Digital Home Thoughts: Cry Havoc and Let Slip the Core Duo on the Desktop

"The Core Duo may well be Intel's best microprocessor. Conceived initially as a mobile processor, Core Duo is the dual-core descendant of the Pentium M and the direct predecessor to Intel's next-generation microarchitecture, versions of which are due to arrive in desktops, servers, workstations, and laptops later this year. You can understand, then, why we have been waiting impatiently, wriggling in our chairs, until somebody—anybody—actually delivered a desktop-style motherboard for this puppy. This high-performance, low-power processor could be an ideal centerpiece for a fast but quiet desktop system or a killer home theater PC. Equipped with desktop-class cooling and overclocked accordingly, the Core Duo might turn into a fire-breathing titan of performance—and it could give us something of a glimpse of Intel's future, as well."

This is a very thorough article that dives deep - really, really deep - into the performance aspects of the Core Duo. They test video encoding, among other things, so this is a must-read if you're interested in digital media performance. I'm still very pleased with my Shuttle SD11G5, but if I could have all the same advantages (size, quietness) with more than twice the performance, I'd be all over it. This CPU is definitely on my next hit list!