2.8E or 3.0E, which to get? Also, what are new ones o/cing to?

[jiffylube1024]

Hey everyone,

I have a buddy who's pretty stuck on getting a 3.0E over a "C" chip because he does a lot of work with databases and read that the P4 E is good for databases. Also, from what I've read, the P4 E's aren't THAT bad at overclocking.

So, which would you recommend for a P4 upgrade, 2.8E or 3.0E ? Also, what is everyone getting their new stepping E chips to overclock to?

Finally, which motherboard would you recommend to match with this chip and some decent speed RAM(PC3700+)? Please note that he doesn't want to spend more than $200 CDN, which is about $130 US. Here in Canada the only <$200 i875P is the Abit IC7 (a board which I bought over 6 months ago)... are there any other (relatively) cheap good o/cing P4 boards?

Any opinions/responses would be great, even if your point of view is that the P4 'C' chips are still the only way to go.

 

[Corporate Thug]

i dont know why a 2.8E/3.0E would be better than a 2.8C/3.0C in database work

 

[Lyfer]

There is no performance difference between the C and the Prescotts other than the Prescotts run alot warmer. If it were me I would get an Athlon 64 2800/3000 with a good Nforce 2 250GB board instead.

 

[jswjimmy]

yup go P4C or A64. The P4E is not faster than the C at same speeds(on most benchmarks not all) the prescot also runs very hot and is very hard to overclock without watercooling.

 

[jiffylube1024]

Sounds pretty unanimous against the P4 E. Interesting.

 

[myocardia]

A P4E is 200-400 mhz slower at EVERYTHING than a comparably clocked P4C, except for video encoding, so unless your friend plans on doing nothing but video encoding with this system, tell him he needs to buy either a 2.8C or a 3.0C, both of which are highly overclockable.

edit: The Abit IC7 is still the best priced socket 478 motherboard for overclockers.

 

[Soulkeeper]

i would go with the 3.0e just to get that 4ghz overclock and laugh at people

I hear the 3.0e and 3.2e overclock slightly better than the 2.8e, but it is basically luck of the drawl either way you look at it.

they are about the same price (prescott about as slow right now as many mention when compared), if you plan on overclocking(must have good/great cooling for these) and want sse3 just to have it then it might be worth it

many were hoping the prescott would beat the northwood at a higher clockspeed between 3.6 and 4ghz
but as tomshardware.com just showed the prescott still remains slightly slower when over 4ghz

if you really want prescott go with the new ati chipset that is supposed to be optimized for the deep piplines/latencies on the prescott (think 31 stages now?)
or better yet wait for the new P4 sockets and prescotts/chipsets to come out this summer

socket 939 for the athlon64 is also a nice option, but you don't get Hyper Threading or sse3 if you feel you will need such things.

good luck