i850 P4 Chipset

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

I am looking for an old P4 CPU for a Xmas gift. Don't make any suggestions cause the cheapest route is to just pick this up and I'm sure there are a few out there. Its actually a great CPU that offers dual core type performance with its HT technology. From what I remember, there were a few 478 3GHz CPU's that have HT technology and the vendors or ebayers are not too descriptive on what chipset their CPU uses. I do know the CPU i'm looking for STRICTLY uses the i850 chipset/corelogic for the RAMBUS memory (RDR) The trouble is what I understand, others do not (some but not all) Was it the Northwood 478 3.06 ONLY that uses the i850 chipset or did they use DDR? The problem is most people don't specify the chipset it uses... Its been a while and i'm a little confused... ...may be even asking the wrong question! HAH

The last time i tried buying this CPU, the salesman said it would work. Even did a little research and tried to will me into believing it would work for a sale. He didn't know I knew a little bit more than he did and so I asked him to do some foot work and MAKE SURE... and after all that he finally came back and told me "No, it will not" because of the mapped electrical differences were for a DDR system, but still being a 478 - ahh the satisfaction

Well, thanks for your time,


529th

 

[RanDum72]

The 3.06ghz P4 northwood will run on any 478 mobo that supports 533mhz FSB. That includes VIA, SIS chipsets, Intel 845's and 850E. Note that the Intel 850E supports 533mhz FSB with Rambus RDRAM PC800-40ns ram and RDRAM PC1066-32ns ram. The PC1066 was a perfect match to the P4 3.06 Northwood since the FSB and memory frequency ran synchronously. The regular Intel 850 chipset supports 400FSB P4's and no RDRAM PC1066 support. It might run the 3.06 P4 but at reduced speeds because of the 400mhz FSB. I still have an old system running an Intel 850EMV mobo, 3.06ghz P4 and 1gig of PC1066 RDRAM. Also note that the 850E supports only up to 1.5gig of PC1066 RDRAM, 2gigs with PC800 RDRAM.

 

[vailr]

The main criteria to look for, is to match to the correct CPU socket. As long as the P4 CPU fits into the socket, it should work.
The chipset -alone- is what determines which memory type (RDram vs. DDR) is supported.
The idea of looking for an "RDram specific CPU" is mistaken. RDram is still very expensive, if someone wanted to increase the total system memory.
That being said, you'd make a better system by upgrading all three: mboard, socket 775 CPU and 2 Gb of (currently dirt-cheap) DDR2 memory.
Even a low-end C2Duo CPU should outperform any of the older single-core Northwood CPU's.
I've seen C2Duo-capable mboards for under $30 on Newegg; 2 Gb DDR2 memory also for under $30.
Intel Celeron 420 for ~$43. Total of ~$100 + shipping, for a system with twice the performance of: staying with an RDram system.
And, there's C2Duo capable motherboards that can accept older AGP video cards, if you want to keep the older video card.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

A simple cpu drop-in is all i'm looking for.

 

[Stumps]

As long as you have the correct socket and FSB speed for your mobo, any P4 will work, there is no difference between a 3.06 (for example) used on a i850E RAMBUS mobo and one used on i845/i865/i875 DDR and so mobo's, It's the same CPU.

I can for example take my 3.06@3.45ghz that currently runs on a GA-SINXP1394 dual channel DDR board and use it on your P4T 533-C mobo.

you just need to get the socket right (in your case 478) and the correct FSB for the motherboard, although any mobo that will work with a 533FSB CPU will work with the older 400FSB CPU's as well.

you could even use a skt 478 celeron with your RAMBUS mobo with out any problems...other than the poor performance of the celeron.

 

[jonmcc33]

Originally posted by: RanDum72
The 3.06ghz P4 northwood will run on any 478 mobo that supports 533mhz FSB. That includes VIA, SIS chipsets, Intel 845's and 850E. Note that the Intel 850E supports 533mhz FSB with Rambus RDRAM PC800-40ns ram and RDRAM PC1066-32ns ram. The PC1066 was a perfect match to the P4 3.06 Northwood since the FSB and memory frequency ran synchronously. The regular Intel 850 chipset supports 400FSB P4's and no RDRAM PC1066 support. It might run the 3.06 P4 but at reduced speeds because of the 400mhz FSB. I still have an old system running an Intel 850EMV mobo, 3.06ghz P4 and 1gig of PC1066 RDRAM. Also note that the 850E supports only up to 1.5gig of PC1066 RDRAM, 2gigs with PC800 RDRAM.

Just a note that you don't need PC1066 RDRAM if you have a 533FSB P4 on an Intel 850E chipset. I have a Dell Precision with just that and it has 1GB (4x256MB) of PC800 RDRAM. Works fine.

 

[hans007]

p4 478 can fit on any 478 board that supports its bus speed.

the only HT 533 bus cpu was the 3.06 . all the other HT cpus are 800 bus .

850 p4 cpu only supported 400 bus, the 850e supported 533.