Is there a CPU for me?

[whovous]

My current system:
Antec Sonata
Gigabyte GA-8IRXP
P4 @ 1.5G (Willamette)
Zalman CU-7000
nVidia T200 video card with Zalman passive cooling.
Two 80G, 8meg, 7200 HDs in RAID 0 array.
Soundblaster Audigy Gamer
Windows XP.
Dell P992 (19" Trinitron flatscreen)
Monsoon speakers.

This system is adequate to my needs, as I do not use it to do a lot more than surf or word process. I do not need any more speed, but I like to play, and wonder if there is a cheap path to get more speed from this machine.

The Gigabyte mobo was recommended by Anandtech long ago for its overclocking abilities. Today, it will not take more than a 2.4G (possibly 2.6) and it has a 400Mhz FSB.

I had planned to OC my 1.5G, but did not then realize the difference between Willamette and Northwoods CPUs.

Is it worth the bother to add a faster and overclockable CPU to this system? This is not a life or death matter, obviously. Still, I would appreciate suggestions which regcognize the limits of this mobo. What CPU should I look for, and where should I look?

 

[igblack]

amd all the way it kicks intel ass and is so much cheaper for better performance

 

[Sonic587]

You're fine. A newer processor won't make your word or net surfing faster.

 

[Corporate Thug]

Originally posted by: igblack
amd all the way it kicks intel ass and is so much cheaper for better performance

you gotta love the unbiased responses...

 

[Tiamat]

For me, going from 1.53 ghz to 2.2ghz made my system much more responsive. This is on an amd chip, but was probably mostly due to raising teh fsb from 133 to 200. You probably wont get a similar result unless you overclock your fsb. Im not sure how your mobo fares in fsb overclocking.

 

[Zap]

Sonic587 is correct. If you're really busting for a bit more, just try overclocking your current CPU. The Willamette CPUs ended life at 2GHz. You are at 1.5GHz. Get busy and see what your 1.5GHz bad boy can do!!!

 

[RussianSensation]

You could upgrade to XP setup on the cheap:

DFI "NFII 400-AL" nForce2 400 - $61
Pricewatch has lots of XP processors on the cheap like $65 2500+ or 2800+ for $75-80. I am not sure if your Zalman is the A version that supports socket 462 so you should check that (it should have a blue and a white standoff brackets for the motherboard if yours does) If it doesnt and you dont have any thermal paste for the cpu, you might be better off buying retail.

If you do want to upgrade your cpu on the cheap, I think this is a faster option than getting a $140 2.6 400FSB P4 which will most likely be slower than the equivalent 2600+ cpu due to the absence of Hyper-Threading, 800FSB and dual-channel 865/875 chipset.

Here is a very old review, but one that should still be useful to estimate if upgrading for you is worth it. Your videocard is rather slow too though... so you should keep that in mind.

65 Processors Compared
If you have RDRAM then forget my recommendation since it probably would be cheaper to simply upgrade the processor.

 

[CJP]

What socket is your motherboard, 423 or 478? If it's 423 you can go up to 2ghz and if it's 478 you can go up to 2.6ghz (as you mentioned) if your bios supports it. There are some products like this that let you upgrade to socket 478 from 423 but I don't know how well they work.


I just upgraded from a socket 478 1.8ghz Willamette with 400mhz fsb to a 2.6ghz socket 478 Northwood P4 with 512k cache and 400fsb. I get about a 30% speed boost so nothing dramatic. It'll do me until next summer when I get a new system so I'm happy with it.

 

[Stormgiant]

To the poster

If I were you i'll exchange that cpu with a 1.6A / 1.8A and overclock him to 2200/2400. That would give you a nice boost ( extra Mhz, extra fsb, extra cache ) with a small budget.

To the AMD peeps

Give it a rest, will you. I'm seak of seeing people jump and so "buy Amd", "buy Amd", "buy Amd", like a broken record.
Not everybody needs this kind of help.

Shoooooo.....

 

[RussianSensation]

Just checked your motherboard and it seems it was very good for its time.

Review

The article says that it is one of the best overclocking boards and that they easily pushed 1.5 to 2.0ghz on it and with more patience they said you can do bette so I suggest you can start with that before spending any money. If you are unsuccessful and/or not satisfied with the speed increase you can then decide to purchase either a P4 cpu or something else. If you need overclocking advice, ask in the overclocking section.

I think you did get locked out though for processor support as the offical gigabyte website shows that your motherboard doenst support anything higher than 2.4 but you can call them to find out exactly. Processor Support

It doesnt seem like your motherboard supports 533FSB or higher limiting you to 400FSB processor upgrade.


But if you want to upgrade for <$150, i'd still get XP mobo + cpu.

 

[whovous]

Hmm, I thought I subscribed to this thread, but I got no notice of any replies.

I tried to make clear in the original post that I do not need any more speed for the simple tasks I give this machine. I want more speed because it fun to play with these things, not because I need it.

I guess my question is whether there is much point to it, or if I should wait a bit longer until I am ready to upgrade my mobo, CPU, GPU and RAM all at once. Is there, for example, a meaningful GPU upgrade that is compatible with this old board?

My Gigabyte GA-8IRXP accepts 478 pin CPUs. I bought it right around the time the Northwoods were starting to appear, and I got the mistaken impression that all 478 pin CPUs were Northwoods.

The board was highly rated by Anandtech at the time for its overclocking capabilities. I tried overclocking my Willamette, but never got past 1.6G. I confess I did not try as hard as I could, and certainly did not learn as much about the art of overclocking as I might have, but I think the bottom line problem is that Willamettes just did not overclock very well.

My Zalman is a CU-7000, neither A nor B. I have a vague recollection that they claimed it was compatible with the then soon-to-arrive Athlon 64, but an even vaguer recollection that it required something like an adapter that was included. If that is the case, I am sure I have no idea where the adapter might be.

But I do not think I want to get into the AMD versus Intel fight in any case. I built a simple AMD system for my daughter, and it definitely gave good value for the money. The problem is that if I am going to go that route, it will probably only make sense to upgrade my mobo, CPU, GPU and RAM all at once. I do not want to spend that much right now. It is one thing to spend $150 or so just so I can have fun playing with overclocking a Northwoods, but quite another to spend $500 or more on the same game.

The Gigabyte link provided by Russian Sensation is one I looked at before. It says the board will not support a 533 or 800 FSB. At 400, it says it will support 2.4G, but is silent as to 2.6G.

I looked around a little for a 2.4G/400 and could not find one. I did not try to find a 2.6G/400. Any suggestions for availability or a good price for either one? Or am I just too far off of the performance curve with this machine to be able to meaningfully do a cheap upgrade?

Thanks for all of the replies.

 

[carlosd]

Stormgiant, It's just that P4 processors suck. It's helpfull for the people tell them to avoid expensive, but disappointing intel processors and go for powerfull and good priced ones like Athlons.

 

[3chordcharlie]

If you have less than 256 megs of ram (actually, if you have less than 512) then ram would be the best bang for your buck to improve responsiveness.

For word/email/surfing, a P3 is still a pretty snappy system, and your P4 should be fine. In all honesty, the absolute best thing you could do for the usage you describe would be to switch to a faster ISP if one is available.

 

[CJP]

You can pick up an oem 2.6ghz 400fsb P4 at Tigerdirect.com though they charge a 15% restocking fee (that's if they let you return it at all if there's a problem). If you buy there avoid the cheap Speeze heatsinks as the one I got didn't sit in my cpu mounting bracket properly.

 

[Concillian]

Truthfully, if your board doesn't support even a 533MHz FSB, I would just stick with what you have and be happy with it.

Assuming you have PC2100 memory (you never mentioned memory, and this is quite an important part of the options available to you) I see 3 reasonable options:
1) buy a 400 FSB P4, leaving you with little or no upgrade path

2) buy a 533 FSB P4, underclock it for now at 400 (+ whatever you can O/C) FSB. Later get a board that will support higher FSB/RAM speeds and have fun. A 3.06 goes for around $150 on eBay or in the FS/FT forum, and would run 2.3 at 400 FSB. Later you could pick up a used 865PE or PT880 board from someone in the FS/FT forum for cheap and get an instant upgrade to 3.06 (or better as that board will have better overclocking options)

3) buy an AMD mobile + Mobo and run 133 MHz FSB, leaving you with the upgrade path of PC3200 RAM and higher FSBs when you can afford it.

 

[Vee]

Originally posted by: whovous
...or if I should wait a bit longer until I am ready to upgrade my mobo, CPU, GPU and RAM all at once?

-YES.

My Zalman is a CU-7000, neither A nor B. I have a vague recollection that they claimed it was compatible with the then soon-to-arrive Athlon 64, but an even vaguer recollection that it required something like an adapter that was included. If that is the case, I am sure I have no idea where the adapter might be.

If you can fix yourself up with some new fitting bolts and and spacing 'posts', or somehow manage to make new nipples of the right size, you can use the Zalman with the backplate that hopefully comes with the MB, for an A64. It's not exactly straightforward, but if you're a crafty person...

 

[magomago]

I would say if you don't need any speed, see what you can do ram-wise and just sit on it....

 

[whovous]

I have 512Meg of PC2100 RAM and Comcast Cable at a theoretical top DL speed of 3.0Meg.

I've decided to just stick with what I have for now. The urge to play with overclocking is strong, even though I do not need any more speed, but the available time seems to have ticked away...

 

[zephyrprime]

What can't his mb accept a 3.2?

 

[Viditor]

Actually, I would probably upgrade the video card first if you just want to play a few of the newer games...

 

[whovous]

One problem with a 3.2 is that my MoBo supports only a 400Mhz front-side bus. If it did accept it, it woild slow it down. I suspect the other problem is the BIOS. They stopped updating it when bus speeds topped 400.