Do the 478 socket Pentium 4s support hyperthreading?

[HollowRopes]

A friend of mine is buiding a computer and he aquired a 2.8GHz Pentium 4. He alread has a 478-compatible motherboard and RAM and the CPU runs fine, but he's worried that he hyperthreadng isn't enabled (if it even exists in these chip models). There's no option in the BIOS for enabling it. Anyone have any ideas, or are these just not able to hyperthread? Thanks.

 

[chubbyfatazn]

A friend of mine is buiding a computer and he aquired a 2.8GHz Pentium 4. He alread has a 478-compatible motherboard and RAM and the CPU runs fine, but he's worried that he hyperthreadng isn't enabled (if it even exists in these chip models). There's no option in the BIOS for enabling it. Anyone have any ideas, or are these just not able to hyperthread? Thanks.

According to this page, there are three P4s that don't support HT. If he wants to pull the chip out he can probably cross-check the markings on it with those on the previously linked page.

 

[mikeymikec]

If HyperThreading is enabled, you should see two CPU graphs in Task Manager. 99% certain that was true with the first HT-enabled CPUs.

 

[chubbyfatazn]

If HyperThreading is enabled, you should see two CPU graphs in Task Manager. 99% certain that was true with the first HT-enabled CPUs.

Oh crap. I completely forgot the easier way. Lol.

You could also check it in Device Manager too.

 

[pantsaregood]

All 800MT/s FSB Pentium 4s supported HyperThreading.
All 3.06GHz Pentium 4s supported HyperThreading.

 

[podspi]

Wasn't really a great feature on the P4's anyway. I disabled it on mine and it seems to run faster. Unless he is rendering or something (he shouldn't on one of those) it likely won't improve performance.

 

[Borealis7]

is it 2004 and nobody told me?

 

[sm625]

If it doesnt have the 800mhz fsb it is junk. I bought a bunch of the 800 fsb P4s on ebay. Complete systems for 50 bucks. Throw a 4550 in there and they can do pretty much all anyone needs.

 

[podspi]

is it 2004 and nobody told me?

You would be surprised how long some systems/parts stick around

 

[Lorne]

It varies between motherboard and CPU.
I have several MB's that do and dont support HT and the BIOS is updated to the latest I could find.
I also have a few P4's that do and do not support HT, Odd thing is I have a P4 that is 800FSB that does not and most of the 400 FSB do.
But in all I find mostly dependant on the MB supporting HT.

 

[IntelEnthusiast]

The first Intel® Pentium 4 processor with hyper-threading was at 3.06 and had a FSB of 533. After that hyper-threading was on all of the 478 sockets processor with an 800 FSB. As far as board support hyper-threading some rare 815 and 850 chipset based boards. Most of the 865 and 875 chipset boards should support hyper-threading.

Christian Wood
Intel Enthusiast Team

 

[Denithor]

If there's no option in the BIOS for enabling/disabling HT the motherboard probably doesn't support it. And in that case, doesn't matter if the chip does or not...

 

[Nemesis 1]

If ya can find the IC7 max 3 for sale by abit . Its a killer motherboard . 1 problem tho is the memory V. I had to mod mine to really make this beast roar. Its a stock now as performance really isn't there for the e-penis experiance. But if you can pick this M/B up its the 1. On todays internet these are laggy as all hell . Everytime I build a new internet PC my daughter sells it. NOT this time .

 

[GrumpyMan]

I have a Asus P4T533C with a 3.06 and Rdram on it. Nice rig at the time. Still runs great. Always had HT turned off though.

 

[Tsavo]

You would be surprised how long some systems/parts stick around

I still have a P4 2.4...though I do not know why. I'd fire it up, but I'm not sure what ratio gas to oil it takes, and I think I lost the starter cord in the last move.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I still have a P4 2.4...though I do not know why. I'd fire it up, but I'm not sure what ratio gas to oil it takes, and I think I lost the starter cord in the last move.

Lol. I've got a pile of P4 computers here. I think we should ship them all off to the tar pits, to die a dignified death. Plus, in 2000 years, they'll be turned into useful gasoline, right?

 

[deimos3428]

If there is one near you, consider donating the P4's to an organization like Free Geek. Sure beats putting them into landfill.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Geek

 

[exar333]

If there is one near you, consider donating the P4's to an organization like Free Geek. Sure beats putting them into landfill.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Geek

Good call. P4s or Athlon/XP/64 are still decent net machines if that is all you need. Many people with no computer would rather use an older machine, then nothing at all. I remember a couple years back there was a huge effort on the forums to get not-so-new equipment (think C2Ds or A64 X2s now) to military folks for a LAN. Many people have great uses for older hardware, even though it would drive us crazy to use.

If you cannot find a good use for the hardware, responsibly disposing of it is important.

Edit: Not only enviornment impacts to dumping these, but many components use trace amounts of rare minerals that are both difficult to find as well as potentially hazardous if not thrown-out correctly. Allowing recycling companies to get valuable components and recycle them, and dispose of what they cannot use is win/win.

 

[Lorne]

I have 2 P4 1.8Ghz soc 603 400FSB that support HT. Just replaced them with a set of P4 3.0Ghz 4Meg L3 soc 603 400FSB w/HT. ($17 Ebay, Work great)
I dont use the HT as it totally craps the machine out overwhelming the DDR1800 memory and bus.

 

[pantsaregood]

I have 2 P4 1.8Ghz soc 603 400FSB that support HT. Just replaced them with a set of P4 3.0Ghz 4Meg L3 soc 603 400FSB w/HT. ($17 Ebay, Work great)
I dont use the HT as it totally craps the machine out overwhelming the DDR1800 memory and bus.

Those aren't Pentium 4s. They're Xeons.

 

[ThatsABigOne]

I still use a P4 Toshiba Satellite A75 from time to time. Slow as shit, even with heavy nLite'd version of Windows XP. I am using MicroXP on that machine. Works great.

I am still using a PIII 850mhz laptop-- Dell Latitude C600 which I was given. Still does the job great, to my surprise it still plays regular youtube videos reasonably well.

 

[Lorne]

Tomato tomoto, There marked P4 and post P4 so there P4.
But yes they are Xeon.

 

[pantsaregood]

Tomato tomoto, There marked P4 and post P4 so there P4.
But yes they are Xeon.

There were no Pentium 4s released for socket 603 or 604. All Netburst Xeons supported HT, I believe.

800MHz FSB Pentium 4s and the 3.06GHz models supported HT. No other P4s, barring some mobile chips, supported HT.

 

[BoomerD]

I just replaced my P4 3.06 rig a few months ago...:$

It wasn't all that fast...but it did most of the tasks I asked it to do. It sure seemed fast when I built it...in 2003. (originally a p4-2.8, upgraded to the 3.06 in 2004) A HUGE improvement over the P3-700 rig that it replaced. :biggrin:

 

[mikeymikec]

I've changed to this forum quite recently. It's nice to encounter an attitude that isn't "if it's 5 years old it's junk"