to get the 1GHZ quad pump action.

    Any other issues? Such as a 32 vs. 64 bit bus, or less addressable memory?

    Mike
     
  2. nick_danger

    nick_danger Notebook Consultant

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    The only thing that probably won't be fully supported is DDR2-800 or DDR2-1066 memory. It will still power up, but it will downclock to DDR2-667. In order to get the bus to run at that speed, a hardware modification is necessary, but last I checked, the pin-mod didn't work. I'm sure it's only a matter of time before a working mod is found, but as it stands, that's the only thing you won't get out of the box. The 64-bit mode, virtualization, micro-ops, and macro-ops will all work without a hitch.

    I haven't really looked into any of this in a couple weeks, but that's where the details stood then...