Difference between Crestline, Santa Rosa and SR Refresh?

[DylRicho]

Hi all,

I've been reading up on my chipset some more to determine if it's compatible with a T7800 or T9500.

wikipedia.org/wiki/Centrino#Santa_Rosa_platform_.282007.29

I see a lot of names; Crestline, Santa Rosa, Santa Rosa Refresh, Penryn, Merom...

What is the difference between them? It's driving me insane.

Wikipedia has articles for Penryn relating to both an architecture and a family of Core 2 Duo processors. Confusing!

Also, is there a difference between 'chipset' and 'platform'?

Kind regards,
Dylan.

[gshv]

It may be easier to get a list of supported processors based on the chipset name. What chipset do you have in your laptop?

Gennadiy

[fenyal]

^ agreed. i figured you or one of the other knowledgeables would have a different and/or better approach to a request like this.

[DylRicho]

[DylRicho]

Okay, GPU-Z by TechPowerUp says the core speed of the graphics chip is 500 MHz, which would imply that I have the GM965 chipset.

The other programs are annoyingly confusing, and contradicting each other.

[gshv]

It seems to me that you have GL960 chipset. Some screenshots say "Mobile Intel 985 Express chipset family", but that doesn't mean that you have GM965. This family of chipsets includes GM965, GME965, PM965, GL960 and GLE960. Only two tools, CPU-z and Speccy, give specific chipset name - GL960.

The GL960 chipset officially doesn't support 800 MHz FSB. Based on what I see on CPU-Upgrade site, some people could run T9500, T7700, and other dual-core Txxxx processor, but nobody confirmed that the processors were running at 200 MHz FSB:

http://www.cpu-upgrade.com/mb-Intel_%28chipsets%29/GL960_Express.html

Gennadiy

[DylRicho]

[fenyal]

(my personal experience and 2 cents)
every time i have tried talking to intel they have failed in providing any decent information. not like miss a fact here or there but like out right don't know anything about my questions. (yes it has been questions about intel products. boards and cpu's.)

[DylRicho]

I guess that explains why the Celeron M 575 isn't listed as compatible with the GM965, despite me having used it perfectly fine for nearly 5 years.

[gshv]

CPU support lists for Intel chipsets are not always complete. It's up to OEM manufacturers to provide support for the CPUs that are not on the list.

I still think it has GL960 chipset, it's in the specifications tab:

http://www.asus.com/Notebooks_Ultrabooks/X58L/#specifications

At this point chipset name doesn't matter. The laptop specifications include T5900, so the chipset should support 800 MHz FSB. It's not clear if the chipset supports 45nm processors or not, so to be on the safe side you may want to stick with 65nm Core 2 Duo CPUs with 800 MHz FSB. The fastest one with 35 Watt TDP is T7800. Core 2 Duo X7900 is faster, but it also has higher TDP.

Gennadiy

[DylRicho]

[gshv]

I don't know if you decided to go with T7800 or T9500. One possible solution is to get Celeron 900 from eBay. Here in US they cost $2 - $3 with free shipping, and you can use it to check if your notebook supports 45nm processors with 800 MHz FSB.

Gennadiy

[DylRicho]

[DylRicho]

Just an update;

I have decided against the T9500 based on the fact that it costs too much (£90) as a risk.

Instead, the next one down (T9300) is my chosen CPU which I'll be paying £35 for as soon as I receive a reply from the seller. Returns are accepted if the upgrade fails, and I encourage others to make sure their chosen listing allows the same. This way, you can get your money back if it doesn't work.

But, considering the only difference between the T9500 and T9300 is the additional 100 MHz in core frequency per core, I think £35 is a great bargain. Of course, that's providing it works.

I shall update you on what happens, as it happens.

Dylan.

[fenyal]

ok cool, thanks DylRicho! I for one would like to see how it turns out.