Worst CPUs ever, now with poll!

[igor_kavinski]

as a winXP box.

I hope he doesn't connect to the internet with that: https://www.tomshardware.com/softwa...iruses-within-minutes-of-being-exposed-online

 

[mikeymikec]

I hope he doesn't connect to the internet with that: https://www.tomshardware.com/softwa...iruses-within-minutes-of-being-exposed-online

Weird, because I have Win2k and XP VMs and they haven't gone kablooey. Win2k by default doesn't have a firewall and I haven't done any tweaking to the install, unlike in the era that I used to run Win2k.

I wonder if he switched off the WinXP firewall and put the machine in his router's DMZ. Then it would truly start to matter that such ports are open (at least as far as script-kiddie level attacks are concerned).

 

[igor_kavinski]

Weird, because I have Win2k and XP VMs and they haven't gone kablooey.

Probably protected by the host OS's firewall.

 

[WelshBloke]

I added Raptor Lake to the poll. OP has not logged in in over 4yrs. Someone had to do it.

So bad they cancelled it's successor!

AMD will be pleased to hear the latest rumor on Intel CPUs – after Arrow Lake, no desktop chips are coming until Nova Lake in 2026

Intel’s quiver to be empty next year, with Arrow Lake Refresh canceled?

www.techradar.com

Rumour obviously!

 

[Paratus]

I hope he doesn't connect to the internet with that: https://www.tomshardware.com/softwa...iruses-within-minutes-of-being-exposed-online

He doesn’t, but to drive home how much he worries (needlessly) about getting hacked let me share this story.

He just bought a new Dell laptop for my MIL. MIL didn’t get all the way through setting it up before going to bed. They couldn’t turn it off until they did (why ????) so he turned off WiFi to the entire house so it would t get hacked while they slept……

 

[DaaQ]

Mkay, not really a counterargument, more of a "but I still think I'm right" response. Anyone running a performance-oriented x86 CPU without a HSF rightly deserves a slap upside the head. There's going to be some unfortunate fringe cases for sure back in that CPU gen's day, but since there are always unfortunate "I killed some hardware" fringe cases through say running a CPU without a properly-installed heatsink, I'm failing to see how remarkable this is. For example, while I've never killed a CPU or board where the pins are in the CPU board socket, plenty of people have. I don't think that's great design either, and yet both AMD and Intel are doing it these days. All we can do is try to install the CPU gently, and pray silently that we're not being too forceful when installing the HSF (if that can actually damage the CPU socket pins, no idea!).

If the point (if there's really any point at all in this) was to come up with a top 50-100 bad CPUs list then there are going to be some very unexciting entries. 5 at most IMO, then at least each one's story is worth telling (at least as far as fellow nerds are concerned).

If you want another thoroughly unexciting entry, then the next time I visit the customer in question, I'll take down the specs of their first-gen Intel i5 CPU which (if I have the model number correct from memory) does not show up on Google: the Intel desktop i5-720, which had the honour of being the only desktop i5 with only two processor cores, and I think it was a lemon that HP wanted, presumably to hoodwink their customers into thinking they were getting a better-than-average processor.

Is that the Lynnfield? Or was the real one the i5 750? I installed win11 on my old one that my son still has lol.

 

[Thibsie]

Just an FYI on the P4 Prescott. I gave my FIL my circa 2004 P4 3.2E Prescott system. It’s still functional 20 years later as a winXP box.

French speaking community called those presqu'HOT which means "almost hot" which they weren't of course, they were, extremely hot for their time.

 

[igor_kavinski]

French speaking community called those presqu'HOT which means "almost hot" which they weren't of course, they were, extremely hot for their time.

I believe cases like this became necessary for P4's:

Also, that's a pretty large heatsink for a CPU for those times.

 

[mikeymikec]

Is that the Lynnfield? Or was the real one the i5 750? I installed win11 on my old one that my son still has lol.

i5-750 was the debut i5, quad-core.

 

[mikeymikec]

Probably protected by the host OS's firewall.

Which would make that guy's story all the stranger.

 

[igor_kavinski]

Which would make that guy's story all the stranger.

He does say "unsecured" internet and he goes and turns off the Windows XP firewall.

 

[mikeymikec]

He does say "unsecured" internet and he goes and turns off the Windows XP firewall.

Well yes, but throwing an XP box into a DMZ and disabling the Windows firewall is so far from best practice it's like saying, "I removed the heatsink from my processor and I can't believe it stopped working normally!". Will they be posting more shocking videos like, "I can't believe petrol/gasoline is that flammable!", or, "I can't believe how insecure Windows 11 is: I wired up a car battery to a USB port and Windows stopped working!".

Hooking Win11 up with the firewall disabled and in a DMZ would be considered a stupid thing to do, so why on earth would such a scenario be a useful test of WinXP's security?

 

[igor_kavinski]

so why on earth would such a scenario be a useful test of WinXP's security?

Let's wait for an update from Paratus then

 

[mikeymikec]

Let's wait for an update from Paratus then

IMO if WinXP SP3 has all the updates that are available for it and nothing stupid is being done with its configuration (both internal and network), then it's not going to get compromised through ordinary attack activity (I wouldn't use it for general web browsing though because of the out-of-date web browser that one would be obliged to use). If however it was being run in an organisation which has increased visibility / reason to be attacked, then I would be nervous about running it because I would assume that a determined attacker will manage to gain access to a device which is so chronically out-of-date.

Back in the days of Win2k/XP, I was running Win2k without a software or router firewall, but in that era I put much greater focus into closing all unnecessary ports than I do now (ie. I knew how to close all open-by-default ports). I wonder whether such a config would still manage to stay uncompromised these days.

 

[MrTeal]

I run an XP SP3 32bit box with not exactly period hardware (Haswell Pentium, 4GB and a GTS450) and haven't run into any issues with it on the occasions I've connected it to the internet with just basic security. It really seems like the gentleman was doing everything possible there to ensure the systems got compromised short of installing viruses himself.

 

[NTMBK]

Just an FYI on the P4 Prescott. I gave my FIL my circa 2004 P4 3.2E Prescott system. It’s still functional 20 years later as a winXP box.

And now it seems cool running and quiet compared to modern Intel CPUs!

 

[mikeymikec]

I run an XP SP3 32bit box with not exactly period hardware (Haswell Pentium, 4GB and a GTS450) and haven't run into any issues with it on the occasions I've connected it to the internet with just basic security. It really seems like the gentleman was doing everything possible there to ensure the systems got compromised short of installing viruses himself.

I have a customer who ran XP on his ~2005 era Dell box (the only computer in the house) until January 2022, and the only reason he stopped was because his utility company's recently revised account page wouldn't load properly on Firefox 52 ESR

 

[Ranulf]

And now it seems cool running and quiet compared to modern Intel CPUs!

Dude, don't forget those FX chips too, they are forever to be space heaters! Just mega bad bro! But hey, 125w 10th+ gen chips just make sense. You need that power to push pixels bro. Just get a 360mm rad for it or a mega two tower cooler. Oh, yeah those bursts to 150w or 200w to hit 5.8ghz+ are just little small bursts of power and heat. It will dissipate easily and heat your home in the winter!

 

[igor_kavinski]

And now it seems cool running and quiet compared to modern Intel CPUs!

Yes! So Intel owes us a Tejas shrink!

Come on people, MANIFEST!

If Intel can push out a dud like Raptor Lake Refresh, they can certainly revive a cancelled CPU in 2025 to commemorate the 25th Anniversary of the Pentium 4. It made them serious money despite everything. It would take only a fraction of those billions to revive it.

 

[igor_kavinski]

I have a customer who ran XP on his ~2005 era Dell box (the only computer in the house) until January 2022, and the only reason he stopped was because his utility company's recently revised account page wouldn't load properly on Firefox 52 ESR

Dang, you are tempting me to relive the good ole days now

On a related note, my idiot IT admin (who thinks formatting is the best solution) is trying to forcefully retire my trusty old i5-2400 work PC running Windows 7 that's been issue free for at least 14 years now. I will probably lose this battle and then I'll be out of a job soon because I don't see any point in accepting things for which there is no proper justification given. I would rather not work in a stupid organization like that.

 

[igor_kavinski]

Oh, yeah those bursts to 150w or 200w to hit 5.8ghz+ are just little small bursts of power and heat. It will dissipate easily and heat your home in the winter!

And that burning smell of metal is not that bad. You get used to it and kinda miss it when using Ryzens and Epycs. I certainly do when my Epyc 128 thread CPU is running cool and quiet at full load. I'm like, what's wrong with it??? How can it possibly do that? Maybe something's not right! And then I see that it's consuming max 230W on a cooler rated for 400W...

 

[Heartbreaker]

1. Intel iAPX 432
2. Intel 80286
3. IBM PowerPC 970

Honorable mention: Intel Itanium for removing Alpha and PA-RISC from the market (although that makes it a pretty good CPU for Intel).

I notice you recently added "Raptor Lake". If you are going to do, that, you should certainly add Prescott, which is a strange omission.

 

[igor_kavinski]

I notice you recently added "Raptor Lake".

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[MrTeal]

Dang, you are tempting me to relive the good ole days now

On a related note, my idiot IT admin (who thinks formatting is the best solution) is trying to forcefully retire my trusty old i5-2400 work PC running Windows 7 that's been issue free for at least 14 years now. I will probably lose this battle and then I'll be out of a job soon because I don't see any point in accepting things for which there is no proper justification given. I would rather not work in a stupid organization like that.

You'll probably lose that fight at 90% of companies out there. Win7 isn't getting security updates anymore and while the system itself might run rock solid IT isn't going to take it kindly if some unpatched vulnerability in Win7 it the path that gets used to launch a ransomware attack on your corporate network.
It's IT's job to jump at shadows and assume every user is going to click on every flashing link they see.

 

[igor_kavinski]

You'll probably lose that fight at 90% of companies out there.

Doesn't perturb me. If I have to start over with a fresh PC, might as well do that in a new workplace.

Him being able to wipe my PC against my objections is simply an indication that my opinions/preferences are no longer of any importance and meaning to the management.

It wouldn't be so bad if he were not a typical moron who buys only Intel. (he laughs at the idea of benchmarks)