Thanks for the feedback guys.
I have a couple of questions and will paste their conclusions below.
1st, what do you think of the performance offered for the dollar. In this case the MSI mobo and 2.4a Prescott can be had for a little over $210. 2.8c are about $40 more and the mobo will be another $40 to $100 more depending on the mobo.
2nd, I don't do too much multi tasking. Besides HT, how do you think this package performs vs a 2.8c at the same clock speed. Both runnig at say 3.3 - 3.5 ghz and the ram set at DDR 2700.
Note:Temps seem to better for these chips than the 1st batch of Prescotts.
Hard:
Conclusions
An Instant Classic
It can't be denied that the 2.4A is an instant classic when it comes to satisfying the Intel enthusiast. We simply dared not dream of an affordable overclocking powerhouse like this so early on in the life of the Prescott 90nm core, yet here we have it so soon after launch. 700MHz to 900MHz stock overclocks are very likely going to be easy numbers for most any person with the right equipment to hit. Considering a 3.4GHz Intel Pentium 4 will likely cost you in excess of $400, arguing the value of a such a $150 chip is an easy win for those with enough fortitude to take up the challenge.
The Downsides
The downsides here are few. Realizing the overall risks and warranty voiding issues that accompany overclocking your CPU, we could find very little to complain about. The biggest negative with the SL7E8 2.4A is the glaring lack of Intel HyperThreading support. This will impact the way the CPU multitasks. It will simply not do as good job, or at least not feel as smooth, when using it on the desktop compared to the HyperThreading equipped Pentium 4s. If you are a heavy business application user and would rely on this CPU for such, you might consider looking elsewhere. For the gamer that is looking for a machine to primarily do that, it is hard to argue against the 2.4A. We know of no games that are heavily optimized for HyperThreading currently and are not aware of any coming out soon. If you are looking to build or upgrade a box used primarily for gaming, we don't see why the lack of HyperThreading should sway you from the 2.4A.
The Needed Equipment
Here is where this story gets really interesting. As noted in our Test Setup section, we tested our overclocking on several boards from ABIT, Asus and MSI. The one I really want to discuss here is the MSI PT880 NEO motherboard. This board is powered by the VIA PT880 chipset and really marketed as a "budget board" as the PT880 performance turned out to simply not be up to i875P levels as we had hoped. That being said, it did very very well in our review and had solid benchmarks to back up great stability and features.
Now what makes this board so great is the price. NewEgg currently handles the board for $63. We had great results running our 2.4A up to and beyond 200MHz FSB on the PT880 board. It seems there are many others that are having great results as well. Do be advised we did not have a great experience with overclocking this board over the 230MHz FSB range, which does not make it a suitable motherboard for overclocking a stock 800MHz FSB CPU, but with the 2.4A starting at 533MHz FSB it is a true winner.
The other interesting thing about using this board and running a 1:1 FSB/Memory ratio, is that it will only be pushing your Ram to 183MHz or an effective 366MHz DDR rate. Depending on what Ram you have and where you are in the upgrade path, it might be very feasible that your current Ram can be overclocked to these levels and of course your DDR400 is backwards compatible. So while this Cinderella Slipper might not fit everyone, there are certainly some folks that are going to be able to slide into a huge upgrade for around $220 give or take a few bucks.
Temperatures
I held off discussing this because of the way we tested across multiple motherboards. Usually we would give you CPU temperatures read from the diode onboard the Intel CPU, but different motherboards "see" those figures differently. Being that you really can't compare the numbers they show and be sure they are accurate. We can apply some common sense and come away with a good overall opinion on this 2.4A and how hot it ran.
Quite frankly, we were expecting to have to get out the fire extinguisher, but that was not even close to the case. Our Koolance Exos has a temperature sensor in the heatsink, albeit poorly placed, and this temperature showed to stay in the low-90s on all of our boards. This CPU was easily not running as hot as the CPUs that we sampled for testing from Intel at the release of the Prescott core and during our first overclocking adventures. Our 2.4A was showing 99F at idle and 114F under load at 3.7GHz and 1.6v. Laying our hands on the bottom of the socket seemingly verified these temps. Our 2.4A runs pretty cool even when running a very quick clock speed. So you see, it is quite likely that extreme cooling will not be needed, at least for this CPU. We did notice that our ABIT board ran quite a bit hotter than our Asus, or MSI boards. I would certainly lurk around your favorite forums and watch to see what others are reporting.
The Bottom Line
Intel has a new core out to market and it has proven to be a great enthusiast part in the Prescott 2.4A. The 2.4A is a stellar overclocker while being fairly easy on the wallet by Pentium 4 standards. Depending on your upgrade path it can be the heart and soul of your next 3GHz+ machine and likely do it with ease.
TIA
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