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Northwood or Tbred? Cost/Performance Difference

R

rsrvoir

Junior Member
I'm poor, in college, and building computer. Looking for optimal performance, value, and longevity on a minimal budget. I've looked at nearly every thread here, but still can't decide. Take a 1.6A and try to overclock to 2.2~2.4, where high-end components would drain power, money, and wear out more, or get an AMD XP which runs hotter and won't overclock as high. What's the true performance differential, regardless of impressive benchmarking results? Looking for an experienced point of view.
 
if i was you and have little money, i would get a AMD chip and Mobo.. you will save money that way...anyways AMD run faster then the P4 of the same clock speed...for what i know which isn't to much, The XP chips do not overclock well but the TB overclock better...i have read many peplo being able to get a 1.0Ghz TB to 1.5Ghz....
 
see for yourself
i am a poor college student also and i need new computer
i don't know nothing but hope this helps
i'm getting a 1800xp throughbred retail for around $100
1.6A goes for over $150 retail
RDRAM costs more and need to install in pairs
P4 mobos are more expensive
go figure
 
i say go with the 1.6A...since you are 90% sure that you can overclock to 2.133GHz...
plus you can pair up with DDR ram, you don't have to buy in pairs for you all AMD ppls...
a great mobo you can get to pair it up with 1.6A is ASUS's P4B266-C $110 (newegg) or some other cheap boards which are still good...
 
I like the 1.6A for its overclocking & upgrade potential. It seems like 2.2 is pretty easy to hit -- without a noisy fan like a lot of Athlons need -- and Prescott will likely be a drop-in upgrade, whereas Socket A is nearly at the end of its life. Anyway, you can go faster with the PIV now (especially with a 2.26) and later (.09µ PIV).

jaybee
 
Thanks for the advice. XP's are cheap and do perform quite well.
Know of any links that talk about the kind of wear and tear oc'd 1.6A's are putting on the hardware, video, memory?
 
SupermanCK, have you run into serious problems with system stability, or had some component issues with that kind of an overclock? Just curious to see what I may have to look forward to.
 
According to a few posts here in the past few days, it seems the P4 doesn't like it very much if you over volt them. Seems to happen if you only go above 1.75? Anyways, you should be able to go back a few days posts and think about it.

True that the P4's don't get as hot as the Athlons but when you pump more voltage into them, they are getting just as hot as the Athlon XP's.
 
Oops! Lost my thought 😀 It seems as you overvolt them more, say past 1.75, they look like they start dying? Or not working? There were a few accounts of overvolting and overclocking them to the max and they worked initially but started getting errors and had to back down a little.
 
Yeah, if you put too much juice in the PIV you'll kill it (over time). Of course, that's the same with any modern processor. If you overvolted the XP by 20% you'd noticeably shorten its life too; the only problem is it's very hard to get that high voltage on an XP because of heat. I'd bet these people running at 2.15v won't be able to do so for more than a few months.

Anyway, regarding stressing the system by overclocking: if you get the right board (i.e. with PCI/AGP lock), you won't stress anything except the cpu (and possibly the power supply) by overclocking the PIV. From what I've seen, you can clock most PIV's at 2.4 with default or default + 5% voltage. YMMV. And I don't have one so this is all hearsay. So ignore the last 3 statements & do your own research if you're skeptical 😉

jaybee
 
If you want performance, get AMD XP 1600+

these days, you can buy one for $66 shipped...
And if you get AGOIA or AROIA, you can overclock to 1800 mhz or 2200+

And you don't need to unlock the CPU, since the multiplier is already set @10.5, which is very nice..
With AGOIA or AROIA, it is really easy to get 166 mhz FSB..
 
Those of you who are talking about price/performance don't forget that when you want to upgrade an XP you will have to get a new mobo also (new architecture and XP's are pretty much maxed out), with a P4 you will likely only have to upgrade the cpu (so get a 1.6a, have some fun overclocking the heck out of it, then buy faster one as they come down in price). My board with bios update will probably be able to take a 3 gig at some point.
I just went thru all these decisions recently, and these are some of the things people pointed out to me.

Those who are advising an XP if you want performance, have you read the posts in this forum? 😉

Good luck rsrvoir 🙂
 
the only problem with raise vcore to 1.75+ would cause problem because p4's northwood at default is 1.5...so you are already raising it above 0.25v already...which should be the limit of any cpu margin...
as for stability..i just tested mine @155fsb with 3:4 mem ratio...so it is a 2.48GHz combo with DDR413.2...and it is completely stable...no hickups even the latest games at max quality like American Army...even with enable EAX...prime95 ran flawlessly...but i did raise my vcore to 1.70v and vmem to 2.6 just to give some headroom...

as for future upgrades of either XP or P5...I think you would have to get new mobo anyway...so it doesn't matter if you get XP or P4 really...you still have to pay for the newest and baddest when you upgrade for long term usage...

but i just check newegg's refurbish section...they have p4b266-c for $66 (~$110 new) and p4b533 for $125 (~$150 new)...you better hurry if you are planning on getting 1.6A...cause they are going up in price since it is starting to deplete...newegg has jacked it up to $152 now...but with free shipping...there are other sites out there you can get it for cheaper...but newegg is reliable...some guy mention in this forum somewhere he got it for $105...so you still got a pretty sweet deal....
 
Originally posted by: Mikki
Those of you who are talking about price/performance don't forget that when you want to upgrade an XP you will have to get a new mobo also (new architecture and XP's are pretty much maxed out), with a P4 you will likely only have to upgrade the cpu (so get a 1.6a, have some fun overclocking the heck out of it, then buy faster one as they come down in price). My board with bios update will probably be able to take a 3 gig at some point.
I just went thru all these decisions recently, and these are some of the things people pointed out to me.

Those who are advising an XP if you want performance, have you read the posts in this forum? 😉

Good luck rsrvoir 🙂
Click to expand...

Agree. In fact it looks like Intel will hit 3GHz on the current process. As long as Prescott is compatible (likely for the first generation I think), 4-5GHz should be attainable.

jaybee

Edit: As a matter of fact, since 3GHz is predicted for Q4 and I believe the .09µ process is scheduled for volume in Q2 or Q3, .13µ chips should break the 3GHz mark.

PS The above is all speculation, other than some actual facts in the linked article.
 
Sorry SupermanCK, I should have been more specific. I kinda figured that if you bought now and wanted to upgrade say... a year from now, obviously for an XP you would have to buy an new mobo (hammers should be well under way by then), whereas a P4 you could probably (and this is complete opinion) get a 2.5 for around the same price as a 1.6 now. Of course, a year from now, if the Hammers are on top of the heap, we'll probably all buy those anyway..🙂

Let me know if I'm off the mark.......
 
I have both XP and P4 systems. Two XPs, 1600+ and 2000+ and a P4 1.6A. The P4 is much easier to overclock if you're really into overclocking. The XP is a great choice for a stable high performance system of which overclocking is not real important. Even overclocked(2.4 GHZ), the P4 runs much cooler than either XP system and that's with stock voltage(1.5) and stock heatsink-fan. The XP systems are very competitive performers and are cheaper initially. But, you do need a good performance heatsink-fan and steady airflow through your case for the Thunderbirds and XPs, even without overclocking. All said and done, both processors are well engineered and very reliable. I prefer the Pentiums/P4s because i'm a tinkerer. They allow me more headroom for overclocking. But, the systems that I usually recommend to people looking for a good budget setup are the Duron/T-bird/XP1600+ systems. The Durons run cooler than either the Thunderbirds or the XPs and can handle just about any program thrown at them as well. They can go onto the same boards that the T-birds and XPs go on also, so later upgrades are a snap. And they're dirt cheap. They're also unlocked like the T-birds so, overclocking is easier. The T-birds and XP1600s aren't priced too much higher though.
 
This thread is quite hard, due to the plethora of options facing buyers today BUT, I'll be sure to take all this feedback into consideration. Thanks guys 🙂
 
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