Northwood over Prescott??

Iridium · Nov 23, 2004, 02:30 PM

I have another thread in here about favourite P4's for O'Cing but this is in response to some of the replies I got in that thread. I read that I should get a Northwood over a Prescott core.
I am curious as to why? I read that it is the temps that the Prescott heats up to as far as O'Cing go that make the Northwood would better, but how much does that extra 512k of L2 cache help that Prescott as far as performance. I see on Newegg they have a 3.2c Retail for $249 (OEM $239) and a 3.0c OEM for $185 (the Retails are sold out still on 11/23/04) is the 3.2 gonna really be able to clock that much faster for the extra 50 bucks???(I think probably not, but that is why I post here, to get the feedback of some purdy smart folks!!)

Basically which chip should I get, spelled out in front of me, stepping and all.

Zardon · Nov 23, 2004, 03:03 PM

The northwoods are faster clock for clock as the pipelines arent as deep as the prescotts. The only time the prescotts are really faster is with encoding as the extra 512k of cache helps.

Prescotts run hotter than northwoods (or gallatin) core processors, ive seen 20c increases in my own testing over a northwood.

The prescotts scale better and there was speculation of seeing 4ghz+ versions before this year ends, that wont be happening due to the temperature issues.

Stick with a northwood if you can, although I have to say I do quite like prescotts as well (over 3.4ghz), Hyper threading is excellent for multitasking.

Iridium · Nov 23, 2004, 03:07 PM

Wow that is hot! I guess the extra 50 bucks for the 3.2 over the 3.0 would not be money well spent.

Zardon · Nov 23, 2004, 03:10 PM

Are you going to be sticking with air cooling or moving to water?

Iridium · Nov 23, 2004, 03:12 PM

Air cooling I think. I am not going to try getting too extreme with this one. I like to be able to be mobile with my rig and take it around with me on buisness trips.

Zardon · Nov 23, 2004, 03:38 PM

Then I would recommend a northwood, the 3ghz and 3.2 have dropped in price, and you should be able to take both regardless of stepping to 3.5-3.7ghz with a minor voltage increase. A good SLK heatsink or the gigabyte rocket pro cooler should keep temps under 50c load even with say a decent voltage of 1.65-1.675.

Nov 23, 2004, 02:30 PM	#1
Iridium DriverHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: St. Louis, MO. Posts: 402 Rep Power: 0	Northwood over Prescott?? I have another thread in here about favourite P4's for O'Cing but this is in response to some of the replies I got in that thread. I read that I should get a Northwood over a Prescott core. I am curious as to why? I read that it is the temps that the Prescott heats up to as far as O'Cing go that make the Northwood would better, but how much does that extra 512k of L2 cache help that Prescott as far as performance. I see on Newegg they have a 3.2c Retail for $249 (OEM $239) and a 3.0c OEM for $185 (the Retails are sold out still on 11/23/04) is the 3.2 gonna really be able to clock that much faster for the extra 50 bucks???(I think probably not, but that is why I post here, to get the feedback of some purdy smart folks!!) Basically which chip should I get, spelled out in front of me, stepping and all. __________________ [color=navy]Win XP-Home Sp 2[/color] [color=blue]P4 3.2c @ 3.52 @1.6v w/SLK-900U[/color] [color=royalblue]Abit IC7-G BIOS Rev. 27[/color] [color=deepskyblue]1GB Corsair XMS XL Pro @ 2.5/3/2/6 1:1 @ 220FSB[/color] [color=lightblue]XFX 6600GT @ 585/1175 w/Stock Cooling[/color] [color=lightblue]74gb Raptor/40gb WD Caviar[/color] [color=lightblue]Ultra-X Connect 500w[/color] [color=white]3DMark03[/color],[color=white]PCMark04[/color]

Nov 23, 2004, 03:07 PM	Thread Starter #3
Iridium DriverHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: St. Louis, MO. Posts: 402 Rep Power: 0	Wow that is hot! I guess the extra 50 bucks for the 3.2 over the 3.0 would not be money well spent. __________________ [color=navy]Win XP-Home Sp 2[/color] [color=blue]P4 3.2c @ 3.52 @1.6v w/SLK-900U[/color] [color=royalblue]Abit IC7-G BIOS Rev. 27[/color] [color=deepskyblue]1GB Corsair XMS XL Pro @ 2.5/3/2/6 1:1 @ 220FSB[/color] [color=lightblue]XFX 6600GT @ 585/1175 w/Stock Cooling[/color] [color=lightblue]74gb Raptor/40gb WD Caviar[/color] [color=lightblue]Ultra-X Connect 500w[/color] [color=white]3DMark03[/color],[color=white]PCMark04[/color]

Nov 23, 2004, 03:12 PM	Thread Starter #5
Iridium DriverHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: St. Louis, MO. Posts: 402 Rep Power: 0	Air cooling I think. I am not going to try getting too extreme with this one. I like to be able to be mobile with my rig and take it around with me on buisness trips. __________________ [color=navy]Win XP-Home Sp 2[/color] [color=blue]P4 3.2c @ 3.52 @1.6v w/SLK-900U[/color] [color=royalblue]Abit IC7-G BIOS Rev. 27[/color] [color=deepskyblue]1GB Corsair XMS XL Pro @ 2.5/3/2/6 1:1 @ 220FSB[/color] [color=lightblue]XFX 6600GT @ 585/1175 w/Stock Cooling[/color] [color=lightblue]74gb Raptor/40gb WD Caviar[/color] [color=lightblue]Ultra-X Connect 500w[/color] [color=white]3DMark03[/color],[color=white]PCMark04[/color]

Nov 23, 2004, 03:03 PM	#2
Zardon DriverHeaven Founder Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 32,480 Rep Power: 179	The northwoods are faster clock for clock as the pipelines arent as deep as the prescotts. The only time the prescotts are really faster is with encoding as the extra 512k of cache helps. Prescotts run hotter than northwoods (or gallatin) core processors, ive seen 20c increases in my own testing over a northwood. The prescotts scale better and there was speculation of seeing 4ghz+ versions before this year ends, that wont be happening due to the temperature issues. Stick with a northwood if you can, although I have to say I do quite like prescotts as well (over 3.4ghz), Hyper threading is excellent for multitasking.

Nov 23, 2004, 03:10 PM	#4
Zardon DriverHeaven Founder Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 32,480 Rep Power: 179	Are you going to be sticking with air cooling or moving to water?

Nov 23, 2004, 03:38 PM	#6
Zardon DriverHeaven Founder Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 32,480 Rep Power: 179	Then I would recommend a northwood, the 3ghz and 3.2 have dropped in price, and you should be able to take both regardless of stepping to 3.5-3.7ghz with a minor voltage increase. A good SLK heatsink or the gigabyte rocket pro cooler should keep temps under 50c load even with say a decent voltage of 1.65-1.675.