I'm looking to upgrade my CPU, I have a P4 socket 478 800 FSB motherboard. I not sure which CPU to go for, EWIZ has a 3.4GHz Northwood for $115.00 and a 3.2GHz Prescott for about the same price. Which of these CPU's will perform better? Does the extra 512 KB Cache size and smaller micron process on the Prescott make any real world performance increases over the faster cooler running Northwood? Which is the better choice? Any Reply would be very helpful. Thanks
definitely the Northwood~ despite the Northwood being "older" technology, it's far better than ANY of the Prescotts that came after it, i've built systems utilizing BOTH northwoods and prescotts alike, even with the higher heat u get from the prescotts, i quickly sold my prescott builds due to performance issues compared with the older northwood chips~ lastly, if you got a socket 478 mobo right now, you can't put a 800mhz FSB prescott into it to begin with, it won't fit~ this is of course speaking about the Pentium 4 3.0E 800mhz Prescott in the socket 478 chipset as the exception~ the other prescotts running w/ the 800mhz fsb are the lga775 chipset, which won't work on your mobo. the other prescott chips in the socket 478 chipset run at a much slower 533mhz, so be careful before making your purchase. prescotts are socket lga775 chips (the "higher end ones" are at least), while the northwoods are the socket 478...the cheapest SOCKET 478 prescott i could find in the 3.2ghz speed was an OEM version that was going for $231 and the retail going for $233, i took a little gander at ewiz to see for myself what you were talking about...i take it that you are comparing these two in particular? http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=P3.4_800 vs http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=3.2E_8001M MY PERSONAL recommendation would be the first one... when you are comparing single core P4s, every single one of my Northwoods has outperformed their newer Prescott brothers, with a LOT less heat too i might add...in MY OPINION, the Prescotts were a "step-down" from the Northwood technology by Intel...they wished to "improve" upon the northwoods by releasing the prescotts, it's FAR from an improvement from what i have personally built and used myself... they took a step backwards quite frankly... go with the Northwood, it's a much better chip than any of the Prescotts, that's the bottom line~ docTY
Thanks alot kivory666 that helps me alot I'll get the Northwood. Why wouldn't the Prescott fit, the one I looked at was a socket 478 800 FSB chip right? Anyway my mobo can step down to 533mhz if it had to but that would be stupid, at this point in the game I want to get the most out of my mobo till I upgrade in a couple of years. Thanks again for your time the Northwood should help me squeeze a couple more years of decent computing out of my mobo.
ur very welcome buddy~ i had forgotten to delete the part of the prescott not fitting because i just ASSUMED it was the lga775 chipset (as most are), in the link, you are correct that it would fit just fine, but that is a RARE chip indeed...socket 478 prescott w/ 800mhz fsb...that was my mistake, i should have deleted that line before posting~ anyways, i'm glad you came to the conclusion to get the Northwood, in MY OPINION, it's a much better chip, i've built and used at least 1/2 dozen Northwoods and Prescotts in the past when i was using single core and the northwoods would ALWAYS come out on top...good choice and may your new purchase be a significant boost for ya in the meantime until time comes for a total upgrade~ it seems like you still got a good few years with your current setup and this new processor will definitely be worth the price~ have a good one docTY
